Recovering Charles by Jason Wright

I'm not a fast reader and I tend to feel guilty if I'm reading more than I'm writing in the little snatchets of time I have between poopy diapers, laundry mountains, and, lately, barfing kids.

I was up at our elementary school waiting for kids to finish basketball practice the other day when I wandered into the library that also serves as a branch of the public library. I browsed through the books and spotted Recovering Charles by Jason Wright. I thumbed through the pages and decided to check it out.

I finished it, through tears, this morning. Recovering Charles is about a young man, Luke Millward, in search of his father during the aftermath of Katrina. He and his father are estranged for many reasons and when his father goes missing he decides to make the three-day long trip from New York down to New Orleans in hopes of not only finding his dad, but also finding his way back to his alcoholic father who he's all but given up on. He finds much more than that.

Wright does a fantastic job of pulling the reader into the story. I found that I read many more pages than I planned to read at each sitting. He also does a great job of making you feel like you're experiencing the horrific scenes of death and destruction that Katrina left in her wake. I knew it was a horrible disaster, but Wright made me see it through different eyes. I felt like I was living it along with the main character.

Wright throws in a twist. I didn't expect it, but it made sense and made the story much deeper.

Like I said, I'm not a fast reader, but I read Recovering Charles quickly because I wanted to know how it ended. I recommend it--just make sure you have some Kleenex nearby.