Author: Erin O’Brian

ISBN: 1-55410-270-7

The following review was contributed by: Jennifer Murray Somerset:  Click Here To Read Jennifer's  Reviews: 

In Erin O’Brien’s novel, Harvey & Eck, the story is told in a series of letters that are written over the time span of a year and a half. We open with Harvest Moon, Harvey for short, randomly selecting someone {a Timothy J. Ecklenburg, Eck for short, to be exact} to tell her story with deep secrets to. We find out that Harvey is pregnant, recently dumped by her married lover who gave her the excitement that she felt her “bread and butter” husband didn’t. Through the course of mending her wounds and growing comfortable and excited about her impending motherhood via her letters to Eck, Eck himself finds the courage his life has been lacking and begins a metamorphous of his own. Since Eck has no way of responding to Harvey directly, he, being the diligently responsible individual, responds to them nevertheless with hopes of someday finding and sharing them with Harvey.

I enjoyed the pacing of O’Brien’s story. Rather than build up to the crisis – in this case the unforeseen pregnancy – we start with the dilemma and then methodically progress to a resolution of acceptance. We not only have the character who has an internal resolution to arrive at, but we also have a character who gains courage and determination from vicariously being a part of that resolution in order to finally experience the life he’s been avoiding living.

I will admit that I have always been particularly fond of the “letters” form of storytelling. You get to be a part of the growth of the characters through snip-its of their lives without the potential of being bogged down during the lull in-between. Or worse yet, feel as if things are rushed and glossed over in the attempt to move on to a more “exciting” part of the story.

O’Brian, I felt, did a good job of creating a complexity in her two main characters. I found myself annoyed in the beginning with Harvey’s “poor pitiful me” ruminations but then excited for her as the birth of her child got closer and closer and she realized that “mommy” didn’t have to change who she was before. I also found myself laughing out loud over the recounting of Eck’s story of his first step to experiencing life again that involved the lunch cart outside the library where he worked and the reaction to his co-workers to this initial step of change. I find author’s to characters a seamless fit.