Ponder: Lost Boy Found

I bought Lost Boy Found ©2020 by Kirsten Alexander off the sale book table at Costco. Costco's business philosophy is to have fewer selections since people are more inclined to commit to a purchase if they are not overwhelmed with too many choices. My logic is that Costco wants customers to buy, so they will down select to carry what is known to be good or popular. Good is pretty reliable trait. Popular means a lot of people like it and the majority of people cannot be wrong most of the time. This is kind of an anemic logic, but for the most part it has worked for me – until now. My selection method was an incredible failure for this book. Lost Boy Found was terrible! I rate it one star which in my rating system translates as "Awful but I read most or maybe even all of it." I regrettably wasted my time reading all of it, hoping in vain for redemption in the end.

Yes, in a way I am throwing good money after bad, by investing more time in writing this review but putting my thoughts in words is a helpful way for me to purge my disgust with this distasteful story and ill-paced book. First, I found the creativity of the author sorely lacking. The plot line is not original. The opening paragraph in the book is the author's note which reads

Lost Boy Found is a work of fiction. Every character, conversation and event as described here is imagined. There is a town called Opelousas and a body of water called  Half Moon Lake in Louisiana, but neither of these places bears any resemblance or geographical relationship to my fictional version of them. And while some of the historical moments mentioned in the novel did happen, I am neither an academic nor a reporter, so I would urge readers not to rely on Lost Boy Found as an accurate telling of history.

The author does go on to cite the Bobby Dunbar story as the source of her inspiration and she gives credit and reference to other more historical accurate non-fiction works on the event. The story line very closely follows the 1912 lost child news story of Bobby Dunbar, summarized in the  Wikipedia link Disappearance of Bobby Dunbar

Bobby Dunbar was an American boy whose disappearance at the age of four [from Louisiana] and apparent return was widely reported in newspapers across the United States in 1912 and 1913. After an eight-month nationwide search, investigators believed that they had found the child in Mississippi.

The front cover's allusion to the story being based on a true-life event was enticing but it was the back cover that drew me in to purchase this book. I was expecting a heart wrenching account of  "two grieving mothers". Instead I found two women who were duped and manipulated by males in the story.  The time period remained around 1913 so the view of women and negroes and servants was pretty biased and bleak. Even so, the author did a poor job of conveying the mothers' anguish. Of course the women were sad but the focus was more on their helplessness and lack of power, which although it angered me, it distracted from drawing me in sympathetically.

The pace of the book was slow, the first two thirds dragged on during fruitless searches for four-year old Sonny Davenport, youngest of three boys of the wealthy and influential John Henry and Mary Davenport. A boy is "found" but is he Sonny? The author tritely writes the character of the found boy to be mute so his voice in the issue remains unheard – in my opinion also a convenient avoidance mechanism for the author. The book became a bit of a page turner only during the Judgment and Trial parts near the end. It is quite telling that Judgement precedes Trial.

PART ONE: Lost (chapters1-5)

PART TWO: Tracking and Endurance (chapters 6-13)

PART THREE: Found (chapters 14-31)

PART FOUR: Judgment (chapters 32-37)

PART FIVE: The Trial - (chapters 39-41)

But the trial is not over parentage of a "found"  boy, whether he is Sonny Davenport or Ned Mill. It is about the guilt or innocence of a tramp found with a boy in his company and if said child had been kidnapped. There is blatant lying in the trial. When the jury delivers its verdict to the judge, he ushers them back into chambers and instructs them on why their verdict is wrong and they must change it. There is tampering and omission of any evidence that could indicate that the child might not be Sonny. The lawyers and judge are crooked and manipulative. Truth appears to have been banished from the courtroom.

Characters notion of "love " and "family" were warped. In the immediate aftermath of the youngest boy Sonny disappearing while in the company of seven year old George and six year old Paul, the story Paul relates to George is kind of chilling and hard for me to dismiss as "boys will be boys".

[Paul] "I told him he wasn't our brother, That we were only letting him stay till his real family came back from a war. And then he'd have to go live with them in the North and we'd never see him again and good riddance because I was sick of him following me around like a bad smell."

[George]  "What war?"
[Paul] "I made that up"

[George] "You made all of it up." George punched his brother in the arm. "Idiot."

[Paul] "I didn't know he'd run off forever." Paul's eye filled with tears. "Do you think he's okay?"

[George] "No. He can't even buckle his shoes." George stood up. "I'm telling Pa."

[Paul] "Don't! It won't make a difference."

George figured this was probably true. The adults would search for Sonny until they found him, no matter what Paul had said. And if Paul admitted he's scared Sonny, he'd be made to sit alone and think about what he'd done, banned from playing games, and George would be left with nothing to do. That wouldn't be fair.

Spoiler alerts? How can you spoil something that is already rotten? The plot stays aligned with the outcome of the real case of Bobby Dunbar so there are no surprises there. When wealth and influence win out over human decency the "found" boy remains with the Davenports - not his true mother. The further despicable nature of the father John Henry and warped family values is confirmed in this exchange.

John Henry Crouched down and, eyes on the boy, explained some of what had happened in court. "So you are officially part of our family. The smartest men of Opelousas have decided. And do you know why?" He took a deep breath and softened his voice. "Because she doesn't want you."...The boy remained silent so John Henry continued. "The woman who used to be your mother doesn't want you. But we do. Stop crying now. You have a fine home, brothers, and the chance of a bright future". He stood. "From now on, there'll be no secret scheming, no running away. There's no place for you to run where you'd be welcome. This is where you live."

Why was my disdain for this book so high? I think it hit some raw nerves due to current events and the last four political years. The Black Lives Matter Movement was clearly violated in treatment of servants (black and white) while devaluing and dismissing what they said. In a restaurant at one point the sheriff was amazed that Beethoven was being played on a piano by a negro! The court scene with its shenanigans, jury tampering, and omission of evidence so echoed the first  impeachment trial of our 45th president. A newspaper reporter throughout the story cared only for his own career advancement and ignored revealing the truth. This echoed so much with the false accusations that "fake news" belied the facts instead of reporting them accurately. The Davenports reminded me of the dysfunctional first family of the last administration. The Davenports insisting this child was theirs – when in reality they knew he was not – is the equivalent of stating the coronavirus is a hoax.

Kirsten Alexander's Amazon page describes Lost Boy Found "Perfect for fans of the NYT bestseller Sold on a Monday". Not so. This statement is misleading. I thoroughly enjoyed Sold on a Monday and highly rated it 5 stars in my review post dated 2/7/20. In Sold on a Monday, people in dire straights do their best to do what is right. The result may be sad but motives and goals were up-lifting and loving. By contrast, in Lost Boy Found, wealthy people do whatever suits their needs be it illegal, immoral, racist, prejudicial or downright inhumane.  Power and prestige is their objective, ostensibly disguising it in a contrived display of motherly and marital love. 

I like to optimistically believe that "Cheaters never prosper" but Lost Boy Found disappointingly demonstrated otherwise. This long winded one star review allowed me to release some of the pent up ire out of my system.