The Ha-Ha

I kept waiting for this book to veer into mawkishness, and it is to Dave King's enormous credit that he managed to avoid this particular trap. For a first novel, this is pretty impressive, and I will definitely be on the lookout for further work by this author. Not a perfect book by any means, but a......more

I picked this up as a harcover on sale for 5 bucks, read the flap and thought, ok, this might work... Wow. It is such a great story written in such an easy, down to earth, everyman (but not, as youll soon see) tone.... The main character had severe head trama in the war at a young age, came home, had......more

Although the title might lead one to think that it's funny, this book was described to me as "depressing." In fact, the title refers to a type of hidden retaining wall, rather than laughter. Either way, though, I wouldn't describe the book as depressing myself, aside from the steep slide downward to......more

I'm giving this a 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars. It was different than what I was expecting, but I still liked it a lot. It is about Howie, who suffers a brain injury in the Viet Nam war. Thereafter, he cannot speak, read, or write, though there is nothing else wrong with him. He can only communicate thr......more

This story deals with difficult issues in a very believable manner. I felt as though every character played his/her part well, from the 9 yr. old, to the former jock 20 somethings to the drug addict mom and the main character Vietnam vet, head-injury Howard. King was into Howard's head and I could f......more