What HappenedAges: 13 and up Pages: 136 List Price: $16.95 Cover: Hardcover Published: 3/1/2007 ISBN: 1-932425-67-5 ISBN-13: 978-1-932425-67-3 |
An unnamed sixteen-year-old is the hero of this impressionistic and fragmented novel. His account of events begins on a snowy winter evening after his brother Kyle brawls with Duane over the beautiful Emily. The two high school basketball stars make apparent amends and Duane offers the brothers a ride home from this late-night party. Drunk, high, and still fuming at Kyle, Duane drives recklessly to scare his passengers. In his mindlessness, Duane hits someone on the road, then leaves Kyle, the narrator, and the body of the victim to freeze while he speeds away in his car. After the night has passed, the narrator and Kyle must face Duane's powerful father, who hopes to intimidate the brothers into silence. The man hated the boys' father when the two adults were in high school, and he hates Kyle for dating his daughter, Emily. As tension builds, the brothers learn that the abandonment by their father after their mother died is only the tip of their father's mysterious history and only a sliver of What Happened. Download a PDF copy of the reader's guide to What Happened. Awards
Reviews
"Well-written...compelling." "Johnson, a poet, writes with elegant sparseness that evokes the snowy Buffalo scene, the chill of the brothers' fears, and the bald bravado of the driver and his father. Like Robert Cormier's The Rag and Bone Shop, this story has staying power and deserves a wide readership." |
"Peter Johnson, an award-winning poet, writes with unusual grace and tenderness about kids who are troubled—and occasionally baffled—by the necessity of moral choice when their lives seem to be nothing but a “combination of catastrophes and dumb decisions.” ...The voice that Johnson has given [the narrator]—also a poet—is breathtakingly good, each word conspiring with every other word to create an irresistibly seductive tone that is a haunting combination of sadness and fragile hope. Fans of Robert Cormier will welcome this similarly satisfying invitation to reflect on religion, reality, and reasons for getting out of bed in the morning.