Wish You Well

Wish You Well by David Baldacci

David Baldacci is slowly becoming a very popular, best selling author.  For years, he seemed to be more of a “B” list author, meaning maybe a new book might crack the top ten eventually, but nothing from him was ever earth shattering news upon release.  The vast majority of his works could be classified as “political thrillers”, and there’s plenty of variety from book to book.  Strangely, every now and then Baldacci will release a novel that is nothing of this type of genre, and curiosity gets the best of his readers.

Such is the case with this piece of work, which was about the fifth or sixth book he released.  For whatever reason, this book became a sort of “classic”, not because of depth, but because of sweetness  (think Oprah’s book club).  You have to give the author credit for trying such a radically different angle.  Plus, the masses seemed to fall in love with this one.  There’s even a reissue with a “discussion guide” for book clubs at after the conclusion.  That was a new one for me.  Perhaps I’m being crass, but I didn’t think this book was that great.    Sweet, innocent, and charming, but not really that great.  Reading this book made me think of the television show The Waltons from the 1970s.

Our main protagonist is a 12 year old tom-boyish girl named Lou, who has a fairly simple life along with little brother, 7 year old Oz along with Mom and Dad.  Dad is a very well respected author.  That’s not to say he’s rich - his books are too good for mass circulation, but the family lives fairly comfortably.  Well, early on in the book, the family is in a car accident.   Dad is immediately killed and Mom is reduced to a vegetative state.  The two kids (along with the mother, who can’t communicate in the slightest) are forced to live with their only relative, their Great Grandmother Louisa, whom they’ve never met and lives up in the mountains - miles away from civilization.  Ironically, it’s Louisa who helped raised the father - which turns out to be where Dad got most of his ideas from his books from, and will serve the same sort of inspiration for young Lou.

So obviously, the kids are heading for a major transition.  They don’t even have electricity where Great-Grandma Louisa lives.  So the kids arrive, and although there’s an obvious culture shock, it never really feels that drastic.  Great Grandmother literally lives off the land, so there are chores a-plenty, yet the book almost makes the entire experience seem like one long summer vacation.  There are plenty of characters up in the mountains - some good, some not so good, yet the kids manage to do o.k.  Young Oz is convinced that one day Mom will be Mom again, and resorts to all sorts of wishing and dreaming.  Big sister Lou is much more of a realist, and she’s convinced that Oz is only setting himself for a major disappointment with all of his dreaming.  Lou doesn’t think Mom will ever “come back”.  One of the new neighborhood kids even takes the pair to a “magic wishing well”.  All you have to do is throw the one thing that matters the most to you down the well, and your wish will come true.

Well, a wish is made, but life goes on.  So much of this story seems a bit too typical of a sappy Hallmark movie.  There’s lots of tragedy - it seems like the author can’t figure out how to advance the plot without several senseless accidents tossed in every few chapters or so.  Again, though, the point of a “feel good” book is to make you “feel good”, so I guess I shouldn’t complain.

As the story winds on, there’s apparently a “wealth” of natural gas in one of the mountains, and a gas company arrives wanting to buy Louisa’s land.  Such a move would not only provide a lot of jobs for the struggling depression laden community, but it will also make Louisa and her kin very rich indeed. Predictably, of course, Louisa tells the gas company “no”. True, she’s poor, but she’s always been poor.  This, naturally, outrages the neighbors, so threats are made, “accidental” fires are started, people are threatened, and there’s a big courtroom drama that serves as the books climax.

Well, did I mention that this is one of those “happy” books?  Not only is the ending predictable, but Baldacci then throws in an Afterward, that makes the story even more unbelievable by simply telling us what happens to all the characters many years after the conclusion of the story.  Let’s just say that the happy ending gets even happier.

So, although I obviously had a different overall feel for the book than the masses that ranted and raved, I have to conclude that it’s not necessarily that bad of a tale, I was just hoping for something a bit more believable.  I prefer the author’s “thrillers”.    

“Waiter! A bit more, you know, testosterone, please?”