Deliver Us From Evie

This book isn’t one of my favorites this semester, but I think it parallels real life well. I am only half way through at this point, so some of the things I am commenting on might have changed by the end. I really like the development of the brother/sister relationship between Parr and Evie. Even though Parr is the younger brother, he still looks out for and defends Evie, an example being when he snags the post card from the mail box and delivers it to her privately in an attempt to spare any questioning from their mother. I realize that this book takes place in a small midwestern town, and the mom is more of a city gal than a farmer’s wife, but I didn’t like the way she pressures Evie to be someone she's not. No matter what Evie does, the mother always has a suggestion as to how she could change it or do it better. The father, on the other hand, accepts Evie for who she is and is more understanding. He doesn’t ask a lot of questions and seems pretty laid back. There were a couple phrases in the book that I’d never heard before, which I assume are typical of the geographical area in which the story takes place, such as “Evie could always break him up” (35). When someone laughs hard, I’ve always heard it as “cracking up.” I also found Parr’s behavior towards girls unique. As oppose to most of the 16 year old boys I know, and have known, he’s very straight forward with both Toni (physically) and Angel (socially). That’s not to say there aren’t boys who act this way, I just found it a little different from what I’ve observed.