2008-07-24 Mixed feelings on this one...

Though aspects of PW's debut novel, 'Lottery' are delightful, the overall read just didn't do it for me. I felt it needed padding out a bit more and some of the plot was irritating.
Perry L Crandall is slow, not retarded. And he is a lovely, sweet central character who oozes warmth. When he wins the lottery, we see the family that once disowned him to be brought up by his gram and gramps come sniffing round to exploit him. Essentially this is the tale of how Perry deals with his new found popularity....
I could see what the author was trying to do in terms of Perry's mindset and the writing in this sense is worthy of applause, the book is also easy on the brain and flows effortlessly. However, I felt that certain aspects were unnecessary and fluffy and the characters Keith and Cherry felt underdeveloped but this is probably because the story is narrated by Perry so we're seeing through his eyes. I think that what killed this for me was the disappointment I felt when Perry decided how best to deal with his family - it made me question what the point to it all was!
I will certainly look up her next novel as I like her writing style but am hoping it will be an improvement on this one...