Lean on Pete

Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin
4/13/10; 304 pages
HarperCollins 

Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin is a very highly recommended drama following a boy looking for some stability in his life. This is another novel that is hard to read emotionally, but stay with it. Again, I cried, hard, but loved this novel. You will reach absolute hopelessness and desperation before there is a glimmer of redemption for Charley. The ending is very well done. 

Fifteen-year-old Charley Thompson wants a home, food on the table, and a high school where he can play football. His single father, however, leaves Charley on his own for days without food in the house or enough money to buy food. They have just moved to Portland from Spokane and Charley knows no one. Charley finally ends up looking for a job and finds one after helping seventy-year-old curmudgeon Del change a tire. The job is helping Del with his horses at the Portland Meadows racetrack. Del is very unreliable as far as paying Charley, but it is a way to earn money for food. He also develops a relationship with a quarter horse named Lean on Pete. Then several tragic circumstances result in Charley on the run with Lean on Pete, looking for his long-lost aunt who lives somewhere in Wyoming.

The writing may seem simple but that is hardly the case. The realism and emotional impact Vlautin's novels have is simply incredible. Charley will break your heart. He's just a teen who is fighting to survive under desperate circumstances. He has been failed by those meant to protect them in a world that seems intent on beating him down. He has no one to help him navigate the events in his life or even really care about him. There are some supportive actions taken along the way, but most people are too self-involved to really see outside their bubble.