Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

The first hurdle I have here is in defining this genre. I would call this women’s fiction except it is written by a man, but I guess if Nicholas Sparks can write romance or women’s fiction or whatever you want to call it (please, no mail telling me it can’t be romance without a HEA, I’m a librarian, I define genres for a living) I am going to call it that. Amazon calls it family fiction which is probably more apt, and it also borders literary fiction as the story is pretty much character driven although without the main storyline, the plot, that wouldn’t happen. I am rambling quite a bit as I try to work this out so bear with me. Here’s the bottom line: it was a very interesting read, especially for me as I live in an area somewhat like the fabricated town of Crystal, Colorado; a mostly upper-middle class to wealthy community where the gifted schools are in such demand that the joke is there are so many gifted kids in this suburb that there must be something in the water. There are at least three, full time gifted elementary schools just in this town and the ways people get their kids into these programs, well, let’s just say this book illustrates some of it.

So the Gifted School in question isn’t just for gifted and talented children, it is for the uber-gifted middle & high school set. Of course the parents of the gifted children and even some of the kids themselves are intensely interested in testing in. This involves a standardized IQ test, in which the top achievers are then invited to submit a portfolio evidencing the child’s superiority. Needless to say, these overly involved parents go bonkers to try and get their kids in – cheating, lying, paying their way in if necessary. Of course it all blows up but rest assured, the truly gifted do get the recognition they deserve.

I think I enjoyed this book so much because I felt like I knew these people. A few are my neighbors, even fewer my friends, but many, many acquaintances. The super competitive helicopter parents are alive and kicking in this book, and I was alternately horrified and delighted by their shenanigans. If you know anyone like this, or aspire to be like this yourself, then this is your book. There are lots of tips on the right and wrong way to go about this sort of thing if you are open minded enough to recognize that. Even if you don’t have kids, gifted or otherwise, it is still an engaging read at the breakdown of societal norms when competitiveness gets out of control.

I’ve read most of Dugoni’s books so I’m not sure how I missed this one, especially since he was kind enough to cough up a signed copy for the April 2018 ITW Bookshelf giveaway! It just fell through the cracks of my Kindle, I guess. But luckily, it came up at a Palm Beach County Literacy Coalition meeting on Read Together Palm Beach County. Everyone on the committee submitted titles they thought were good and we all were supposed to read them, or at least take a good look at them. This is one book that I read cover to cover.

This is a very different story than the rest of Dugoni’s books, which are all crime fiction and are all very good. But this book is not a thriller, it is a bildungsroman (please excuse my flexing my English degree; I get giddy when I can dust something off and actually use what I learned,) so:

Bildungsroman is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood, in which character change is extremely important. (Wikipedia)

And that, my friends, perfectly describes this novel that is reminiscent of a few of my favorite books, like A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, Empire Falls by Richard Russo and Brady Udall’s The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint. Our main character is Sam Hill, AKA Sam Hell, who is born with ocular albinism, which means that the irises of his eyes are red instead of the usual brown, blue, hazel, etc. and hence the nickname. We meet Sam at birth, along with his parents who are practicing Catholics, and by that I mean their lives, especially his mother’s, revolve around the church. So it’s only natural that when it is time for Sam to start school, they want him at the local parochial school. His mother has to fight to get him in and makes a life-long enemy of the sister in charge of the school.

But it is Sam who bears the brunt of it. He is bullied for most of his life and learns to deal with it in his own way, with the help of his one friend, a black boy who is also subject to bullying, at least until his athletic prowess lifts him beyond such abuse. I would have had a much harder time reading some of this if Dugoni hadn’t written the book in two timelines; Sam growing up, and Sam as an adult. So we know fairly early that he will survive the bullying and that helped me get through it.

The writing is really good, almost ethereal in parts, which seems fitting for a book steeped in Catholicism. In fact, I asked Dugoni if I could borrow a few lines from the book for my mother-of-the-groom speech and he was kind enough to allow it. This is the passage in its entirety, I only used a bit of it. But this beautifully illustrates the writing, I think:

There comes a day in every man’s life when he stops looking forward and starts looking back.

Because of my father’s circumstances, I had a sad commentary on life, but I now understood that he was offering me his own gift, one that only time can provide. He was offering me the gift of perspective. My father was telling me that while we tend to remember the dramatic incidents that change history—Armstrong’s walk on the moon, Nixon’s resignation, and the Loma Prieta earthquake—we live for the quiet, intimate moments that mark not our calendars, but our hearts: The day we marry. The days our children are born. Their first step. Their first word. Their first day of school. And when our children grow, we remember those moments with a touch of melancholy: the day they get their driver’s license, the day we drive them to college, the day they marry, and the day they have their children.

And the cycle begins anew.

We realize it is in those quiet moments that each of us has the ability to make our lives extraordinary.

The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell is, well, an extraordinary read. And it’s not just me saying this:

An Amazon Best Book of the Month: Literature & Fiction Category

“This is the bestselling Dugoni’s masterpiece, the book by which his work, and that of others, will be measured for years to come.” —Providence Journal

“Dugoni has produced a novel that, if it doesn’t cross entirely over into John Irving territory, certainly nestles in close to the border…Told in two separate time lines (Sam as a boy, and Sam as a man) that eventually come together, and written in a gentle, introspective yet dramatic style that is very different from that of Dugoni’s crime fiction, this is an inspirational story of a man who spends a lifetime getting to know himself.” —Booklist

“Robert Dugoni has a rare and brilliant talent for infusing his characters with complex emotions. It is very hard not to ache for young Sam…Frankly, this might be the best book of the year.” —Bookreporter

“Distinctly different in style from Dugoni’s typical fare, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell, is a captivating and poignant journey of strength and the power of finding your true self. Without a doubt, this is Dugoni’s best yet.” —Suspense Magazine

“Dugoni’s writing is compellingly quick, simple, and evocative; readers will immediately empathize with young Sam and will race to discover how his story ends. The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell is a heartwarming novel that celebrates overcoming the unfairnesses of life.” —Seattle Book Review

Don’t miss it.