How Evan Broke His Head And Other Secrets by Garth Stein – 384 pages
Book Blurb:
Fathers never forget seeing their kids for the first time. But Evan is greeting his son, Dean, fourteen years late. The boy had been shuttled secretly to another city, along with his teenaged mother, while still a newborn. Now his mother has passed away, and Evan is it—Dad. An instant single parent. Evan was once lead guitarist for a hot band with a hit single; now 31, he gets by as a guitar instructor to middle-aged guys, and does menial work in a music shop. With Dean in the picture he has to change fast, which means facing up to the past, to his own father, and to the epilepsy that haunts him and threatens his every moment.
My Review: 4 stars
How Evan Broke His Head And Other Secrets has been on my TBR pile for over 10 years. At my mom’s urging, I finally picked it up. What a wonderful read about realistic and flawed characters with very unique relationships.
Stein does an exeptional job at examining father/son interactions packed with tension, love, duty and expectations both met and unfulfilled. Music is also a central theme, both as a profession as well as its therapeutic nature.
Tackling the creation of a character with epilepsy couldn’t have been easy, however I thought it was done with great skill. I learned quite a bit about this disease and its ramifications. I know from personal experience how it is to live with a chronic disease and how slippery the slope can be in feeling sorry for yourself.
Quotes I liked:
The truth belongs to he who tells it, so what good is it, anyway?”
-“It’s smarter to e lucky than it’s lucky to be smart.”
-“And the mystery of fatherhood is revealed to Evan. Forego all heart-to-hearts. Buy presents.”
-“Family is family, Evan. Tradition doesn’t matter.”
-“Time is the longest distance between two places.”
-“…do not blame other people for being themselves, you will only be frustrated by it.”
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