She Treads Softly: Tiny

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Tiny

Tiny by Kim Hooper
Turner Publishing Company: 6/11/19
eBook review copy; 368 pages
ISBN-13: 9781684422425

Tiny by Kim Hooper is a highly recommended about three people grieving and dealing with a tragedy.

Nate and Annie Forester's three year old daughter, Penny, was hit by a truck in a tragic accident. Nate is in denial, trying to go on with life and hold it all in. He has returned to work, because someone has to bring in some money. Annie is inconsolable and unable to move beyond her overwhelming grief. Annie doesn't comprehend how Nate can go on as normal. The couple is becoming increasingly distant with each other as they grow apart.

Josh is a young man who was driving the truck that hit Penny. It was an accident. She ran out in front of his truck. He wasn't speeding, but couldn't stop in time. The accident has also changed his life. He wants to find a way to talk to Nate and Annie, to apologize. He begins watching their house, when he sees Annie leave, suitcase in hand, one morning and later sees Nate return home and subsequently distressed, holding a note, presumably from Annie. From watching the couple, Josh knows where Annie went - to a small community of people living in tiny houses. He wants to tell Nate what he knows, but doesn't understand how to approach him.

This is a heartbreaking novel as every person is grieving and unable to meaningfully communicate and share their feelings and inner thoughts with each other. The writing is very good. Hooper captures the overwhelming grief all the characters are going through and how they are acting after the tragedy. The death of a child is always difficult. When it is due to an accident, when there is no clear fault, the questions of what if can take over for everyone involved. Hooper handles this in a compassionate and understanding way while propelling her characters forward in her plot. The characters are all well developed and you will care about what happens to all three of them. The ending is a wonderful denouement and offers hope.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Turner Publishing Company.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.