Following Tommy: a novel Bob Hartley

Following Tommy

a novel

Bob Hartley

Cervena Bara Press

ISBN 978-0-9831041-8-6

2012   $17.00

“With a crooked scale and a brick stuffed in my pocket,

I weighed 135. still, I played the tough kid with my hair

slicked back and the cuffs of my razor-creased gray

baggies folded...”

In my thinking on dickens and what Dickens would be writing

today, this book by Bob Hartley, satisfies my on going quest

to visit the back streets, the needs, the resolutions from

self discovery, through persons met during needy times; how

a story may transform history into a personal telling:

“How come you care,” I said, forgetting for a second

who I was talking to, taking the chance of getting

smacked. He let out a little laugh, shook his head

and said that he had planned to do his last few months

sitting behind the wheel sucking on cigarettes and

listening to McGovern wisecrack, but then the thing

with Jerome happened and that messed up everything...

Throughout this novel the sentences connect without any glitches,

they run smoothly into each other, chapter after chapter, we

the reader are memorized by the writing as well as the story.

There are so many tucks and turns in the story that the

reader will be carried along without being able to stop

reading until they get to the end. This is a powerful first

novel by an accomplished writer:

“We drove back to the garage. Hippo was passed out

in the back seat, one arm over his eyes, the other at

his side, his head hanging over the end, his mouth

wide open, snoring. Tommy was banging away at

the mailbox with a hammer and chisel...”

Hopefully this novel will evolve into a movie. I'll be on

a front row seat eating popcorn with out any anticipation

of the end. This is a must read.

Irene Koronas

Reviewer:

Ibettson Street Press