I have to admit, the cockatiel on the cover caught my eye! I have two cockatiels and I am fascinated by their behavior. This is a cockatiel in this story but he has a minor role. The author must have some experience with them because the behavior of Ringo was spot on for cockatiel behavior.

The narrator of the story is Henry, a high school dropout who is older but still has hippie values. It doesn’t take much to make him happy and he tends to put bad situations and problems to the back of his mind. The writing of his character is incredible with the speech patterns and his character is so convincing that I really feel that I have met him before. At the beginning, Henry tells how he was outside and a cockatiel flew down to him. I can believe this as I have seen cockatiels in the wild before. Henry was worried that the bird would not survive those very cold winters there so he started taking care of him. Then the narration switches to how he met his wife, Kelly. She is a big contrast to him. While he struggled and later gave up with school, she had good grades and had to dropout she got married in her junior year. She is alcoholic who goes to AA meetings and her relationship with her mother is terrible. She really wants to get ahead and make something of herself. She wants to pull herself up from the terrible childhood that she had. Sadly, they were not meant for each other, there are too many differences. This is a heartbreaking story; loneliness is not enough for a marriage.

I am surprised that this is the author’s first book, I am amazed. This was masterfully written that I now want to read everything that he writes. Henry could be a relative of mine; Kelly could be a friend of mine. Also the environment of the Cape area is another character. Not the life of the wealthy but of the poor, the uneducated, the lower class.

I highly recommend this book; if I could I would gladly give it six stars.

I received this book as a win from First Reads but that in no way influenced my thoughts or feeling s about this book. ( )