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Norton's Ghost
 
 
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Norton's Ghost [Kindle Edition]

R. Canepa (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews) |
Digital List Price: $2.99 What's this?
Print List Price: $18.00
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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The death of Kyle Dearmond's estranged father sheds new light on the mother Kyle never knew. But the will and testament his father left behind raises more questions than it answers and no one seems to know the whole story.

Abandoning the life of a college student to pursue new possibilities, Kyle hits the road in search of answers and to flee the guilt that follows him.

But the life of a homeless hitchhiker is fraught with peril. Interwoven between his attempts to piece together his life and his mother's history are the trials of finding food, shelter, and safety on the road. However, teachers appear in the most unlikely of places, and not all is dark within the seedy underbelly of San Francisco when Kyle finds a surrogate family he never expected.

The search will bring either answers or disaster, for the streets hold both danger and promise. As Kyle struggles to remember his purpose, his view of what drives his life begins to change--and if he can make it to the other side of his task, he might learn to treasure what he finds.

From the Author

Shall we go for a walk?  Kyle has much to show us.

R. Canepa
(from "Notes From The Author, June 2009)
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Product Details

  • File Size: 476 KB
  • Print Length: 442 pages
  • Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
  • Publisher: Skinny Wizard Media (January 1, 2010)
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B003MNGGAU
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Lending: Enabled
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #592,892 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There's no getting around the fact that this is an educational novel, clearly intended to teach you about an issue. There's no attempt to hide this. That said, Canepa avoids lecturing. The novel isn't About Homelessness; at its core, this is an adventure story, transplanted to the modern urban landscape of freeways and gas stations and abandoned buildings. In the process, it transforms this mundane setting into an unfamiliar and often menacing place. It's a very fast-reading novel. I picked it up intending to read the first few pages, and when I put it down I was halfway through the book.

Like any adventure story, the plot is fairly straightforward and episodic, beginning with Kyle Dearmond, a college student and part-time restaurant worker, learning of his father's death. In speaking to his father's lawyer, Kyle learns that his long-dead mother may not be dead after all -- she was kidnapped when Kyle was a baby, and her body was never found. So, rather than going back to school after the funeral, Kyle sets off to find his aunt, hoping she'll help him find out more about his mother.

When his aunt refuses to help, Kyle starts hitchhiking with no real destination in mind. He soon finds himself living on the streets among the homeless of San Francisco, where he makes friends (and enemies) and learns how to survive with the contents of his backpack and the help and advice of people he meets, some helpful, some dangerous, most just trying to stay alive and sane.

Many of these people are colorful, memorable characters, most notably Gareth, the mysterious drifter who mentors Kyle; Phil, the heartbroken former lawyer; and Jackie, the adventurous Food Not Bombs volunteer, with whom Kyle has an awkward, mostly undefined relationship that rings utterly true. He also makes an enemy in Angel, a drug dealer, when he befriends Angel's abused girlfriend.

Kyle himself never quite experiences the hopelessness that many other characters do. He has a safety net, in the form of the money his father left him. I never quite forgot that all he really has to do is call up his lawyer. At times it seems unbelievable that he doesn't. It would make sense if he hated his life and school and didn't ever want to go back. But his life beforehand doesn't seem that bad; Kyle is ambivalent about college, but he doesn't despise it enough to make me believe that living on the street is preferable. By contrast, his life on the street, though he enjoys parts of it, he seems to consider mostly scary and painful. I don't quite understand why he keeps at it so long. But his eventual decision was a pleasant surprise, both unexpected and completely fitting.

The conceit is that Kyle, after all this is over, is writing his memoir. It mostly works; Canepa's writing style achieves the feel of a personal diary... if the diarist's parents were reading over his shoulder. Kyle is a little too polite to tell this story properly. Even his deepest, darkest confessions are oddly reserved. This holding-back feels a little awkward and coy in a story where some fairly dark, gritty things happen to various characters -- suicide, domestic violence, and drug addictions feature prominently in the plot. It would work if this primness had been established as an important part of the narrator's personality, but Kyle is too much of a blank slate for it to fit him 100%.

Aside from this one issue, the writing style fits the story well; the first-person narration reminded me a bit of the young-adult writer Gary Paulsen. In fact, this could easily be considered a YA novel, with its quick pace, clear writing, and naïve young protagonist, as well as its inform-while-entertaining approach. But whether you're a teen or an adult, this is a fun read that might teach you something along the way.
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Format:Paperback
I loved this book! Really makes you think about homelessness. I can't really give away my first opinion about the book, because it would spoil the ending, but I think it was just wrapped up a little too quickly and neatly.
Also, seemed like waay too many nice people on the street. TV always makes it out to be a too tough and grimy place. Guess you never know until you've been there.
I love the writing style, and how the author described the settings. Enough to get a great idea, but not too much where you get bored and skip the paragraph to get started with the story again.
Overall, GREAT book! Dealt with some great issues, Homelessness, family, God, and basic humanity.
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Format:Kindle Edition
I was lucky enough to read Norton's Ghost when it first came out. Upon picking up this book, I really didn't know what to expect. As Mr. Canepa's first novel to be released, it was like entering a new reading world... and I wasn't disappointed. This book ventures into a piece of our nation and world that is rarely touched upon, with a young man lighting out to hitch hike across California. Befriending other hitchers, and homeless, we are introduced to the world of wanderers. We meet those who choose to be homeless, those who have met hard times, and those who are dangerous. The vivid details of each experience took me into the narrator's world, and made me feel as if I were there through every bit of his adventure. One almost had to wonder if the writer himself had lead such an adventure. This was definitely an eye opening book that I could read again and again.
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More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's R Canepa Page
R Canepa
R. Canepa is a writer, musician, beginning composer, and general dabbler. Never content to stay in one place, whether physically or otherwise, he moved from California to Gainesville, FL and has been an English major, pre-medicine with emphasis on neurobiology, a middle school science teacher, and a programmer.

Once upon a time, he also wanted to be a comic book artist, a chef, a stuntman, a robotics engineer, and a pilot. He still thinks those options sound pretty good.

In his spare time, R. Canepa reads, watches movies, plays video games, and takes up way more hobbies than he could possibly have time for. Visit http://rcanepa.net for the scoop on it all.

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