Summer Reading Assignment: Entry Two

I feel that the complexity of each character is brought on by their actions and feelings in the novel Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley. The main characters in Lily, Arkansas are Cullen and Gabriel Witter and their best friend Lucas Cader.  They all have one thing in common and that is what they desire. These three all desire to someday make it out of Lily and not get sucked back in by the “Black Hole of Arkansas” (aka Lily, Arkansas). For Cullen, once his younger brother randomly disappears, all that he wants is for his brother to be found and return home. He also wants the rest of the town to treat he and his family normally like they used to before Gabriel’s disappearance.  As for Lucas Cader, all here cares about is getting Gabriel back for Cullen’s sake because of the connection and close relationship that he has with his family. You see Lucas’s brother died in a car accident when he was only 12 years old, so if they lost Gabriel, Lucas would feel that he lost another brother because of how close he is to Cullen and Gabriel. For Benton Sage, I believe that the main thing that he desires is to find a way to truly do the work of God and he feels that he cannot accomplish that when he himself does not fully understand the testament of God.

The themes of this novel that are beginning to appear are resurrection and second chances. These two themes are heavily called upon throughout the novel and easily connect with each other. They connect because Lily, Arkansas is basically the town where things come back and sometimes where they get a second chance.  In the case of the Lazarus Woodpecker it becomes resurrected after thought to be extinct for sixty years in Lily, Arkansas and gets a second chance to live.

This book is structured very oddly when you first begin to read it. It starts off talking just about Lily, Arkansas through the narration of Cullen but after the first chapter, the novel shifts to the story about Benton Sage, which early on seems to have no bearing on what’s happening in Lily.  As both storylines progress, we see how the two become one.