Customer Reviews

The Baker's Boy: A Novel

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This book is wonderful! I could not put it down! The writing is excellent. The story is smart and compelling. Well, the stories, really. There are many stories and there is one story. Like the summary says, there's the story of Tanner Johnson in Middle Tennessee, trying hard to avoid wondering whether or not he should straighten his life out, and there's the story of Tanner Johnson in Belize, trying hard to avoid wondering whether or not he should straighten his life out. Within these larger arcs are small moments of Tanner falling in love, learning how to be a teacher, being told by a beautiful woman that there are enough boys in the world and he should learn to be a man. You will laugh out loud. You will feel like you're going to cry, and then you might cry. You will want the story to keep going, want Tanner to keep talking because what he does best is tell a story, though he always doubts whether he's telling it right. And that's another story. The story about doubt and how it doesn't go away. How you have to feel it and be good anyway.

I was in the Peace Corps-Belize with Barry Kitterman. He completely captures the experience .... and the pain, anguish, remorse .... and good stuff we all left with when we went home in yhr 70's and tried to adjust to "real life." I was captivated by this book from beginning to end.

Kitterman has written a character in Tanner Johnson that is very much like a real person - frustratingly real. There are many times throughout this book that I wanted to give him a stern talking-to at the least - and maybe shake him by the shoulders until he'd come to his senses.
Circumstances in the story finally force him to wake up to his grandiosity and self-absorption. Gluttonous in his misery and confusion, Tanner is so locked in his past that he seems almost wholly unable to relate to people in the present.
Kitterman has written a rambling story that bounces back and forth from the present to the past as quickly and erratically as Tanner's ability to stay in the present is easily distracted into fond reminiscing or dreaded remembrance.
Overall this is a book that's hard to put down after the first few chapters have been absorbed - and one that gets under your skin as the tension builds. I won't say more because I don't want to give away too much - but enjoy the read!

I can't get these characters off my mind: Tanner, the bakery worker, who struggles to come to terms with frailties and his humanity; Albert and Junie, the boys of Belize, lost and forgotten, who need more from Tanner than he can give; Price and Ellie, the Peace Corps workers, trying deperately to do good in an indifferent world; Katherine and Stacen, the strong women who generously give Tanner space (and reason) to confront his demons. This book will take you on an emotional journey and, just when you least expect it, make you laugh out loud at some wry observation or incongruous event. In short, it's a wonderful read.

I was with Barry in the Peace Corps from 1976 to 1978. I visited him and the boys at Listowell (called New Hope, in the book) many times. I gave several classes about insects to the boys. The stories Barry told about the boys, were riveting and over the years since, I have often thought of the boys and the futility of their futures. These boys had a tall fence to climb, just to get to any kind of life that we might call "normal".

Since, we left Belize, I completely lost touch with Barry but never forgot him. Barry is one of the most decent people that I ever had the pleasure of knowing. We were good friends but never best friends. His world at the boy's school was two miles and light years from mine at Central Farm, the country's agriculture research station. In my observation and estimation, Barry was the most positive influence those boys may well have ever had in their lives. His general description of life at "New Hope" is dead on, and if you aren't touched down deep by the plight of these boys, I don't think anything will reach you.

It was by the dumbest of luck that I stumbled onto this book. I never read these kind of stories. Generally, my tastes run in a different direction..... I never guessed that an author was hiding in Barry, much less a darn good one. The lead character of this story, Tanner, is nothing like Barry. For me, who knows Barry, the first person narrative threw me off at first, but once I separated Tanner from Barry, the story flowed. Barry has a simple style of story telling that doesn't require constant consultation in a dictionary or thesaurus. The narrative is almost conversational with the quirkiness of a wry story teller. It hooked me. There were places where I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.

I confess that I didn't find Tanner to be a sympathetic character, even as I was pulled into his story and life. Stacen (you'll just have to read the book to understand her)voiced how I felt about Tanner and like Stacen, I was pulling for Tanner to find himself and redemption. But no cheap ending here. Barry makes you think about Tanner and the lost boys of Belize, long after you have closed the book and put it back on the night stand.

I highly recommend The Baker's Boy to anyone who likes stories about self discovery. To anyone who wonders about life in the Peace Corps. To anyone who is brave enough to look into the uncomfortable shadows where society hides the things and people it doesn't know how or have the resources to help. To anyone who likes these things wrapped up in a well told, compelling story.