Cannonball Read #20: In the Path of Falling Objects

In the Path of Falling Objects by Andrew Smith ended up crazier than I thought it would go. Absolutely nothing at the beginning prepared me for the Silence of the Lambs villain that cropped up in the middle of the story.

So the book is about a pair of teenage brothers, Jonah and Simon, who live in the southwest United States in the 1970s. They've been abandoned by their mother, their older brother's been in Vietnam, and their dad's in prison. They've decided to travel to Arizona to find their brother now that he's out of the army and their dad who's about to get out of prison. Taking minimal equipment, they start walking, but then are picked up by an odd pair: a pregnant teenage girl and controlling slightly older guy. Almost immediately, they regret the decision, and things just keep getting worse.

One of my biggest complaints is that most of the story is told in first person as if Jonah is telling the story, but every so often it turns to another character and is described in 3rd person, kind of like Jonah is still telling the story, but with a ridiculous amount of insight to that perspective. Most of all, the parts that were from the villain's perspective. It took me out of the story because it seemed so out of place.

Overall, it's a decent read, but it just kept going and odd things kept happening. A hidden commune in the wilderness, death, sex, brotherly tension. I honestly thought desert sage Tom Waits would show up at the rate the book was going. Mostly, I'm just glad it's over.