"Twisted Tree"

Author: Kent Meyers
Genre: Western/Murder Mystery (?)
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010
Pages: 289
My Rating: Not Recommended

I need someone to explain Twisted Tree to me. Please comment below.

Synopsis (book jacket): Hayley Jo Zimmerman is gone. Taken. And the people of small-town Twisted Tree must come to terms with this terrible event—their loss, their place in it, and the secrets they all carry. In this brilliantly written novel, one girl’s story unfolds through the stories of those who knew her. Among them, a supermarket clerk recalls an encounter with a disturbingly thin Hayley Jo. An ex-priest remembers baptizing Hayley Jo and seeing her with her best friend, Laura, whose mother the priest once loved. And Laura berates herself for all the running they did, how it fed her friend’s addiction, and how there were so many secrets she didn’t see. And so, Hayley Jo’s absence recasts the lives of others and connects them, her death rooting itself into the community in astonishingly violent and tender ways. Solidly in the company of Aryn Kyle, Kent Haruf, and Peter Matthiessen, Kent Meyers is one of the best contemporary writers on the American West. Here he also takes us into the complexity of community regardless of landscape, and offers a tribute to the powerful effect one person's life can have on everyone she knew.

Review: Hmmm. Yeah. What to say about this one? I made it to about page 100 (out of a 289 page book). I hate not finishing a book. It's like the book "wins" or gets the best of me or whatever, but I'm waving the white flag. Supposedly this book is a literary masterpiece written by a literary genius, but I didn't get it. I spent 80 some pages not knowing who was speaking or what was going on. The first chapter was good. I was impressed; however, it went downhill quickly. I went online to see what others thought and someone described Twisted Tree as not so much a novel, but as a collection of short stories related to one event (the disappearance of Hayley Jo Zimmerman). That made sense to me, but didn't make it any easier to read. I read for entertainment, enjoyment, and food for thought and this book was not entertaining, not enjoyable, and offered no food for thought. If someone else were to read this (or has read it), I'd love to hear your thoughts, impressions, and what you got out of it.