"If you build your house far away from trouble, then trouble will never find you" is the mantra of Henry's upper-class father and current custodian of the rock steady, 300-year-old family house by the New England sea. But everything changes for the comfortable, tidy, rooted Smiths when their oldest son Franklin is struck and gravely injured by a car. The fact that the car was driven by a teenage Cambodian refugee (who, by the way, had been bullied by Franklin and his friends) adds a few more layers to the Trouble. Racial tensions in the town ignite, and when Franklin succumbs to his injuries, Henry decides he needs to hitch-hike to and climb Mount Katahdin as he was planning to do with his brother. Only, the only driver who will pick him (and his friend, and his dog that he rescued from the sea) up is Chay, the guy whose truck hit Franklin.
Man this book is good. It's written for young adults, but completely transcendent of its genre and reading level. The plot twists around in beautiful and unexpected ways- layers on layers, and everything interconnects. Gary Schmidt tackles real issues here- death, racism, the moral ambiguity of lying to protect the person you love, the impossibility of dodging grief in life, the tragedies that happen when you try. I mean with all those issues, the book should feel like dragging your feet through wet concrete. And at times it's pretty emotionally hefty, but there is also a lot of Grace (first bounding into the story in the form of Black Dog, the bedraggled, irrepressibly friendly animal Henry saves from the sea. There are light-hearted moments all through. There's some real friendship recognized and created.
I love what Gary Schmidt finally pulls out of all this: forgiveness is freeing. Grace is the way to live well with Trouble, because you sure can't hide from it.
