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By JEFF DEAN Times Leader Correspondent
Sunday, February 25, 2001 Page: 1G
Sometimes, bad things happen to good people. Sometimes – and this is
somehow even more maddening – good things happen to bad people.
William Kowalski, author of the Times Leader Community Book Club’s March
selection, uses those types of injustice to drive the plot of his first novel,
“Eddie’s Bastard,”
Consider the book’s first line. Main character and narrator Billy Mann
says, “I arrived in this world the way most bastards do – by surprise.” He’s
not a bad person, but on the first day of his life, Billy finds himself on his
grandfather’s porch step where he was left by an unknown mother for unknown
reasons.
The only clue to the infant’s identity is a note reading, “Eddie’s
bastard,” meaning Eddie Mann, recently killed in Vietnam. As a result, the
task of raising Billy falls to his grandfather, the alcoholic but well-meaning
Thomas Mann.
Sound depressing? It’s not. That’s the thing about Kowalski’s writing that
has impressed so many readers. No matter how bad it gets, the characters don’t
fall into self-pity. They keep trying to dig themselves out until they finally
succeed.
“I wasn’t interested in writing a dark and gloomy book,” Kowalski said.
“I wanted to write something that would make people feel better. Modern
literature is calculated to disgust and horrify people, but I don’t feel
that’s not the most positive or helpful kind of writing.”
Even Billy’s lifelong infatuation with his mysterious neighbor, Annie – who
lives in a dark and abusive home – somehow sidesteps moroseness to produce
hope. And in the end, Billy himself rises from the ashes of his scorched
childhood to finally take his place as a Mann – and a man.
Copies of “Eddie’s Bastard” will be on sale during Kowalski’s appearance
in Kingston on March 14.
Look for Kowalski’s much-anticipated sequel to “Eddie’s Bastard,” titled
“Somewhere South of Here,” on bookshelves in April.