How Lucky

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<voice imitation="professor_farnsworth">Good news, everyone!</voice> This completes my reading mini-project of consuming all five of 2022's Edgar nominees for Best Novel. Only one semi-dud in the bunch; this one was excellent.

The narrator and protagonist is Daniel, a young man with a dread disease: Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). It is as bad as it sounds: debilitating, degenerative, and (in Daniel's case) eventually fatal. Getting around requires a motorized wheelchair; he can no longer speak or feed himself; his every moment contains the possibility that he'll be unable to take another breath. His survival depends on daily visits from dutiful health care aides.

But even with all that, Daniel is stoic, unsentimental, and accepting. (The book's title recalls Lou Gherig's Yankee Stadium farewell.) He loves living in Athens, home to the University of Georgia; he's especially fond of Saturdays when he and his best friend enjoy the hoopla surrounding Bulldogs football home games.

You may be wondering: wait a minute, aren't the Edgar nominees supposed to be mysteries? Well yes. The plot driver here is the disappearance of a female Chinese UGA student. And Daniel witnessed her getting into a tan Camaro, and saw the driver. His disease makes it difficult to communicate key facts to law enforcement. (Who, perhaps unfairly, aren't pictured here as particularly diligent in following up Daniel's report.) The suspense builds …


Last Modified 2024-01-15 5:19 AM EDT