Life has always been hard for Harley Altmeyer, the protagonist and narrator of Tawni O'Dell's Back Roads, but never harder than since his mother went to prison for murdering his father, leaving him alone to care for his three sisters. Working two jobs in a rural Pennsylvania community that's reluctant to forget his family's past, Altmeyer struggles to make ends meet, serving as the head of his household while turning over nagging questions about his father's murder and postponing his inevitable breakdown as long as possible. Sacrificing his own needs at every turn, Altmeyer eventually finds his desires overtaking him as a friendship with a local housewife turns into something more intimate. O'Dell's subject matter may be a little overly familiar, as are the twists and turns of her melodramatic plot, but there's a deftness to the way she handles things—she shifts perceptions of characters and events as the story progresses—that keeps her novel interesting, making it seem far fresher than it could have. Much of this can be credited to the way O'Dell draws the central character: A thoroughly developed backwoods Holden Caulfield who may be on the verge of becoming a rural Travis Bickle, but whose inherent goodness remains close to the surface at all times, Altmeyer and his infinitely sad voice make Back Roads a memorable debut.
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