Eddie's Bastard

October 4, 1999
In his ambitious, bittersweet first novel, Kowalski explores the world of a boy growing up in a small upstate New York town called Mannsville who must find his place in the shadows of nearly mythic ancestors. In infancy, narrator Billy Mann was left on his grandfather's doorstep, with a note identifying him only as "Eddie's bastard." Billy's bitter, proud and often drunk grandfather tells him that Eddie was a larger-than-life hero whose plane was shot down over Vietnam. Growing up, Billy is regaled with tales of other legendary Manns, whose "natural tendency toward greatness" stretches back more than a century. Yet the grandfather also paints himself as a fool who lost the family fortune with an ill-conceived idea for an ostrich farm. Billy endures a lonely, isolated childhood and adolescence, countered primarily by his rich imagination, his courage and his friendship with neighbor Annie Simpson, whose abusive, poor white trash family is the antithesis of the lineage-proud Manns. Kowalski layers the past effectively, blending the grandfather's oral history with Billy's own coming-of-age narrative. Although the vaunted Mann fortune derives from simple luck--the discovery of blood-tainted, Civil War-era buried treasure on their property--the mythic tales inspire Billy to some noble deeds of his own, and he assumes the mantle of family storyteller so the legends will endure. Though at times it veers into dramatic overload, the novel is ultimately an absorbing, redemptive exploration of a young man's search for himself, wresting an identity out of generations of secrets. Agent, Anne Hawkins of John Hawkins & Assoc. 75,000 first printing; major ad/promo; author tour; rights sold in Germany, England, Spain and the Netherlands; Harper audio.

July 1, 1999
Billy Mann is an illegitimate orphan known around Mannville as "Eddie's Bastard." This first novel tells the story of two relationships: between Billy and the reclusive grandfather who reared him and Billy and his young friend Annie, a victim of paternal abuse. These relationships are troubled in the extreme, but love can abound in even the most imperfect settings. The theme of family gives form to the novel. Stories of his father, Eddie (dead before his birth), inspire Billy like ghostly encouragement, and excerpts from his great-grandfather's diary appear like a refrain, offering guidance. Kowalski writes in a style so natural that the reader is only aware of the story it transports. Surreal moments that recall John Irving include a man's severed tongue inside a snowball and a description of the family's financial ruin by the "Fiasco of Ostriches." Highly recommended for all collections.--Carol J. Bissett, Dittlinger Memorial Lib., New Braunfels, TX

Copyright 1999 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.