To say Zane Guesswind has the deck stacked against him would be a gross understatement. He has epilepsy. His father was an alcoholic who walked out on the family after one of his mother's botched suicide attempts. His mother, a schizophrenic, killed herself with an antique British dueling pistol once used by his Wyandot ancestor to kill American colonists during the Revolutionary War. His grandmother passed for white. His grandfather did not find out she was black until long after Zane's mother was born. Zach draws on his bedroom walls with Sharpie markers. It seems that what he writes/draws comes to pass. His grandfather suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed and speechless after Zane drew a huge hammer boinging him in the head. Zane believes he is responsible. Zane borrows a 1979 Barracuda and sets off for Zanesville, Ohio. He intends to shoot himself with the antique pistol on his mother's grave. Along the way, he picks up Libba Ration, a figment of his past. "This suspenseful novel is a fast-moving look at families and how we can only escape them when we accept the way they are." An excellent author's note distinguishes fact from fiction within the narrative and expands on the former. An extensive bibliography and resource list finish off this clever, humorous, sad, inspiring story.
"Life unravels as it's lived. It can't be woven back together."
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