…parts of him are still 12 and others were already 50 when he was 12.

But as each copes with the tragedy, we are caught unaware.

Something seems off but where.

To weigh one’s life against the checklist of high culture…

…Steinbeck’s optimism shattered when he visited New Orleans and saw bigotry firsthand.

We then miss her boldness as emerging during the Dust Bowl, as a surprise, even to herself.

Dumbo, premised on this wonderful notion that difference can be magical…

Her take is modern.

The formula works!

Children crayon a truncated family.

Caught off guard, we hurriedly make up for our equivocation.

We reckon with two visions of freedom.

They are neither noble nor magisterial, neither preachers nor reformers.

…Penny puts her faith in Rosa (the duck), poems, and choices towards good.

…sings of their shadows and of her own truths of womanhood in her beautiful Blues voice.

And throughout, a growing character sketch of that whale that matters.

Some wear wigs, others feign a thuggish or rescuing look.

Where do we stumble, how do seas begin and end, what does prayer do.

We finish the novel shaken, wondering why we did not choose an earlier escape.