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lucsbooks 's review for:
The Coward
by Jarred McGinnis
General Impressions
"The Coward" was kindly sent to me by Canongate as part of their first Read-a-Long and other than having seen it around when it was first published and skimmed the synopsis, I knew nothing about it: I hadn't watched any booktube hauls or checked any Goodreads reviews so I went in with no expectations.
As it often happens, I was initially drawn by the cover and how unassuming and different in its quotidian it was. Add the synopsis to that and I knew this was gonna be one of those books that I would either devour in a night or give up before I hit the 100-page mark.
I wanted to read this book because of its original take on the "becoming disabled" storyline. Usually, when I read a book or watch a movie in which a character lives or is struggling with a new or old disability they are either there to be the super positive secondary character that is there to show the main character that no matter how bad their life is, at least they are not disabled or in case they are not supportive, something to be pitied and put away from the screen as soon as possible.
"The Coward" breaks that mould by not only having a person who lives with a disability as the hero but by refusing to make them into either a stereotype of what disabled people can achieve (if they put superhuman effort into not demanding anything of a world built for abled bodies) or a character that learns a valuable lesson in humility and then gets healed. Because Jarred is not an angel and becoming wheelchair-bound doesn't magically makes him a better person. For that, the story jumps back and forward, addressing not only what was done to him by others and what he did that brought him to moving back into his father's house from whom he had been estranged for ten years.
In a book filled with such an original plot and beautiful writing, my absolute favourite part was still the relationship between Jarred and his father. These are two people that could be and are the villains in a lot of people's lives, including each other's and their own, but as you get to know them you cannot help in see the good and all the trauma they carry with them. You understand why they made the choices they did, good and bad.
The constant jumps between Jarred's younger years and his present reconnecting with his father, made me FLY through this book. I know that Canongate meant for this to be a read-along but they should have picked a crappier book for that. I loved this one and couldn't stop myself from finishing it in three days (I was only slowed down by the guilt, I could have done it much sooner).
If you are too worried that this might be a bit heavy, it is but there is plenty of humour throughout, mostly when it comes to Jarred's and his father's interactions with each other and other people. The scenes in which they made fun or insulted people that discriminated against Jarred in particular must have felt incredibly cathartic to write and for a lot of other people to read, I'm sure.
This book reminded me a bit of The Paris Library in how wonderfully real it was: there were no heroes or villains, simply flawed, human people, growing up and trying to make the best of what they were given.
Conclusions
I recommend "The Coward" to absolutely everyone. This is not a book about a man that finds himself bound to a wheelchair but about not only forgiveness and dealing with all kinds of trauma, the most recent of which being that accident.
Thank you to Canongate for letting me be part of their first Read-a-Long
Rating: 4.5/5
"The Coward" was kindly sent to me by Canongate as part of their first Read-a-Long and other than having seen it around when it was first published and skimmed the synopsis, I knew nothing about it: I hadn't watched any booktube hauls or checked any Goodreads reviews so I went in with no expectations.
As it often happens, I was initially drawn by the cover and how unassuming and different in its quotidian it was. Add the synopsis to that and I knew this was gonna be one of those books that I would either devour in a night or give up before I hit the 100-page mark.
I wanted to read this book because of its original take on the "becoming disabled" storyline. Usually, when I read a book or watch a movie in which a character lives or is struggling with a new or old disability they are either there to be the super positive secondary character that is there to show the main character that no matter how bad their life is, at least they are not disabled or in case they are not supportive, something to be pitied and put away from the screen as soon as possible.
"The Coward" breaks that mould by not only having a person who lives with a disability as the hero but by refusing to make them into either a stereotype of what disabled people can achieve (if they put superhuman effort into not demanding anything of a world built for abled bodies) or a character that learns a valuable lesson in humility and then gets healed. Because Jarred is not an angel and becoming wheelchair-bound doesn't magically makes him a better person. For that, the story jumps back and forward, addressing not only what was done to him by others and what he did that brought him to moving back into his father's house from whom he had been estranged for ten years.
In a book filled with such an original plot and beautiful writing, my absolute favourite part was still the relationship between Jarred and his father. These are two people that could be and are the villains in a lot of people's lives, including each other's and their own, but as you get to know them you cannot help in see the good and all the trauma they carry with them. You understand why they made the choices they did, good and bad.
The constant jumps between Jarred's younger years and his present reconnecting with his father, made me FLY through this book. I know that Canongate meant for this to be a read-along but they should have picked a crappier book for that. I loved this one and couldn't stop myself from finishing it in three days (I was only slowed down by the guilt, I could have done it much sooner).
If you are too worried that this might be a bit heavy, it is but there is plenty of humour throughout, mostly when it comes to Jarred's and his father's interactions with each other and other people. The scenes in which they made fun or insulted people that discriminated against Jarred in particular must have felt incredibly cathartic to write and for a lot of other people to read, I'm sure.
This book reminded me a bit of The Paris Library in how wonderfully real it was: there were no heroes or villains, simply flawed, human people, growing up and trying to make the best of what they were given.
Conclusions
I recommend "The Coward" to absolutely everyone. This is not a book about a man that finds himself bound to a wheelchair but about not only forgiveness and dealing with all kinds of trauma, the most recent of which being that accident.
Thank you to Canongate for letting me be part of their first Read-a-Long
Rating: 4.5/5