Lottery: Patricia Wood

I found this book to be hilarious, the narrator Perry L Crandall starts the story with " I am not retarded", you have to have an IQ under 75 and he is 76. He lives with his grandmother who says hilarious things like at KFC "You'd think they raise chickens with nothing but six flappers and an ass, the way they pack those boxes". His mother raised his two brothers and only visits him occasionally. his immediate family will not claim him, his mother wants to be called by her first name and his brothers are "cousin brothers" It is interesting to see the world through Perry's eyes, his comment about Social Security was "I thought it was cool you got a prize for dying". Once his grandmothers passes away his family miraculously appears and cleans out the valuables in the house. He was listed in the Will, but they tell him to sign some paperwork and give him $500 for the sale of the house. His mother changes her phone number as soon as the house sells so he cannot contact her. He has two friends, his boss and a coworker and they make sure he is ok. He wins the lottery after getting a bill for the hospital for his grandmother and his brother forwarded him the last electric bill from the house. Once again his family shows up and wants him to sign over his money. His friends try to protect him as much as possible. He falls in love with a checkout girl at the grocery store and you just know the story is going to end sadly. The girl, Cherry, falls in love with Keith who is a friend of Perry's. In the end Perry willingly gives his lottery winnings to his family, Keith dies in a car accident, we learn Cherry was a minor when she got pregnant by Keith, and then Cherry and Perry get married and raise the baby. It was nice there was a happy ending. This was a very enjoyable book.