After reading Christmas Jars by Jason F. Wright, I vowed never to choose this author again (you can read my "scathing" review of the book here). Then, I started hearing some buzz about Wright's newest novel, Recovering Charles. My reader's brain went, "Hmmm ... Could I be missing something here?" Then, a few people (including my mom) recommended I read it. Still, I refused. When the leader of my book club (an enthusiastic Wright fan) selected it for last month's read, I realized I was done for - I stopped resisting, and read the darn thing. And guess what? Much to my surprise, it wasn't half bad.

The story stars Luke Millward, a photographer living in New York City. Luke's life is good, if a bit hollow. His career is going well, he's got a nice apartment and a beautiful best friend who would love to be more. Luke's future is almost bright enough to outshine the pain of his past. Then, he receives a phone call that brings old anguish screaming into the present: His father is missing. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Charles Millward is nowhere to be found.

Although Charles' friend, Jerome, begs Luke to come to New Orleans to search for his father, Luke hesitates. After all, they haven't spoken since the last time Charles called pleading for money. He said he'd try to quit, promised to stick with AA this time, but Luke had cut him off, told his father not to contact him again. Once a "brilliant musician," (2) who "bled his heart through [his] saxophone" (159), the old man had disintegrated into a drunken, musical failure, saddled with debt and heartbreak. He communicates with his son for one reason only: money. Now, the older man is missing, possibly dead. Luke can't quite convince himself not to care, so he heads out to New Orleans.

In the ravaged, desperate city Luke finds a refuge in Verses, the bar where Charles played saxophone to pay the rent. The Verses family - including Charles' fiancee, his musician buddies, and a pretty Tulane student - describe a Charles Luke never knew. Is it possible the old man really changed his ways? Luke ponders the question as he sifts through Katrina's detritus to find his father. Is Charles alive or dead? Will Luke get a chance to reconcile with his old man? Does he even want to? As Luke grapples with his emotions, the most compelling question emerges - Who, really, is lost, and who, truly, needs to be found? In a crumbling city, Luke must launch a desperate search to find the answers - for his father and for himself.

The kind of sentimentality that ruins Christmas Jars exists here, but it's balanced by a gritty backdrop and the raw emotion devastation usually inspires. The story's ultimately hopeful, but also painfully realistic. I found the main characters likeable (although Luke was a little cold for me), even though they could have been fleshed out more. Too many minor characters overwhelm the reader, stealing focus from the major players. I also think Wright verges on preachy when he tries to make certain points - like the fact that not all of Katrina's victims were poor and uneducated - and this also distracts from the story. Wright does deserves kudos for an unexpected, (although still somewhat predictable) ending, which made me cry despite some cheesy overtones.

All in all, though, I found Recovering Charles a compelling and inspirational read. It's a much better effort than Christmas Jars, probably because it actually required effort. Since I'm nothing if not forgiving, I even put Wright's The Wednesday Letters back on my TBR list. I'm hoping for another pleasant surprise.

Grade: B

Christmas Jars by Jason Wright is the kind of novel I hate - it's predictable, it's sappy, and it's wrapped up in a way that is completely unrealistic. In short, it's the kind of book that sacrifices good storytelling for sentimental sermonizing. In fact, I think I would have liked the book a whole lot more if Wright had written up his ideas as a personal essay instead of trying to integrate it into a fictional story.

His tale concerns Hope Jensen, a young reporter who has just lost her mother to cancer. Although Louise was not her birth mother, she discovered an infant Hope abandoned at a chicken joint and raised her as her own. Hope is devastated by her loss, a sadness that deepens as Christmas approaches. On Christmas Eve, Hope's heart cracks open a little further when she arrives home to find her apartment ransacked. What little she had of value is gone, including the $500 she had hidden in a drawer. As the police poke through the crime scene for evidence, Hope makes a discovery of her own - a brown paper sack is sitting by her front door. In it sits a glass jar filled with money; the only clue she can find are the words "Christmas Jar" painted on it in red and green letters. She can't imagine who left it at her front door or why. When she questions her neighbors, one of them points out the obvious: "Somebody was thinking of you. How lucky!" (24)

Hope's journalistic instincts kick in, and she jumps in to solve the mystery of the Christmas Jar. Searching in her newspaper's archives, she discovers a handful of letters to the editor from other jar recipients, thanking their anonymous benefactors. She rushes to interview the grateful citizens, but no one knows anything save that the jars arrived on Christmas Eve when they were in need. One lady even warns her, "This ain't about gettin' credit. This just don't belong in the papers" (31). Only one man has even a shred of information, but it turns out to be the proverbial gold mine.

Suddenly, Hope finds herself in the midst of the loving Maxwell Family, who reluctantly share the secret of the Christmas Jar tradition. Not only do they take her into their confidence, but they envelop her into the heart of their family. The only problem is they think Hope's a college student interviewing them for a research paper on small, family-operated businesses. They have no idea she's a reporter who's developing a story about their secret crusades to help people with their Christmas Jars. To get the story, which has a chance of earning a spot above the fold on the newspaper's front page (Hope's lifelong dream), she knows she may have to betray the Maxwells, whom she's come to think of as family. In the process, Hope will learn just how far-reaching the Christmas Jar tradition really is.

I actually love the idea of the Christmas Jar (I won't tell you how it works, since I hate spoilers) - I think it's sweet and fun. I just wasn't impressed with Wright's ability to describe it in a story. His writing is too generic, his characters have about as much individuality as paper dolls, and his plot is as neatly packaged as a professionally-wrapped Christmas gift. The story relies so heavily on coincidence that it's just not believable. In addition, it's so saccharine it makes my head hurt. I know the book has touched people with its message, I just wish it wasn't trying so hard to be inspirational. All the sentimentality just killed the story for me.

As much as I hate to admit it, my eyes did well up a couple times as I was reading Christmas Jars, so I guess it has some power despite all its flaws. It's a short book and one you probably won't regret reading - I'm just warning you that it's not great literature by any means. Having said that, I do want to recommend going to Jason Wright's site and reading the real stories of people who have given and received Christmas jars. If Wright needs an inspirational story, obviously all he has to do is turn to real people - in future, he should leave fiction to the pros.

Grade: C

Note: Many thanks to Shadow Mountain Publishing , who sent me this book to review.