She Treads Softly: The Thing About My Uncle

Friday, August 16, 2024

The Thing About My Uncle

The Thing About My Uncle by Peter J Stavros
8/20/24; 260 pages
BHC Press

The Thing About My Uncle by Peter J Stavros is a highly recommended coming-of-age story.

Rhett Littlefield, 14, is expelled from school and his mother sends him to live with his Uncle Theo in the hollers of Eastern Kentucky. After meeting his uncle's dog, Chekhov, Rhett settles into his situation. Uncle Theo is a great cook, tattooed, works out in his gym, spends a lot of time working on his garden, and is going to set Rhett on the right path. He puts Rhett on a strict homeschooling schedule and gets Rhett a mountain bike to ride some of the mountain trails. Rhett settles into his new situation, including no more of his mom's tuna mac.

The family all have secrets that end up getting exposed and past events are explained. The bond the grows between Rhett and Theo helps reconcile some of Rhett's misconceptions about the past by exposing some of the secrets and revealing the truth about events that have influenced his whole life. Faith is also explored in a gentle way.

The Thing About My Uncle is a highly recommended, well-written debut novel that is compelling. As the characters grow to know each other and share secrets it prepares them for the explosive ending. Thanks to BHC Press for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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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.