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emleemay 's review for:
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley
by Hannah Tinti
Beautiful and bittersweet.
There's something about the kind of relationships, like the one in this book, that really speaks to my heart. A gruff, gun-toting, bullet-scarred man, and a spirited teenage girl - an unlikely pair, and yet when the relationship is so full of love and mutual respect, as it is here between Loo and Samuel Hawley, there is nothing so strong.
[b:The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley|30556459|The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley|Hannah Tinti|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1483453811s/30556459.jpg|51103803] alternates between the present and past. In the former, Samuel Hawley teaches Loo how to survive (shooting guns and hotwiring cars, etc.) and brings her to settle in the small hometown where her late mother, Lily, grew up. Here she faces many personal trials, from bullying at school, to her developing relationship with her grandmother. This is interspersed with journeys into the past - tales of each of the twelve bullet wounds marking Samuel Hawley's body.
The writing is exquisite. Tinti captures small details in every scene, building up this portrait of both Samuel's life, and the complex relationship between father and daughter.
It is somehow both told in great detail and also extremely compelling. I've always admired authors who can do this - tell a story that builds so very slowly without taking anything away from your urgency to read it. It's only in the last couple of years that I've realized slowly-developed stories can be pageturners, too.
I don't know who made the bigger impact on me. Samuel Hawley, who literally carries the scars of his past with him... or Loo, who grows up weird in an unfriendly world (and doesn't apologize for it). The pair dazzle apart, but even more so together.
The perfectly-crafted storytelling contains many small observations on human nature; the good and the bad. It's a book which is part grit-lit, part emotional contemporary - i.e. some guns, some crime, and a whole lot of heart.
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There's something about the kind of relationships, like the one in this book, that really speaks to my heart. A gruff, gun-toting, bullet-scarred man, and a spirited teenage girl - an unlikely pair, and yet when the relationship is so full of love and mutual respect, as it is here between Loo and Samuel Hawley, there is nothing so strong.
[b:The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley|30556459|The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley|Hannah Tinti|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1483453811s/30556459.jpg|51103803] alternates between the present and past. In the former, Samuel Hawley teaches Loo how to survive (shooting guns and hotwiring cars, etc.) and brings her to settle in the small hometown where her late mother, Lily, grew up. Here she faces many personal trials, from bullying at school, to her developing relationship with her grandmother. This is interspersed with journeys into the past - tales of each of the twelve bullet wounds marking Samuel Hawley's body.
The writing is exquisite. Tinti captures small details in every scene, building up this portrait of both Samuel's life, and the complex relationship between father and daughter.
It is somehow both told in great detail and also extremely compelling. I've always admired authors who can do this - tell a story that builds so very slowly without taking anything away from your urgency to read it. It's only in the last couple of years that I've realized slowly-developed stories can be pageturners, too.
I don't know who made the bigger impact on me. Samuel Hawley, who literally carries the scars of his past with him... or Loo, who grows up weird in an unfriendly world (and doesn't apologize for it). The pair dazzle apart, but even more so together.
The perfectly-crafted storytelling contains many small observations on human nature; the good and the bad. It's a book which is part grit-lit, part emotional contemporary - i.e. some guns, some crime, and a whole lot of heart.
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube