Good Reads / Community Library Notes
Dear Edward
Ann Napolitano
Review by Priscilla Comen
Dear Edward
Ann Napolitano
Review by Priscilla Comen
Dear Edward, by Ann Napolitano, is the story of the Adler family: father Bruce, mom Jane, sons Eddie age twelve and Jordan age fifteen. It begins when they are at the Newark airport on their way to California. Jordan refuses to have a scanner swipe his body, so they pat him down. Eddie holds his mother’s hand. The brothers are close friends, but different.
Linda Stollen is also waiting to board the flight. She has bought two pregnancy tests at the pharmacy. She swears never to ask her father and his third wife for anything again. Crispin Cox waits in his wheelchair for the plane to admit passengers. Bruce and Jane discuss Jordan’s behavior. Bruce thinks it was dangerous. At home school, he taught the boys to question everything. Other passengers include Benjamin Stillman, a black soldier who will see his grandmother at LAX, Mark Lazio, an executive who was written up in Forbes Magazine twice this year.
Crispin’s nurse fusses over him and he is nasty to her. He doesn’t want help. Some passengers applaud when Benjamin boards. Jane is in first class but the boys and Bruce are in the last row. Mark is attracted to the flight attendant, Veronica, who makes her usual public announcements. Jane Adler sits next to Mark and watches the others with amusement. She knows her husband has mapped out the nearest exits. Crispin is flying to California for a trial cure for his cancer. He is very wealthy, and old. A heavy woman named Florida hums a tune, and next to her, Linda eats chocolate, Benjamin wishes he was in the cockpit, flying the plane. Bruce watches his boys as if for the first time. Author Napolitano describes each passenger’s individual traits.
That evening, the National Transportation Safety Board’s “go team” is at the crash site. The reader is shocked into reality. There were 191 killed, and one survivor, a boy. The boy’s aunt Lacey Curtis, will adopt him. She is Jane’s sister, a housewife, and the boy’s only living relative. John Curtis is her husband, a computer scientist. They have no children. The news media speculates on the cause of the crash: a drunk pilot? An act of terrorism? The rainstorm? A passenger who went berserk? Edward has been in the hospital for a week. He hasn’t spoken since they told him what happened. He pretends to be sleeping. He listens. Both his legs are broken, one is in traction, and he holds a soft stuffed elephant under his arm. The movers found it on the truck and brought it to him. The president of the United States calls Edward and says the whole country is rooting for him.
He is released from the hospital when he can use crutches. The staff all come to say good-bye. He doesn’t know their names and can’t read their tags. The doctor has said traumatic brain injury may show in many different ways: panic, anxiety, hearing and smell may be affected. John, Lacey, and Edward drive to their home where Edward had only visited on special occasions. After he sees people lined up on the road cheering for him, he gets out of the car and vomits til nothing is left. His aunt says, “You’re not okay, we’re not okay, nothing is okay.” Somehow this is the right thing to say.
Back on the plane, Florida looks back for the last time at the New York skyline. She pictures her most recent wedding on several acres in Vermont. It was a magical evening with Bobby, a tent and dancing. Linda goes to the bathroom with her pregnancy test paper and thinks about the other men she has slept with. None were any good until Gary. She is going to meet him and hopes he will propose. Crispin Cox thinks about his ex-wife, divorced for thirty-nine years, who gets money or stock from him yearly. He takes a pill for his pain. Mark flirts with the flight attendant. Jane has to finish writing her script because she had spent time packing at home instead of writing.
Linda looks in the mirror and thinks how she landed Gary. He studies whales and she loved whales as a kid. A pink plus sign appears on the test. “Yes,” she says.
John and Lacey’s house has a nice view of Greenwood lake. Edward hates being out of the hospital. Its routines and sounds had held him together. The next door neighbor, Besa, comes over with her little girl, Shay. Besa gives Edward a thermos of coffee. She reminds him of his mother. Shay says she met Jordan one summer years ago. He’d jumped off the roof of their van. Edward knows Jordan would do that. At 10 p.m. after Joan and Lacey have gone to bed, Edward goes next door and asks to see Shay. She is in pajamas in bed. He sits in a chair and falls asleep. In the morning, he returns to Lacey’s and watches soap operas with her for the morning. In the afternoon, the doctor says he has lost eight pounds. He tells Lacey to give Edward ice cream, candy, whatever he wants. He wants nothing. Food seems irrelevant.
When the author takes us back to the plane, Bruce is making small talk with Edward. Bruce works with constellations and numbers. Tenure at Colombia would have kept them in New York. Jordan walks down the plane’s aisle and thinks of his girlfriend Mahira. They kissed constantly in the back room of the Deli her father owned. Benjamin faces a desk job in California after one more operation on his wounds from the war. He had been on patrol and had seen the shooter. He and his white partner, Gavin, had become close friends. Florida is able to see the past of every soul on the plane. She used to hide wounded men in the back of her store in the Philippines.
Back to Edward, he returns to Shay’s room every night. She tells him he is like Harry Potter because he has magic powers. Edward feels he is part of his aunt’s messy life. She has had several miscarriages. Besa tells him Lacey now has someone to care for. An envelope arrives with personal affects of the passengers on Flight 2977. John is angry that Lacey has opened it in front of Edward. Edward walks on their block as his physical therapy and the neighbors line up as if watching a parade. Edward is the parade. Edward and Shay “borrow” John’s tablet and look up flight 2977. Shay tells him he has 120,000 hits. Jordan has only 40,000. Shay tells him her father “took off” when she was two years old.
Back on the plane, Jane walks from first class to economy and sees her boys. She thinks how she had failed to be the perfect mother. Eddie and Jordan had been a team: Eddie built buildings with Legos and Jordan brought him books on architecture. Jordan asks his mom to bring him her first class dessert when it comes. The captain announces a coming rainstorm. Jane returns to her seat. Linda tells Florida she’s pregnant. Florida tells her she’ll be fine.
A man named Gary waits for Edward after school one day. He says his girlfriend was on the plane with Edward. Eddie and Shay go to the same school The Principal asks Eddie to care for the plants that crowd his office. They are mostly ferns. Edward asks John to let him know what is being said about him on the internet. When the moving van brings Edward’s and Jordan’s old clothes, Edward wears Jordan’s and puts away the new ones his aunt has bought him. Gary shows Edward a photo of Linda. He had planned to propose to her when she landed in California. Edward recognizes her. He tells Gary she looked happy. Gary says the whales are waiting for him. Eddie will tell Shay about this later.
Back on the plane, it is raining and people are sleeping. Benjamin remembers arguing with Gavin and knocking him to the ground. They were eye to eye.
On January first of the new year, Edward learns there will be a hearing in Washington DC. He will get five million dollars from the insurance to be put into a trust until he is twenty-one. On the street on the way to the hearing, he is bombarded with questions from relatives of passengers. He decides to wait in the basement while John goes to the hearing. An hour later, they sneak out the back door. A Bentley auto waits for them. It is Crispin’s ex-wife, a wealthy older woman and she promises to stay in touch. At home, Lacey tells them she has been hired as volunteer coordinator at General Hospital. Edward is sorry she has taken the job and they won’t watch soaps together any longer. Lacey behaves like a stranger. At school, Edward waters the Principal’s plants every Wednesday. He is not going to the Memorial in Colorado because he doesn’t want to board a plane. They find an envelope with hundreds of letters that John has saved in a hiding place in the garage. The letters ask Edward to do things for them and for their relatives who died. Shay writes the responses and Edward signs them. He is changing. He lifts weights in the gym instead of playing ball. He tells Besa that he and Shay are working on a school project. The letters ask him to take photos, to play the violin, to go to London. Mark’s brother sends Edward seven million dollars. He doesn’t want the insurance money. Edward plans to buy a greenhouse for the Principal’s plants and takes a bus to NYCity to meet Jordan’s girlfriend, Mahira. Author Napolitano shows the reader how the plane loses altitude and speed.
What happens to Edward and Shay as they grow older together? How does he shoulder the burden of the letters from the relatives of the 191 passengers? Author Napolitano based this story on two actual plane crashes she’d read about and the close feelings of her two sons. Find this fascinating novel on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.
Linda Stollen is also waiting to board the flight. She has bought two pregnancy tests at the pharmacy. She swears never to ask her father and his third wife for anything again. Crispin Cox waits in his wheelchair for the plane to admit passengers. Bruce and Jane discuss Jordan’s behavior. Bruce thinks it was dangerous. At home school, he taught the boys to question everything. Other passengers include Benjamin Stillman, a black soldier who will see his grandmother at LAX, Mark Lazio, an executive who was written up in Forbes Magazine twice this year.
Crispin’s nurse fusses over him and he is nasty to her. He doesn’t want help. Some passengers applaud when Benjamin boards. Jane is in first class but the boys and Bruce are in the last row. Mark is attracted to the flight attendant, Veronica, who makes her usual public announcements. Jane Adler sits next to Mark and watches the others with amusement. She knows her husband has mapped out the nearest exits. Crispin is flying to California for a trial cure for his cancer. He is very wealthy, and old. A heavy woman named Florida hums a tune, and next to her, Linda eats chocolate, Benjamin wishes he was in the cockpit, flying the plane. Bruce watches his boys as if for the first time. Author Napolitano describes each passenger’s individual traits.
That evening, the National Transportation Safety Board’s “go team” is at the crash site. The reader is shocked into reality. There were 191 killed, and one survivor, a boy. The boy’s aunt Lacey Curtis, will adopt him. She is Jane’s sister, a housewife, and the boy’s only living relative. John Curtis is her husband, a computer scientist. They have no children. The news media speculates on the cause of the crash: a drunk pilot? An act of terrorism? The rainstorm? A passenger who went berserk? Edward has been in the hospital for a week. He hasn’t spoken since they told him what happened. He pretends to be sleeping. He listens. Both his legs are broken, one is in traction, and he holds a soft stuffed elephant under his arm. The movers found it on the truck and brought it to him. The president of the United States calls Edward and says the whole country is rooting for him.
He is released from the hospital when he can use crutches. The staff all come to say good-bye. He doesn’t know their names and can’t read their tags. The doctor has said traumatic brain injury may show in many different ways: panic, anxiety, hearing and smell may be affected. John, Lacey, and Edward drive to their home where Edward had only visited on special occasions. After he sees people lined up on the road cheering for him, he gets out of the car and vomits til nothing is left. His aunt says, “You’re not okay, we’re not okay, nothing is okay.” Somehow this is the right thing to say.
Back on the plane, Florida looks back for the last time at the New York skyline. She pictures her most recent wedding on several acres in Vermont. It was a magical evening with Bobby, a tent and dancing. Linda goes to the bathroom with her pregnancy test paper and thinks about the other men she has slept with. None were any good until Gary. She is going to meet him and hopes he will propose. Crispin Cox thinks about his ex-wife, divorced for thirty-nine years, who gets money or stock from him yearly. He takes a pill for his pain. Mark flirts with the flight attendant. Jane has to finish writing her script because she had spent time packing at home instead of writing.
Linda looks in the mirror and thinks how she landed Gary. He studies whales and she loved whales as a kid. A pink plus sign appears on the test. “Yes,” she says.
John and Lacey’s house has a nice view of Greenwood lake. Edward hates being out of the hospital. Its routines and sounds had held him together. The next door neighbor, Besa, comes over with her little girl, Shay. Besa gives Edward a thermos of coffee. She reminds him of his mother. Shay says she met Jordan one summer years ago. He’d jumped off the roof of their van. Edward knows Jordan would do that. At 10 p.m. after Joan and Lacey have gone to bed, Edward goes next door and asks to see Shay. She is in pajamas in bed. He sits in a chair and falls asleep. In the morning, he returns to Lacey’s and watches soap operas with her for the morning. In the afternoon, the doctor says he has lost eight pounds. He tells Lacey to give Edward ice cream, candy, whatever he wants. He wants nothing. Food seems irrelevant.
When the author takes us back to the plane, Bruce is making small talk with Edward. Bruce works with constellations and numbers. Tenure at Colombia would have kept them in New York. Jordan walks down the plane’s aisle and thinks of his girlfriend Mahira. They kissed constantly in the back room of the Deli her father owned. Benjamin faces a desk job in California after one more operation on his wounds from the war. He had been on patrol and had seen the shooter. He and his white partner, Gavin, had become close friends. Florida is able to see the past of every soul on the plane. She used to hide wounded men in the back of her store in the Philippines.
Back to Edward, he returns to Shay’s room every night. She tells him he is like Harry Potter because he has magic powers. Edward feels he is part of his aunt’s messy life. She has had several miscarriages. Besa tells him Lacey now has someone to care for. An envelope arrives with personal affects of the passengers on Flight 2977. John is angry that Lacey has opened it in front of Edward. Edward walks on their block as his physical therapy and the neighbors line up as if watching a parade. Edward is the parade. Edward and Shay “borrow” John’s tablet and look up flight 2977. Shay tells him he has 120,000 hits. Jordan has only 40,000. Shay tells him her father “took off” when she was two years old.
Back on the plane, Jane walks from first class to economy and sees her boys. She thinks how she had failed to be the perfect mother. Eddie and Jordan had been a team: Eddie built buildings with Legos and Jordan brought him books on architecture. Jordan asks his mom to bring him her first class dessert when it comes. The captain announces a coming rainstorm. Jane returns to her seat. Linda tells Florida she’s pregnant. Florida tells her she’ll be fine.
A man named Gary waits for Edward after school one day. He says his girlfriend was on the plane with Edward. Eddie and Shay go to the same school The Principal asks Eddie to care for the plants that crowd his office. They are mostly ferns. Edward asks John to let him know what is being said about him on the internet. When the moving van brings Edward’s and Jordan’s old clothes, Edward wears Jordan’s and puts away the new ones his aunt has bought him. Gary shows Edward a photo of Linda. He had planned to propose to her when she landed in California. Edward recognizes her. He tells Gary she looked happy. Gary says the whales are waiting for him. Eddie will tell Shay about this later.
Back on the plane, it is raining and people are sleeping. Benjamin remembers arguing with Gavin and knocking him to the ground. They were eye to eye.
On January first of the new year, Edward learns there will be a hearing in Washington DC. He will get five million dollars from the insurance to be put into a trust until he is twenty-one. On the street on the way to the hearing, he is bombarded with questions from relatives of passengers. He decides to wait in the basement while John goes to the hearing. An hour later, they sneak out the back door. A Bentley auto waits for them. It is Crispin’s ex-wife, a wealthy older woman and she promises to stay in touch. At home, Lacey tells them she has been hired as volunteer coordinator at General Hospital. Edward is sorry she has taken the job and they won’t watch soaps together any longer. Lacey behaves like a stranger. At school, Edward waters the Principal’s plants every Wednesday. He is not going to the Memorial in Colorado because he doesn’t want to board a plane. They find an envelope with hundreds of letters that John has saved in a hiding place in the garage. The letters ask Edward to do things for them and for their relatives who died. Shay writes the responses and Edward signs them. He is changing. He lifts weights in the gym instead of playing ball. He tells Besa that he and Shay are working on a school project. The letters ask him to take photos, to play the violin, to go to London. Mark’s brother sends Edward seven million dollars. He doesn’t want the insurance money. Edward plans to buy a greenhouse for the Principal’s plants and takes a bus to NYCity to meet Jordan’s girlfriend, Mahira. Author Napolitano shows the reader how the plane loses altitude and speed.
What happens to Edward and Shay as they grow older together? How does he shoulder the burden of the letters from the relatives of the 191 passengers? Author Napolitano based this story on two actual plane crashes she’d read about and the close feelings of her two sons. Find this fascinating novel on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.