Description

Raised by slum-dwelling alcoholics, an autistic teen struggles to complete college and woo a handicapped girl—with bittersweet results.

Eye of a Fly is a novel of tragedy and redemption with a cast of characters that includes:

• Ernest Wentworth, a profoundly introverted boy who inhabits a world of mathematics and music.
• Tiffany, his innocent younger sister whose friends practice voodoo.
• Warren, Ernest’s talented but learning-disabled younger brother whose suicide triggers the novel’s finale.
• Harry, Ernest’s father. A former Hollywood screen writer, he has always dreamed of drinking hard, seeing the world, and writing like Hemingway — but only succeeded at the first.
• Annie, a brain-damaged but radiant girl with a tragic past who draws Ernest out of his shell.

Reviews

• JD Salinger for the New Millenium. A brutal delight written with the compassion and wisdom of the greats, Eye of a Fly by Justin R Smith is one of my favorite books by a living author.
  Full Review

• This brutally honest autobiographical piece about a deeply dysfunctional family is very similar to The Glass Castle. The domineering and rather strange father lays waste to all about him with reckless abandon. Still, there is a redemptive quality to the work which ends on a hopeful note. As New York can redeem itself, change, so can individuals. Loved it!
  —Hillary Ward

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