Year 3 - Day 191 - July 9

This book made my brain hurt. I can't tell if it's written really well, or if it's just ridiculous. Perhaps if I didn't go in thinking it was merely going to be the historical fiction genre, I would have fared better. By the time I finished it, I was willing to admit that it was interesting but when we lept from historical fiction to sci-fi I was really annoyed and put the book down for quite awhile.

The original setting is just before and after the stock market crash. The boy lives alone with his father and they have an extensive train set in their basement. After the bank forecloses on their house, the dad goes went to California to find work and leaves the son with his aunt and cousin. A variety of realistic things happen until the boy finds himself in the middle of a bank hold-up. That's when all realism goes out the window. Somehow, (and I read the few page event several times without clearing up my confusion until later when I realized that I was SUPPOSED to be confused,) the boy winds up on a train bound for California. But when he gets there, it's 10 years later. What?!?!

By the end, I was willing to concede that it was just a "Back to the Future" story, with time jumps back and forth, but my brain still hurts.