1859 Spring 2010

Around Oregon
notebook
1859’s Literary Cafe
BOOK REVIEW: Voracious reader and literati, Claudia Hinz, continues 1859’s
Literary Cafe with a review of Lean on Pete by Oregon writer Willy Vlautin
(below) and Curtis Sittenfeld’s American Wife online at 1859magazine.com.
Discuss these books or chat about others in 1859’s Literary Cafe.
WILLY VLAUTIN’S THIRD NOVEL is as lean and hungry as
15-year-old narrator, Charley Thompson. Charley steals cans
of SpaghettiOs and dreams of a “fridge that’s always full of
food.” In Lean on Pete (Harper Collins), the Scappoose, Oregon
author again proves skillful with a bare bones narrative,
delivering an emotional tale on the slim shoulders of a scared
teenager. Without ever naming hope, despair or love, Vlautin
powerfully evokes them all.
When his father dies after a fight with a girlfriend’s husband,
Charley is suddenly alone. He doesn’t know his mother and he
has no family in Oregon. He takes what he can carry from his
home and rolls out a sleeping bag on the floor of a tack room at
the Portland Meadows. There, he gets a job caring for quarter
horse, Lean on Pete. His boss, Del Montgomery, is abusive and
frequently neglects to give Charley enough money for food.
When Del later discovers Charley sleeping in the tack room, the
owner is more concerned about him stealing than finding out
why he can’t sleep at his own home.
Out
& About
ArtWalks
in Oregon
As the days grow
longer and the evenings
warmer, take a stroll
through downtown
streets and celebrate
local galleries, artists
and restaurants at one
of Oregon’s monthly
ArtWalks.
ASHLAND
First Friday
5-8 p.m.
AshlandGalleries.com
SEASIDE
First Saturday
5-8 p.m.
seasidechamber.com
PORTLAND
First Thursday
6-9 p.m.
firstthursdayportland.com
BEND
First Friday
5-9 p.m.
visitbend.com
LA GRANDE
Third Thursday
5-8 p.m.
541.963.5351
New
& Notable
LEAN ON PETE
A NOVEL BY WILLY VLAUTIN
“Don’t think about it,” Bonnie,
another homeless employee at
the track tells Charley. There is
so much that Charley tries not to
think about including his father’s
use of drugs, his inappropriate sexual behavior, and the
days and nights he abandoned Charley chasing drugs and
women. Lean on Pete is the only creature in Charley’s world
on whom he can depend. He spends hours whispering into
Lean on Pete’s ear, encouraging the horse to run hard and
reassuring him that everything will be fine. When Charley
learns that Lean on Pete may be sent off to a slaughter
house, he steals the horse and takes off for Wyoming, where
his aunt once lived. He has no money or supplies, but when
the trailer breaks down, Charley is determined to walk the
remaining one thousand miles on the chance that he can
find his aunt.
On the road to Boise, Charley hitches a ride with a threatening
character who asks, “Do you understand what human
kindness is?” Charley answers, “I’m not sure.” Just when the
reader is sure that Charley is the novel’s only example of “human
kindness,” Vlautin surprises us. Even in this grim landscape,
there are moments of generosity: a truck driver offers
Charley a ride and gives him food and money; and a mentally
ill man, who is a compulsive hoarder, suddenly reappears
with cheeseburgers to share.
Charley’s hunger is not just the urgent appetite of a growing
teenager, not just the hunger for a second cheeseburger or
hand-outs from the back door of a restaurant kitchen. It is a
driving hunger for safety and love. By the end of the novel, we
are relieved that Charley is at last safe and well fed, that we can
forgive Vlautin a pat ending in which we can’t help worrying
the axe may still fall. And if we are cynical, it is because we
have traveled 277 pages with Charley. We feel his vulnerability,
wariness and grief, and we can’t help looking over his shoulder.
18 1859 OREGON'S MAGAZINE SPRING 2010