The Left and the Lucky

In Portland, Oregon, The Left and the Lucky homes in on two lives that unexpectedly intersect. Eddie is a housepainter in his forties; he's easygoing and slow to anger, but he's also hurting from the estrangement of his wife, Marlene. Russell is an eight-year-old boy who lives a couple of blocks away; he's struggling with an abusive older half-brother, Curtis, and a single mother who works nights at a strip club and is barely making ends meet. The two form an unlikely friendship. Eddie provides some relief for Russell from Curtis's bullying, and caring for Russell helps put a salve on some emotional scars Eddie carries.

It's a distinctly blue-collar story — Russell and his family have nothing, and Eddie works six days a week to pay the bills. Their day-to-day doesn't involve much beyond work and school and the demons they have to deal with. Conversations are simple and direct ("You hungry? I could eat."), but Eddie slowly and gently helps Russell get to a better place. He humors the imagination of an eight-year-old, who regularly dreams up ideas for things he can build (a plane, a motorcycle, a boat) that he would use to flee to a safe place far from his sadistic brother. Eddie's patience also allows him to navigate the baggage Russell carries every day from his broken home life.

The novel drips with Americana, offering a slice-of-life look at main characters (and those in their orbit) just scraping by. There's a bit of a Steinbeck quality to Vlautin's writing, and in some small ways the story reminded me of how S.A. Cosby treats the pressures of working-class life in Blacktop Wasteland. The unlikely friendship between Eddie and Russell also conjured memories of Snow in August by Pete Hamill.

It's a quick read (or listen—Vlautin reads it himself, and his gravelly voice authentically fits the characters he's written about), and while it didn't knock my socks off like Blacktop Wasteland or Snow in August did, it was a solidly constructed story.