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| How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets | 
 enlarge | Author: Garth Stein
Publisher: Soho Press
Category: Book
List Price: $13.00
Buy New: $7.77
You Save: $5.23 (40%)
New (19) Used (8) from $7.77
Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 80967
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 1569474982
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781569474983
ASIN: 1569474982
Publication Date: May 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20080826160700T
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Product Description
"Funny, bewitching, observant."-The Oregonian "Hits all the frets of a powerful story: sharp-witted dialogue, vivid characters, insight into medical challenges and prose that snaps like well-placed plucks of guitar strings. . . . I hold up my lighter and turn it full-flame for [Garth] Stein's latest work. Encore!"-The Seattle Times "Compelling."-Seattle Post-Intelligencer "Stein handles the many narrative elements deftly."-Seattle Weekly "An engrossing family drama."-Publishers Weekly Evan had a hit single, but that was ten years ago. Thirty-one now, he's drifting, playing in a local band and teaching middle-aged men to coax music from an electric guitar. Beset at a young age with a life-threatening form of epilepsy, he's kept his condition a secret. But his deepest secret is that he got his high school sweetheart pregnant. Then her conservative parents whisked her out of Seattle and out of Evan's life. Now, fourteen years later, he experiences unplanned parenthood when he undertakes to raise the resentful teenage son he's never known. Off beat and disarming, How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets portrays a contemporary American family with unfailing honesty. Garth Stein, a former documentary filmmaker, was co-producer of an Academy Award-winning short film. How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets is his second novel; his first, Raven Stole the Moon, was published by Pocket Books. His third novel, The Art of Racing in the Rain, will be published by HarperCollins in 2008 and is being translated around the world. He lives in Seattle with his wife and children.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
Wow. Unusual subject hits hard. August 15, 2006
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
Epilepsy has rarely been examined in fiction.
In How Even Broke his Head and Other Stories, Garth Stein puts an end to the silence.
With cool and measured precision, he introduces us to Evan Wallace, epileptic, and then forces us to watch Evan's ever-so-slow drift toward the inevitable seizure. Along the way, somehow, we find ourselves hoping Evan's efforts to ward it off, control his grip on consciousness, will succeed because at stake is the love of his son - a son he's only just learned exists.
Stein's depiction of their coming together is real, raw, gritty. Both father and boy are flawed. They feel their way, just like all of us.
The struggle begins the day they meet, and for Evan becomes his first real attempt to come to terms with the disorder that until now has ruled his existence.
Garth Stein knows this subject. His PBS documentary "When Your Head's Not a Head, It's a Nut?" is the story of his sister's preparations for surgery aimed at relieving her epilepsy. You owe yourself this read. It'll grow your head.
Art Tirrell - author of The Secret Ever Keeps - March 2007 from Kunati Book Publishers.
Character builder August 16, 2006
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
Nobody builds a character like Garth Stein. Evan and Dean are real without being overdrawn, instantly likeable without being cloying or cute. Best of all this story of a relationship never turns the reader off with simple-minded parenting pap. This is the real deal between two imperfect people and all of us imperfect people should be able to relate.
Stein is also an excellent scene-builder. The depictions of the pop music scene in Seattle is instantly believeable-the reader feels like an insider immediately. The depictions of living with epilepsy were a revelation and very moving. I'm surprised, having read this book, that its inherent drama hasn't been used in fiction more often.
Lynn Hoffman, author of The New Short Course in Wine
Don't hesitate. Read it. July 6, 2005
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I was a little hesitant about this book. It sounded compelling, but the reviews made it sound a little scattered- it's about a guy, and his kid and a band and epilepsy...and, and. But it's not like that at all. It's a peek into someone's very complicated life. Sure, it's about a guy and this kid and a band and epilepsy-- but Stein writes in a way that makes us care and feel involved without manipulating our emotions.
It seemed so real. The characters in EVAN have conversations that don't go quite right. They suffer from jumbled and conflicting memories. Evan is cool, he's a hot guitarist, but that doesn't mean he can help behaving like a dweeb now and then.
What I liked the most was how Stein didn't let Evan get too caught up in his own pity party. His life became difficult and he had reason to wallow now and then, but Stein didn't baby him. He made it clear that Evan wasn't the only guy in the world with problems, that once Evan looked up and out of his insular bubble of emotions, he would be slapped with the reality that the world ain't always about YOU. If you ask me, that is what this book is really about.
I was concerned that this book might be an agonizing excersize in self realization. Instead, it was an enjoyable peek into a life very dissimilar to my own. Like Nick Hornby's books, it was a thoughtful and enjoyable journey. And isn't that what fiction is all about?
Don't hesitate. Read it!
 How Evan finally grows up April 26, 2006
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Imagine meeting your teenage son for the first time at the funeral of his mother who happened to be your highschool girlfriend. That's where our story begins and for the most part this novel is a thoroughly enjoyable read. Evan is a bit of a "lost soul". A thirtysomething guy whose world revolves around his hope to recreate his one-time success as a lead guitarist in a rock band. Evan also happens to be an epileptic and his life is constantly controlled by the inevitable "next seizure". The fact that Evan has now become an instant father to a grief struck teenager is definatly not in his long-term plan.
The author nails the characters of Evan and his son Dean perfectly. I was totally convinced by Evan's frustrations and Dean's adolescence angst. My only criticism would be that some of the secondary characters, especially Evan's "girlfriend" Mica just didn't work for me. Her words and actions seemed frankly laughable given that she and Evan had only just begun a relationship...the two of them together often felt strange and forced. That issue aside, this is an enjoyable novel about finding oneself in some unlikely ways. Check it out.
Woo! Stein hits one out of the park. August 31, 2005
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I adored this book, mainly because Evan represents someone that we all know: a sweet but misguided thirty-something dude who hasn't grown up, and is squandering his talents in a way that frustrates everyone around him. The author weaves this character into an amazing story that was enjoyable to read, incredibly compelling, and packed with fully developed, diverse characters. It was also fun to read so much about Seattle - I felt as though the city was another well-drawn character.
I've read that Stein has been compared to Nick Hornby, but I gots to tell y'all that I think he is better. I'm trying to decide between Hornby's new one and Raven Stole the Moon, an I think Raven will be next up.
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