Will is trying to find reason in his life. He has been trying to come up
with the recipe for cornbread that his late father always made but he
just can't get it right. Will does a lot of walking, but is he really trying to
clear his head?
Will has one close friend, Playa, who he has known since childhood.
When Playa gets raped at a party he was also attending, Will once
again tries to find answers as to why bad things keep happening to the
people in his life. No one seems to really understand what he is going
through.
One day, Will notices a small child who is always trying to catch
butterflies with his hands. He decides to by the boy a net, hoping it will
help him. And he leaves it on his doorstep. This begins a new start in
Will's life: giving small gifts to people who need them. But will this new
purpose help him overcome his own pain?
WHAT I LEAVE BEHIND is a
heartbreaking and thoughtful story by Alison McGhee. At first, I really
didn't get what this book was about, but once I did, she really made me
think about people. This is a quick read that only took me a couple of
hours. However, even though it is a quick read, WHAT I LEAVE BEHIND really has a lot of depth to it.
McGhee really made me give some deep thought into what could be
happening in other people's life. We should not judge people as we
have no clue what is really going on in their lives.
After his dad dies of suicide, Will tries to overcome his
own misery by secretly helping the people around him in this
exquisitely crafted story made up of one hundred chapters of
one hundred words each, by award-winning and bestselling
author Alison McGhee.
Sixteen-year-old Will spends most of his days the same way:
Working at the Dollar Only store, trying to replicate his
late father’s famous cornbread recipe, and walking the
streets of Los Angeles. Will started walking after his
father committed suicide, and three years later he hasn’t
stopped. But there are some places Will can’t walk by: The
blessings store with the chest of 100 Chinese blessings in
the back, the bridge on Fourth Street where his father died,
and his childhood friend Playa’s house.
When Will learns Playa was raped at a party—a party he was
at, where he saw Playa, and where he believes he could have
stopped the worst from happening if he hadn’t left early—it
spurs Will to stop being complacent in his own sadness and
do some good in the world. He begins to leave small gifts
for everyone in his life, from Superman the homeless guy he
passes on his way to work, to the Little Butterfly Dude he
walks by on the way home, to Playa herself. And it is
through those acts of kindness that Will is finally able to
push past his own trauma and truly begin to live his life
again. Oh, and discover the truth about that cornbread.
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