Seattle author Garth Stein has penned a touching, funny and realistic slice-of-life novel that the book lover on your Christmas list would likely appreciate receiving.
Winner of a 2006 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association award, "How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets," is the perfect reading material for long holiday plane trips or to enjoy during holiday downtime because it's uncomplicated, straightforward storytelling sure to strike a chord within anyone who reads it.
The story revolves around the life of Evan, a Seattle rock musician who, at 31 years old, arrives at a point in his life where he begins to take stock of what he has been doing with himself all these years. In short, he has to grow up even though he's already a man - much easier said than done.
So far in his life, Evan has been pretty much a loner of sorts with no one but himself to provide and be responsible for. He has one major success under his belt to date - a hit single 10 years ago that he made while lead guitarist for a hot new band. He fears, however, that he may have peaked in his music profession at the ripe age of 21.
Although he's an awesome guitar player, he doubts it. Perhaps he is just an average talent who happened to luck out a decade ago when everything was new and exciting - and he was younger. Evan went from rock star then to guitar instructor now, giving lessons to middle-aged men who could very well be Evan's "ghosts of Christmas future" if he continues to watch his life unfold as if he were passively watching it on TV.
He seems lost yet somehow he knows how to be "found." The first thing he must do to get his life on track is to shine a light on some secrets he's been hiding, one of which is his own son whom he has never seen. In fact, no one knows that Evan is a father for he has kept the secret hidden well all these years from everyone, including his own family.
Perhaps, too, the fact that Evan has epilepsy is also driving his secretive nature. When he was little, his parents told him to tell no one about it, planting a seed of shame that has grown like a weed within him ever since. Even though he has been living with the affliction almost his whole life and he's learned to recognize the signs of an oncoming seizure, he expresses fear at having one and making a spectacle of himself when he's out in public, a worry that's always lurking somewhere in the back of his head.
"How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets" opens with Evan arriving at a gravesite in Walla Walla of his former girlfriend, Tracy, who's being interred underground in a Mormon burial ceremony. He's half ashamed to be there. After getting Tracy pregnant nearly 15 years ago, he continues to suffer through an internal struggle of guilt and regret for not making an effort to stay in Tracy's life and the life of his son.
This is just one part of his life that he knows he has to make right, a sort of "ghost of Christmas past" that he must face up to if he's going to drop his invisible shackles and move forward.
Ironically, it's within the graveyard that Evan experiences a spark of new life within himself when he sees his now 14-year-old son, Dean, standing stoically among the mourners. Immediately, Evan feels the connection to Dean at a cellular level. "Evan doesn't recognize Dean, but he knows well enough who he is," Stein writes. "A young man...who, like Evan, stands out in a crowd...his face alert and defensive." Evan notices that Dean looks uncomfortable and is showing no sign of grieving his mother's death. Thus, like Evan, Dean holds his own secrets.
Evan makes a pact with himself to be the father he should have been from the start but it's not going to be easy. Understandably, Dean holds some pretty staunch resentment towards Evan. His dad will have to work to earn his son's love and respect in a trial by fire.
No longer can Evan be the lone wolf because he has a son to provide for. Evan gets help along the way from some rather colorful friends like Mica, a sexy African-American sound engineer who believes in Evan's outstanding musical abilities...and turns his head like she does the knobs on the soundboard. And then there's Lars, a lovable, nearly six-foot, five-inch drummer whom Stein describes as "a giant albino...with a dent in his head." Things begin to turn around for Evan, and Dean, in a happy and funny way through the power of music and plain determination.
Stein's writing ability shines through in every chapter of the book. He handles the complex relationship between Evan and Dean with aplomb. As the story progresses, the reader can't help but develop a compassion for Evan who represents the human failures inherent in all of us. We root for his success because we all have at least one skeleton in our closet, so in pulling for Evan and Dean we pull for ourselves. Hope borne on tomorrows. Love borne on forgiveness of each other and ourselves.