Summer WoodBesprekingen

3 in ILL, none in CC

Spoilers are here. They must have given this book free. I checked it out because it was shortlisted for the award for women writing about the west. It was OK. Wrecker's mother goes to jail and he goes off to a remote place on the northern California coast to live with a small group of people. I wasn't really sure why those people were there. The women didn't ring totally true to me. But they take the kid in and he grows up.

This is a great book--beautifully written--about what it means to be a family.

1960s adoption story. When a string of bad decisions results in his mother's arrest and imprisonment, Wrecker goes to live with family he's never met, far away in Humboldt County. His uncle Len is barely able to keep track of him because he's struggling to take care of Meg, his newly disabled wife. Luckily for Wrecker, Len's friends live close by; Melody, Willow, Ruth, and Johnny Appleseed take Wrecker in and raise him. While Lisa Fay is incarcerated, Melody becomes Wrecker's mother, and his memories of his birth mother, both traumatic and loving, fade. Summary BPL

Why the 1960s? Other than to use the motley group of alternative lifestyles iconic of that era...? The seemingly pointlessness of placing the story in the 60s was a constant distraction for me.

Wrecker has content and deals with a sensitive topic. I felt the characters, although diverse and deep, didn't demonstrate growth over the 20-some year arc of the novel.

Wrecker is a quiet novel that takes a while to build. I thought little Wrecker's story was a good one, but I wished he had more of a central role early on in the book. It would have been nice to have heard his voice from the beginning instead of everyone else's.

The premise for this book is one that would capture most people's attention. A young boy is left to live with strangers who don't really seem to want him. His mother is gone and noone is sure if or when she'll be coming back. The "eccentric" household reluctantly takes him in and soon he has become a part of this unusual family.
I thought the book was slow in some places, but overall liked the plot and the characters. I liked the idea that families come in all different shapes and sizes and that doesn't make them better or worse than a traditional family.½

I really, really liked this book. It was deep without being a difficult read. It didnt have a perfect ending, but it wasnt depressing just for the point of not having a happy ending. I read it really quick because it was very engrossing and I wanted to find out what happened to all the characters. Wrecker was an adorable character. I cant wait to read more by Summer Wood!!

A family has no real template. Some families are related by blood, some
like Wrecker's are related by love and compassion, and most of all choice.
While the members of this family are undeniably quirky, they they are also
loving and generous.

This is a story of a boy, whose life had an unusual and somewhat tragic beginning, and
the mixed bag of folk who were family that took him in and made him their own. There is
plenty of joy, and a richness that is not often found in real life these days. The events and
mundane moments that make up a life for Wrecker bring him to adulthood with the usual
missteps. Finding out how he will turn out is only part of the story.

Recommended.½

The main character, a little boy, did not even receive his name till around one year of age. He received the name, Wrecker, because he had a penchant for getting into things he shouldn't. After his father takes off and his mother is arrested, Wrecker is placed into the foster care system. He ends up with his uncle, Len, for a short while. Len has a wife he takes care of constantly, he decides he cannot take care of Wrecker. The residents of Bow Farm, up the road from Len, decide to take in Wrecker until he is returned to the foster care system. Wrecker stays with these people till he is 20, his character and personality develop and are shaped lovingly by these residents. This novel is impressive in that the author manages to create such odd circumstances and make them appear perfectly believable. Wrecker could have been an angry child who turned into an even angrier man, however, because of the residents of Bow Farm, Wrecker now has infinite potential as a person. A very heart-warming story, this is recommended for young adults/adults.

Although I lost interest at a few points in this novel, my overall impression was very favourable. The more emotional scenes literally brought me to tears. I enjoyed the ending (quite satisfying) and as a mother of four young sons, what a great story this was - about loving and raising a young boy. I also quite enjoyed the romantic sub-plot. Well written, well done!

She called him HeyBoy or BigBoy or Beauty; she called him Honey and Sweetie and Champ. For a whole year she called him Luxe, for Deluxe, meaning the best and luckiest thing that had ever happened to her. When she was angry with him she called him Son, and he held his neck stiff and waited to hear what he had done wrong. One day, gazing around at the trail of broken things strewn in his wake, she said, “Kid! Can’t you leave off wrecking things, for once?” And he turned his round face, his plum lips, to her and said, “I a wrecker.” It made her laugh. “A Wrecker?” And he nodded his head, serious, sure, and on that day it was settled.

Wrecker was born June 1965 in San Francisco. His mother, Lisa Fay left her parents’ home to join the “hippy movement” in San Francisco. She had a short affair with a man and was left suddenly a single mom with a son unknown by his father. Lisa then gets involved with a drug dealer and because of a shooting is sentenced to thirty years in prison, eligible for parole in fifteen. Wrecker is in and out of foster homes until at the age of three his Uncle Len agrees to take him home.

Home is Bow Farm, an unusual arrangement deep in the Lost Coast woods on a plot of land in Humboldt County, California. On one part lives Uncle Len and his wife Meg, who recently suffered brain damage from a freak dental surgery accident, and needs constant supervision. On the other part lives four adults, none related, in a sort of commune arrangement. Each of them is fleeing a past that’s left them emotionally wounded. And in crashes Wrecker.

This book is less about Wrecker than it is about how Wrecker affects the lives of those around him- Uncle Len, Meg, Melody, Ruth, Willow, and Johnny Appleseed. Wood’s novel is about the unconventional upbringing of a boy by a collection of well-intentioned semi-parents while he explores the redwood forests in remote Northern California. The narrative approach couldn't be more fitting for a little boy named Wrecker: Who at 3 seemed to need to feel his body collide with the physical world to know he existed. And at 8 still harbored that same dangerous mix of curiosity and enthusiasm and utter lack of caution that he'd come with.

Wrecker will break your heart and then heal it.
It is about a chosen family and love.
Summer Wood has deftly shown that being a mother means more than having given birth to a child.
I should know.

Wrecker was a wonderful story about what it means to be a family.None of the characters in Wrecker had lives that had gone as expected, and I really enjoyed seeing each of the stories unfold as I read through the book.Wrecker can't live with his mother-- she's in jail, and will be for a long time. His uncle agrees to take him in, only to realize that he can't care for his wife, suffering from some form of dementia, and this extremely active 3 year old boy, determined to live up to his name.The neighbors step in to help out-- first overnight, then for a few weeks, and so on. These aren't just any neighbors, but a group of four dropouts from society living on a small farm in the Redwood forests of far Northern CA. Each has their own reason for living there, each has a reason for being drawn to Wrecker--and in some cases, for keeping a distance from him as well.Wrecker explores the stories of many of these characters as forming a new family forces them to face who they have been and who they want to become. It also tells the story of Wrecker's mother, and particularly her relationship with Wrecker-- from his birth, the decisions that landed her in jail, and the effects of realizing he was growing up with no contact with her.Although the strength of the book was this range of characters and their interrelated stories, there were moments when this was the weakness as well-- I wanted to spend more time on one story rather than moving on to another. In general, the approach worked well.Much of the flavor of the book came from the setting-- I grew up at roughly the same time but in very different places. I had to keep reminding myself that it is part of the same world I lived in. This very small community near a tiny town seemed completely different from anything I've known, but still was very real and vibrant.

When I finished this book, I felt completely satisfied and happy that I had spent time with these quirky characters. “Wrecker” moved along quickly and unfolded the histories of the odd characters in an easy-going manner. It also touched on the deep love and commitment that the parents/relatives of an adoptee can have, along with the fear of losing the child to a bio-parent/relative. Simply put, I loved the book.

They couldn’t control him and so they gave up trying. But neither could he control them, and he, too, came to understand this, and the shimmering tentative thing that stretched between them those first days thickened into something workable, something like love in overalls, love with a spade in its hand. - from Wrecker, page 28 -

Wrecker is born in 1965 in a public park in San Francisco to a mother who is homeless and desperate, but who loves him in a fierce and protective way. For three years, Lisa Fay raises her child in the best way she knows how. And then, she is arrested and imprisoned and Wrecker is turned over to social services, and eventually to an Uncle he has never met. Len brings Wrecker to the Mattole Valley located in the heart of Humboldt County, California where Len works in the timber industry and struggles to care for his disabled wife, Meg. Bow Farm is a wild place, a magical place…and it is there where Wrecker meets Ruth, Willow, Melody, and Johnny Appleseed who offer him not only sanctuary, but acceptance and love. Spanning nearly two decades, Summer Wood’s enchanting and poignant novel follows Wrecker from a toddler into early adulthood.

Wood writes with a heartfelt honesty which keeps the novel from being overly sentimental. She takes care in developing her characters, people who are flawed and damaged by life, but have room in their hearts for a young boy who helps them heal. Wood captures the exuberance and joy of childhood, and the fearlessness of a young boy growing up with beautiful, descriptive prose.

Len hadn’t even shut the engine when Wrecker was out of the truck bed and halfway to the water, his shirt wrenched off in one fluid motion and flung backward to catch in the blackberry thorns. He paused briefly to yank the boots from his feet and step out of his jeans, left his shorts on in deference to Meg, and used the giant boulder as a springboard into the fat dry August air. It held him suspended. Fourteen. Broad-shouldered. Stringy from sudden growth. And then he raised his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them and made himself a compact bullet, a musket ball swallowed with enormous splash and spray by the shining sheet of river below him – down, down, bubbles of zany laughter escaping – pushed off the soft muck of the river bottom to twist and torpedo up and break the surface with a whoop, his sun-bleached hair water slicked and slung sideways with that quick flick of the neck – “Len!” he shouted, his voice lurching up the register, “Get in here!” – from Wrecker, page 165 -

Wood explores themes of loss, grief, redemption and the healing power of love in her novel. Set against the backdrop of the breathtaking beauty of nature, her characters struggle with their every day lives, turning again and again to the common thread which binds them together – Wrecker.

What I loved most about this novel was the joy which is discovered in the most simple of things – the “sheer ambrosial sweetness of wild blackberries,” the spun wool turned into “weavings that dazzled the eye and caught the heart,” and the stretching arms of a venerable maple tree “as much part of the hillside as the rocks and soil.” What Wood does so effortlessly is capture the small things which bring us solace and wonder.

Wrecker is the story of a boy, but it is also the story of a family – a family which is not defined by blood, but which is defined by the love and care that grows between the characters. And perhaps this is what elevates the novel from a simple coming of age story to something deeper. If you are like me, Wrecker will capture your heart and leave you feeling that life, with all its ups and downs, is worth the journey when it is traveled with those who love us.

Highly Recommended.½

'Wrecker' is the kind of book that sticks with you. It has a permanent place in my life experience now. Three women living my perfect life - free and easy on the 'farm'. Totally self sufficient. Then they are confronted with a three year old named Wrecker (for very good reason).

Each of the characters in this book has a story to tell: a story that requires them to heal. And as Wrecker grows and changes, each of them is forced to become better and stronger than they ever thought they could be. In my mind it is one of those perfect stories. You know the kind. It progresses in the only way it can, given the personalities involved, and is thoroughly satisfying at every turn. I was rather confused by the tree with numbers in it that appeared occasionally through the novel but I got it. And you will to. Just a fun little addition outside of the story.

While there is some sex involved in the book, it is not at all graphic and I think 'Wrecker' would be a great read for anyone 15 years+. Paraphrasing (likely badly) Lewis Carroll - any book worth reading at the age of 15 is even more worth reading at the age of 40 (or more). So if you are between the ages of 15 and forever, give it a shot, I'm betting you won't be disapointed.

Wrecker, a ward of the state, arrives at Bow Farm when he is but 3 years old. It is 1969 though Bow Farm seems a less than ideal setting for a young child, it becomes his new home and his family.

There is Melody, the co-owner of the farm whom he calls Deedee and is his mother figure. Willow, the other co-owner, who is less than excited to add a child to her life for secret reasons of her own. Ruth, adopted herself by the farm when they find her washed ashore after an attempted suicide. Johnny Appleseed, an itinerant farmer and tree-activist. Len, Wreckers legal guardian and uncle by marriage. And finally Meg, Wreckers blood Aunt.

Over the course of 17 years, the reader sees Wreckers acceptance into this home through the eyes of Melody, Willow, Ruth, and Len. Though it would seem the story is about the boy, I felt it was more about the other characters, and how coming to love, and live with, this child came to alter their lives.

Recently becoming a new mom myself, I enjoyed the transitions each of the characters faced and the joy they experienced due to one little boy. Wrecker is an great summer read.

In 1969 San Francisco, young single mother Lisa Fay finds herself swept into a drug deal and looking at 15 years in jail before parole. Her young son, Wrecker—named for his destructive tendencies—is sent to live with Lisa Fay’s sister, Meg, and her husband Len in Humboldt County, California, although Lisa Fay is not aware of his fate.

Also unbeknownst to Lisa Fay (and system administrators), Meg is brain-damaged following a dental infection and unable to care for Wrecker. Len turns for help to his next-door neighbors at Bow Farm. There, in what amounts to be a commune, live Melody, Ruth, Willow and Johnny Appleseed. This motley crew agree to help out and find themselves for Wrecker. Eventually, Melody convinces Len to adopt Wrecker but to leave the actual raising of him to her.

The book covers the time from Wrecker’s arrival at Bow Farm, just before his third birthday, until the time he is twenty. But it’s more than the story (as compelling as it is) of an angry boy becoming a strong and gentle young man.

It’s a story about families, how they form and grow, and how they change. The diverse & flawed characters of Bow Farm, and Len and Meg, become Wrecker’s family, and Melody, his mother. Mother love—both Melody’s and Lisa Fay’s—drives the book.
"Sometimes she looked at him and was horrified…(W)hat if she made a mistake? No. What if the mistakes she made (of course she made mistakes, how was she to know how to raise a child like this, any child) mounted up and somehow tipped the scale toward bad? What if she made—a monster? It would be her fault. Everyone would know she had been a BAD MOTHER."

I was hooked on Wrecker from the first paragraph and could seldom put it down. Lisa Fay’s longing for her son and her fear of losing him wove throughout the story, keeping a tension that was balanced by the love and hope on Bow Farm.

Without wasting any words, Wood brings alive the setting:
"There was a man on the moon. All across America children sat cross-legged on shag rugs and watched F Troop and Gilligan’s Island, Gigantor, Bewitched."

She is skilled at capturing emotions in a few perfectly chosen words.
"She knew how grief could shove you off your moorings. She was afraid that he would drift so far he would lose his way back."

Wrecker is never cliché in its setting or its emotions. As much as it is a story of being foster or adoptive parents, it is not one-sided. I felt as empathetic toward Lisa Fay as I did toward Melody. There are beautiful insights and rich emotion, caught in spare and lovely prose.

I very much enjoyed Wrecker and rate it a solid four stars out of five.

The child came into the world in a San Francisco city park, born to an unmarried hippie mother who didn’t even bother naming him for a year. When the boy shows a talent, even at such a young age, for being disruptive and getting into things he shouldn’t his mother, Lisa Fay, finally decides on a name for him: Wrecker. With a start like that, it’s no wonder life ends up being an uphill battle for the boy.

Unprepared for dealing with a child, especially after Wrecker’s father exists stage left, Lisa gets caught up in drugs, eventually leading to her involvement in a crime that lands her in prison looking at a 30 year stretch. So, at the ripe old age of three Wrecker enters the California foster care system, bouncing around a bit until his uncle, Len, is located in the Mattole River Valley of Humboldt County in upstate California and agrees to take the boy in.

Already caring for a wife debilitated by the effects of an infection that attacked her brain, Len quickly realizes he is in no position to keep up with Wrecker. Enter the residents of Bow Farm, a small community of four individuals who live just up the road from Len. Used to chipping in to help Len care for his wife, they agree to temporarily take in Wrecker until Len can arrange to take him back to child welfare in San Francisco. Temporarily turns into seventeen years, as we follow Wrecker from age three to twenty and watch how the ragtag Bow Farm community helps shape him into a strong young man, and how he brings them all together in a way they couldn’t possibly have foreseen when they first agreed to watch the wild child known as Wrecker.

I went into this book a little skeptical, the peace-love-harmony vibe of the 60’s not really being my cup of tea. Add to that a plot that revolves around foster care, something I have no experience with directly or indirectly, and one may wonder why I even bothered. Chalk that up to Lisa at TLC who seems to be particularly skilled at luring me out of my comfort zone, and once again she didn’t lead me astray.

Though the book begins in the late 60’s and unfolds in the mini commune setting of Bow Farm, I never got the stereotypical “hippie” vibe while reading Wrecker. Instead, through author Summer Wood’s beautifully understated prose I came to know and genuinely care about each of the people who came to make up Wrecker’s unusual family. Each arrived at Bow Farm with their own particular baggage and blind spots but, along with Len, they close ranks around Wrecker, coming together to form not just a community of people living together, but a genuine family dedicated to raising their collective child.

And then, of course, there is Wrecker himself. Determined when he first arrives not to conform to the demands adults place upon him, Wrecker slowly comes to realize the Bow Farm community isn’t really “demanding” anything; they don’t want to control him, but neither will they let the “wild child” control them. A détente of sorts quickly springs up, one that over time thaws into genuine love and respect. Wood’s exploration of Wrecker’s development from an angry, confused, withdrawn child to that of a strong, quietly confident young man is thoroughly engaging, yet amazingly subtle. Quite simply, Wrecker is the magical story of a child named for destruction, who grows up to create something incredibly special.

This was a very interesting story about a boy's upbringing by his foster family. I appreciated the various characters and the insight provided by the author in what it's like to foster a child. I agree with another reviewer who said that it seemed the author had to know what some of the situations faced by adopters (and adoptees) are like.

Some parts of the book were just a bit weak, but nevertheless this was definitely worth the read.

Wrecker is the story of a young boy who is raised by friends who live communally on a farm in California. He arrives at Bow Farm after his mother is sent to jail and the state sends Wrecker to the care of his mentally-impaired aunt and her husband. Three-year old Wrecker is more than his uncle Len can handle while caring for his disabled wife, so Wrecker is cast to the women living on the farm next door.

The story had great potential, but, the characters did not feel fully developed. Moreover, all of the adults in the story were highly tainted by their own selfishness and self-centeredness. Providing for Wrecker’s needs never seemed about the benefit of the child; instead, each adult seemed to respond to him out of need to fill a void in himself.½

As a foster parent myself I found this book to be captivating. In fact I didn't realize the author had been a foster parent but did have my suspicions as I read. I kept saying to my husband... "nobody would know these raw emotions and be able to describe it so distinctly unless they'd been a foster parent or had incredible insight." That being said, I believe the story of Wrecker, the chronicles of a boy and his journey and his caregivers and their journeys as a family unit and individually, should be on everyone's reading list. This novel is a triumphant success from beginning to end, the characters so real you really don't want it to end. I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.

Summer Wood's novel tells the story of Wrecker, a destructive 3-year old who ends up in the custody of his uncle after his mother goes to prison. When Uncle Len realizes he can't care for a child on his own, he turns to his neighbors - a motley group of women who've escaped their own lives and heartaches and started fresh at Bow Farm. The plot follows Wrecker as he grows, but this book is about much more than one boy's journey into adulthood - Wood captures the essence of family in the most unconventional of packages, and really brings home the notion that love comes in all shapes, sizes and demonstrative forms.

Some other reviewers felt removed from the characters and found it hard to relate to their problems - I disagree, I think Wood's characters are well-developed. By the end of the novel, I felt that I knew each backstory, knew their problems and their joys.

I think 'Wrecker' is a great portrait of family life, and the myriad ways that people change their lives for and because of the other people in their lives. Once I started reading, I was reluctant to put the book down. I give it 4 stars!

This is the story of Wrecker, a young boy whose mother gets sent to prison, and the family who adopts him. The story unfolds from the time Wrecker is 3 and continues until he is 20 years old.
While I think the premise of this book was a good one - there is no clear definition of "family" and some of the most unconventional families are the best ones - it just fell very short of the mark. While each character seemed to have some type of interesting story, there was nothing compelling about the characters. Their stories seemed to be delivered almost as an afterthought and there was never really any substance to them nor to most of the story.
I also found some of the writing stilted and awkward and parts of the book were uncomfortable to read.
I was very disappointed in this book because I really had high expectations but felt that the author just didn't deliver the story.

Wrecker is the story of a boy and the people who became his family after his birth mother is sent to jail when he was only three years old. The book is very well written, however I never felt a connection to any of its characters, most of whom were somewhat eccentric. The tone of the book is sad, even when the story is not. It does skillfully examine motherhood.

Wrecker is a boy. It is the mid-1960s. He is born into a world of chaos, and his single mother is also in turmoil. By the time Wrecker is three years old, she is in prison.

What seems to be a tragedy can sometimes be the best possible thing to happen. After being shuttled around Wrecker is finally is sent to live with distant relatives. They are unknown to him, living in a very remote area of California. By this time he is an angry, sullen little boy. His reaction is usually to flee. However, over time and with much patience and perseverance, things begin to change.

Through a warm patchwork quilt of eccentric characters who pull together, Wrecker finds a family and home, and even ultimately himself.

Summer Wood was a foster mother before penning this heartfelt book. She currently teaches writing and is a mentor for young writers, as well.½