Summary: After surviving a shooting at her
high school, Linnea is packed off to live with her estranged father, Art, who
doesn’t quite understand how he has suddenly become responsible for raising a
sullen adolescent girl. Art’s neighbor, Christie, is a nurse distracted by an
eccentric patient, Mrs. Foster, who has given Christie the reins to her
Humanity Project, a bizarre and well-endowed charity fund. Just as
mysteriously, no one seems to know where Conner, the Fosters’ handyman, goes
after work, but he has become the one person Linnea can confide in, perhaps because
his own home life is a war zone: his father has suffered an injury and become
addicted to painkillers. As these characters and many more hurtle toward their
fates, the Humanity Project is born: Can you indeed pay someone to be good? At
what price?
Thompson proves herself at the height of her powers in The
Humanity Project, crafting emotionally suspenseful and thoroughly
entertaining characters, in which we inevitably see ourselves. Set against the
backdrop of current events and cultural calamity, it is at once a multifaceted
ensemble drama and a deftly observant story of our twenty-first-century
society. (Summary and image taken from goodreads.com. I was provided a free copy
of the book in exchange for an honest review.)
My
Review: Two teenagers, both with
unimaginable burdens foisted upon them, both with parental figures who lean
more toward friend than father, all whose lives are intertwined with a nurse
searching for good and tranquility and her elderly patient – a chronic
do-gooder who asks a life-altering question:
can you pay someone to be good?
Ooh, my imagination ran rampant with this one! Seriously, so many good, and thought-provoking,
and heart-wrenching, and inspirational, and soul-searching stories seemed to
lay buried in such a short question.
Ultimately, this book fell victim to my
imagination. Mrs. Foster’s Humanity
Project may have linked the characters, but that seemed to be its only purpose
in the book. The question itself was never addressed, never explored. Rather it was asked once and discarded quite rapidly, to my dismay. Jean Thompson painted a
bleak portrait of humanity in this book, as though all humans really only care
about the basest of instincts; the rest of the world—or their own personal growth, for
that matter—can be hung out to dry. Her
characters’ suffering, be it physical, social, or emotional, was well
portrayed, but there was a cavernous lack of growth. It was depressing.
Honestly, this is a good “don’t be like this” kind of
book. Thompson’s characters were
miserable, truly forlorn, and their coping methods only served to further that
misery. It made me want to go do good
all over the place, just to avoid that oppressing depression that focusing
solely on yourself creates. It was a
good thing I read it on a day where I was surrounded by scores of people going
out of their way to help anyone they could!
Overall, though, it was a speedy read. I hoped for more from the characters, wished
they had had the opportunity to grow, and man, did I mourn the loss of the
question!
My
rating: Two stars.
For the
sensitive reader: There are a lot
of incidents of potty language, sexual thoughts of the characters, and a few
scenes where characters get high. I’d
definitely rate this an R.
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