Book review: Dream Chaser by Pat Spears. Twisted Road Publications, 2014
Jesse is a loser. He’s lost his job, he’s lost his wife. If there’s a bad choice to make, he’ll make it; if he makes a promise, he’ll break it. He fights with the bottle to drown his rage and grief, and often the bottle wins. He is a man made of regrets. Yet novelist Pat Spears makes us care about him and root for him in his clumsy attempts to hold it all together. You won’t find Dream Chaser shelved with the suspense novels, but over and over things go wrong, and we ache for them to come out right.
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Jesse’s wife finally gave up and left him, seeking a better life, and so he temporarily has custody of Cole, Katie, and Sky. Cole, 16, is in jail. Katie, 11, bright and furious, looks out for Sky, 4, who is seemingly autistic, and doesn’t speak. Fortunately, Jesse has allies – his best friends Clyde and Marlene. Dee and Susan next door help out too. These friends buy groceries, cook many meals, and often look after the kids. Trudy, who takes care of Sky during the day, is a warm and encouraging helper. Even Buddy the sheriff is on Jesse’s side.
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Set in the Florida panhandle, the story is about Jesse’s struggle to take care of his family. He finds a night-shift job loading trucks, which means Cole, released on probation to Jesse’s custody after six weeks in detention, is charged with looking out for the girls, and getting them off to school. Jesse has to learn how to deal with everything the children’s mother had always handled.
Most important, the story is about his efforts to gain their trust. He loves them, and though the two older children blame him for their mother’s abandonment, they love him. But in his desperate love for them, he keeps making and breaking promises. The only thing Cole and Katie can count on is Jesse screwing up.
Then he makes the stupidest promise of all. Knowing nothing about horses, much less wild horses, he buys an abused mustang mare for Katie’s birthday. It promptly escapes the ill-built corral and disappears into the woods. And Jesse promises Katie he will bring it back.
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Spears’ writing is lyrical, never intrusive. Fireflies “sprinkle soft light across the back yard.” At dawn, “the faintest edge of day cuts a deep purple scar on the distant horizon.” Spears brings us the shabbiness and quiet beauty of rural north Florida.
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She shows us decent people living hard-scrabble lives, looking out for each other, dealing with the systems – the school, the court – that have so much power over them, and give them so little respect. Jesse carefully irons his best pants to wear to court, and smells the just-ironed Sunday best of all the moms and grandmas waiting to learn the fates of their children.
Spears shows us a world unknown to many readers, but more than that, she’s created almost a dozen characters who are entirely real. Even those who appear briefly, such as the weary and dedicated veterinarian, come to life. She understands the meaning of community, and the twisting complexity of relationships – of friendship, marriage, and above all parent and child. We watch Jesse’s halting, stumbling progress, and cheer for him and his kids.
Dream Chaser is compassionate, profound and moving, a completely satisfying book.