Charles Martin
336 pgs, 2006 Westbow Press
Purchased Book
Goodreads Summary
"A man with a painful past. A child with a doubtful
future. And a shared journey toward healing for both their hearts."
It begins on the shaded town square in a sleepy Southern town. A spirited seven-year-old has a brisk business at her lemonade stand. But the little girl's pretty yellow dress can't quite hide the ugly scar on her chest.
Her latest customer, a bearded stranger, drains his cup and heads to his car, his mind on a boat he's restoring at a nearby lake. The stranger understands more about the scar than he wants to admit. And the beat-up bread truck careening around the corner with its radio blaring is about to change the trajectory of both their lives.
Before it's over, they'll both know there are painful reasons why crickets cry . . . and that miracles lurk around unexpected corners.
It begins on the shaded town square in a sleepy Southern town. A spirited seven-year-old has a brisk business at her lemonade stand. But the little girl's pretty yellow dress can't quite hide the ugly scar on her chest.
Her latest customer, a bearded stranger, drains his cup and heads to his car, his mind on a boat he's restoring at a nearby lake. The stranger understands more about the scar than he wants to admit. And the beat-up bread truck careening around the corner with its radio blaring is about to change the trajectory of both their lives.
Before it's over, they'll both know there are painful reasons why crickets cry . . . and that miracles lurk around unexpected corners.
My Summary
When Crickets Cry revolves around a man named Reese who
is mourning the loss of his wife and has essentially banished himself from the
life he lived before her death. One day
in town he is drawn to a young girl at a lemonade stand with unexpected energy
and a scar he recognizes all too well.
Told in alternating chapters between the current time and
Reese’s past beginning with when he met his wife the author tries to establish
some mystery as to what happened to Reese’s wife and who he was before her
death. The first third of the book
accomplished that goal, but resulted in chapters that felt choppy. Just as I invested in his story in the past
or present the scene would shift.
I abhor giving away plot detail and since Charles Martin
went to such trouble to create mystery early in the novel I’d be even more
hesitant, BUT about halfway through he gave away the entire ending. To the point I could tell you details of how it
would play out – not just whether it would have a happy ending.
SPOILERS AHEAD – I
could not figure out how to give my thought without giving away some plot
points. Skip to Overall Thoughts to avoid.
Reese fell in love with his wife when they were children
and she had a heart condition already. He started studying the heart at a very young
age – he’s very smart (pretty much unbelievably). Eventually he went to medical school where he
excelled and became a heart surgeon. He’s
incredibly successful, especially with children. His wife is on the list for a new heart and
they had decided on a surgeon to perform the operation. A heart becomes available, but it’s an EXACT
match for his wife and another one of his patients. His wife insists it should go to the other
patient.
Side note: This could never happen. There are no ties in UNOS – they have eight
criteria in order
·
Age
·
Ability of the patient
to recover
·
ABO
·
Distance
·
Height and weight
·
Life support status
·
Listing status
·
Time on the waiting list
(down to the SECOND!)
Anyway, Reese performs that transplant on his patient and
returns home and goes to sleep. He wakes
up to discover his wife’s heart is failing, calls 911 and almost performs a
miraculous open heart surgery in their kitchen to maintain her long enough to
get to a hospital but in the end fails.
Fast forward a few years and Reese is living in semi-seclusion. He goes into the nearest town for a few
things and is drawn to the little girl selling lemonade. Annie has a scar on her chest that he can
tell means she’s had several heart surgeries.
She’s hit by a truck and he saves her life while waiting for the
ambulance to arrive. From there the
story unfolds in a pleasantly predictable way.
Annie befriends Reese not knowing he’s a heart surgeon. As he gets more and more involved in her
life, Reese begins to consider coming out of exile to perform Annie’s heart
transplant.
Overall Thoughts
This was probably never going to be a favorite of
mine. To me it was a cross between
Nicholas Sparks and Jodi Picoult – I’ve read 2 of each of theirs and have no
interest in more. I found When
Crickets Cry to be overwritten in several sections, especially the Prologue.
"I pushed against the
spring hinge, cracked open the screen door, and scattered two hummingbirds
fighting over my feeder. The sound of
the wings faded into the dogwood branches above, and it was there that the
morning met me with streaks of sunkist crackling across the skyline. Seconds before, God had painted the sky a
mixture of black and deep blue, then smeared it with rolling wisps of cotton and
sprayed it with specks of glitter, some larger than others. I turned my head sideways, sort of
corkscrewing my eyes, and decided that heaven looked like a giant granite
countertop turned upside down and framing the sky."
If this hadn’t been a book club choice I wouldn’t have
made it past the first paragraph. I
laughed when I read “sunkist” cause it’s not a word – it’s a brand. He does it a couple more times in the
novel. And the third and fourth
sentences had me rolling my eyes.
My Rating
Enjoyability (3 out of 5 stars)Relationships (3 out of 5 stars) – The main character may have had two dimensions – everyone else was pretty one dimensional.
Writing (1.5 out of 5 stars)
This book will stay with me…longer than you would guess from my
review. I read it about a month ago and
had no problem writing this review.Other Reviews of When Crickets Cry
Musings of a Bookish Kitty
Stray Thoughts
Reading for Sanity
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