If you are around my age (you can do the calculations in just a moment), you remember the 1976 bicentennial celebrations all around the U.S. on the 4th of July. I remember wearing my favorite off-white peasant blouse and cutoff jeans, riding my bike swathed in red, white and blue crepe paper. The excitement was palpable, and my chest burst with pride. My already patriotic town pulled out all the stops. I think I also remember fireworks laid out near a football field that blazed the shape and colors of the American flag. We knew we couldn't live any better place.
That was when I was 8, and blissfully unaware of the protests and unrest of the years not so far gone. The Vietnam War was still in my blind spot.
Eli the Good, by Silas House, is a young adult novel about a 10-year-old boy whose father, a Vietnam vet, begins to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder during the summer of the bicentennial. Eli is left trying to interpret the tension between his father and his aunt, who participated in anti-war protests. He has no idea what is changing his father so dramatically. His beautiful, loving mother spends herself trying to keep the peace. His older sister is angry for her own reasons.
Eli picks his way through the minefields, eavesdropping on everyone in an effort to understand the shift in his world. He takes and reads his father's letters from Vietnam. He is surrounded by people he loves and who love him, and none of them are who they should be.
One part of the novel that I particularly enjoyed was Eli's relationship with his best friend, Edie. Edie is tough and independent, and their bond is a strong one.
This book is certainly not written for a 10-year-old, because of its themes, even if the protagonist is 10. As I mentioned in an earlier post, it seems a bit too nostalgic for a young adult reader, but perhaps I'm wrong. I'm a little fuzzy on the audience.
If I get beyond that, however, it is a beautiful piece of writing. It interweaves wonderful, flawed people who are paying a price they do not understand, when all they wanted to do was the right thing. They walk the fine line between love and anger, and life threatens to split at the seams.
House is a nature lover, and the characters echo his love. He describes trees, light, and solitude in such a lovely way, just as he did in the novels for adults that I've read previously.
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