The Key to Everything

     BOOK REVIEW: Peyton Cabot's fifteenth year will be a painful and transformative one. His father, the heroic but reluctant head of a moneyed Savannah family, has come home from World War II a troubled vet, drowning his demons in bourbon and distancing himself from his son. A tragic accident shows Peyton the depths of his parents' devotion to each other but interrupts his own budding romance with the girl of his dreams.
     Struggling to cope with a young life upended, Peyton makes a daring decision: he will retrace a journey his father took at fifteen, riding his bicycle from St. Augustine, Florida, all the way to Key West. Part declaration of independence, part search for self, Peyton's journey will bring him more than he ever could have imagined--namely, the key to his unknowable father, a longed-for reunion, and a calling that will shape the rest of his life.

     MY REVIEW:   Valerie Fraser Luesse had me with her first book, Missing Isaac, and I've read each of her books as they've come out. This is the third one, and I liked it equally to the rest, but had to admit that for one reason they are not the quality of books I consider them to be. Valerie writes Southern tales of love and loss and picking up and going on. But while many good core lessons can be applied from her stories, she doesn't put the stock in God's being the Redeemer as ought to be. It's been over a year since reading her previous books, so I may be remembering wrongly on those, but for this book it's true. So while I will continue to pick up her books for that true Southern grace which each expounds, I cannot give them quite the rating I would first wish.
     This book is the tale of a fifteen year old lad who suffers loss, and great loneliness with it. Feeling distanced from his father, he takes off on a bicycle trip mimicking one taken twenty years before, from St Augustine, FL to Key West. I looked up the distance after reading the book and its 470mi, the last 7 of which are crossing the Atlantic. One thing about this book is the characters' "just knowing", for instance, Peyton just knew it was time for this trip, and later just knew his parents had been at the old abandoned homestead he stumbled upon. It adds to the Southern charm, but I don't know that I'd consider it very realistic or reliable. Anyways.
     On this trip, Peyton came across various helpful people who put him up for the night, and made a deep impression on his trip; some of them he remained lasting friends with. That was a highlight for me, that people were so hospitable and gracious and just loved whomever they met. The book is set in 1947 so such a thing would not be as unusual as it is now. I think that is why it's so becoming. It's not just something that should be, it's something that was but has been lost.
     And I can't forget this important vein of the story, the Peyton and Lisa vein. At the end of his trip whom should Peyton find there but Lisa. Of course. But we knew that would happen, because his father first met his mother on his trip so we can't be too surprised. The love story in this book is different from many others. It has the genuine Southern feel to it that makes you root for the characters and know that they are going to face hardship but get through it anyways. While it has its flaws (for starters, these guys are only fifteen years old) it's endearing.
     In the end, I enjoyed the book. It is light, and probably won't leave you feeling like God has worked great things in another life, but the steadying that Peyton found is reassuring. In a day when everyone is on the hunt to 'find themselves' we realize that such things only bring out our selfishness and the desire for others to change around our characters. There are those who really do not know where they are meant to be, or even who they are meant to be. They do not need to 'find themselves', they need to turn to God. And perhaps, sometimes, they may benefit from doing that unusual something that bonds them to the one they've felt distanced from. 

  I received a copy of this book from REVELL and was not required to give a positive review.