Ona is 104 when she first meets the boy, who comes on Saturdays to work for her as part of a Boy Scout project. He fills her birdfeeders and does odd jobs around her house. She is impressed that he always shows up and does what he says he’s going to do. But then he disappears.
Three weeks later, his father, Quinn, comes over to help finish the boy’s job. He offers no explanation for the boy’s absence. He has seven more weeks of work to do for Ona, which he does competently but distractedly at first. But Ona charms him with card tricks, animal cracker treats, and honesty; the two develop a relationship that fills a need neither have had the courage to face before.
Quinn never tells Ona the boy has died; she learns through a newspaper story. The boy got up very early one morning, went on a bike ride, and his heart gave out because of long QT syndrome. But the boy, who is never named, remains ever present in this beguiling story of belonging; of memories lost then regained; and of people picking up the broken pieces of their lives and gluing them together with one another into a messy but marvelous collage.
The boy is 11, small for his age, and has no friends. He’s anxious, and counts actions, plans, and thoughts off on his fingers in groups of ten to calm himself. He is obsessed with The Guinness Book of World Records. His mother, Belle, knows he’s not like most other boys, and has sought treatment for him. Rather than seeing him as odd and labeling him as having a disorder, she sees him as one-in-a-million. The reader might conclude that he has OCD, but author Monica Wood presents him not as a diagnosis, but as a treasure.
Quinn, who is in his 40s, has made a living as a roving guitarist, always with his eye toward his big break. Several years before, he’d provided guitar backup one magical evening to musician David Crosby, who had said, “Look at this guy!” while Quinn played. He was sure Crosby saw him as a rare talent. But working through the boy’s death helps Quinn see more clearly and he realizes that he completely misunderstood Crosby‘s comment. It was a starry night, and Crosby had said, “Look at the sky!” He was in awe of nature, not Quinn. Finally, Quinn can face that he is a good, not great, guitarist and he needs to face reality and grow up.
Belle shows the grief Quinn can never face. Quinn and Belle have been married twice—they truly appear to love one another—but Quinn is just not up to marriage and fatherhood. Music is more vital to him. He has been an absent father, and Belle has had to shoulder the responsibility of raising the boy. Only after the boy dies does Quinn realize he loved him.
Throughout the book, Ona tells the story of her life through a series of interviews with the boy. When the boy learns how old she is, he begins his quest to get her into The Guinness Book of World Records. But she is not old enough, plus she doesn’t have the documents to prove her age. This sets off a quest in which Ona faces her own life while Quinn grows into his. Bit by bit, words from her native Lithuanian start coming to her, vestiges of long-buried memories of a brother, her two sons who died, and a third son who is now in his 80s. And she unearths the truth of people who loved her, disappointed her, and betrayed her.
Wood tells us the story with one exquisite scene after another falling together precisely and often unexpectedly. She breaks the narrative throughout with parts of the boy’s interview with Ona and with random snippets from The Guinness Book of World Records, both presented in lists of ten. His presence is especially palpable in these interruptions, which also serve as connections. When the boy gets to Part 10 of the interview and realizes he has more story to tell, he simply calls it “also Part Ten.”
Included in the lists of world feats: largest gathering of clowns (850); harriest family (the Gomez family of Mexico, with 98 percent body hair); fastest time nonelectric window opened by a dog (11.34 seconds); and heaviest bus pulled by hair (17,359 pounds).
Throughout the interviews, the boy searches for ways to get Ona into the Guinness book. Ona calls him “my steadfast little fellow” for his efforts. Maybe she could be the oldest person to fly in an airplane? he asks. Ona scoffs—prematurely, as it turns out. Or she could be the oldest person who still drives, a record currently held by “Fred Hale.109. Country of USA.” Ona has a car but no license, although she nevertheless drives to the store weekly. The boy sets out to help her pass her driving test. He doesn’t finish, but Quinn does.
Also making appearances are a Christian boy band and their hard-driving manager Sylvie, who offers Quinn a chance for a different life and another way of belonging; Ted Ledbetter, the upstanding Scout leader who woos Belle, gives her comfort and offers Quinn a glimpse into a responsible relationship; Ona’s first husband who wrote a song she considered a failure, but which the boy band loves and which shows he loved her; and Quinn’s local band, which consists of manager-level childhood friends who envy him while he envies them.
The ending is heartbreaking—and uplifting. While Quinn thought he and the boy never connected, the boy saw him as the one person who could bring beauty and music back into Ona’s life. And he was right, although it happened differently than he expected. His loss is tragic, but he remains alive in these beautiful, lost characters who discover themselves through one another, and create a makeshift family because of him.
He was one in a million. Maybe that should get him into The Guinness Book of World Records.
— Pat Prijatel
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