Paper Hearts

This is Debrah Williamson's second novel, the first being SINGING WITH THE TOP DOWN which this reviewer thought was wonderful! PAPER HEARTS is nearly as beautifully written, if not better. Chancy Deel is a fifteen-year-old runaway, but technically no one really is looking for her. She only has one blood relative, and it is her mother who has never treated her with love or kindness. Chancy knows her mother will never miss her. She wants to stay as far away from her mother as possible, and also stay out of foster homes. To do that she needs to keep her whereabouts secret, and never stay in one place for very long.

She has found her way to a small town called Wenonah, Oklahoma, and is down to her last few dollars. Her first meal in a long time is at a diner, where she meets a woman that will eventually become a good friend, Corliss. Chancy thanks Corliss for the generously sized meal by leaving behind a paper heart, a habit she’s gotten into and has left paper hearts wherever a kindness has been done for her.

Chancy encounters another member of this town, old Max Boyle, and his old dog Alfie. She's trying to sleep on a park bench when she meets Max, who sits with her and strikes up a conversation. She has her guard up, but Max manages to get her to talk to him. She thinks this is the last time she’ll see him, but it is fate that brings Chancy to Max again. Fate has led her back to this lonely old man, a man that does not have much time left to live, but may still have something left to give to Chancy, something that will help Chancy move on with her life and make something of herself.

PAPER HEARTS is a story of unconditional love that you will find in the least likely of places, and about the friendship of two highly unlikely friends. Chancy and Max were meant to meet, and the two change each other’s lives in a big way. Chancy needed a home, so Max offers it to her, but he also offers her his love and friendship in a world where Chancy has never known real love or friendship or a sense of family. Max had been mourning the loss of his beloved wife, who he still sees all around him in the dying garden she once loved and in every artifact left in the house that she had touched. He has given up on life, and had been about to end it, when young Chancy picked the lock of his house and found her way into his garage. What were the odds that she would show up the night he had decided to end his life? It was certainly fate that brought them together. As the two become closer, Max understands that time is not on their side. Chancy hopes that Max will be with her for a long time, but Max knows that soon she will be on her own again.

Besides Chancy and Max, there are others that make up the story of PAPER HEARTS. Corliss, the waitress at the diner, is a giving woman, but her heart is broken because of a son that has gotten into drugs and is often in trouble. It is her wish to have her son come home again, and to turn his life around.

One other important character, Robin, is a neighbor who slowly makes an impression on Max and becomes a friend to both him and Chancy, while her son teaches Chancy how to be a normal kid again. She’s having problems at home, but is afraid to open up to her new friends.

Because of Chancy, Max has a renewed interest in life, but she also touches everyone else she has met in this little town of Wenonah. But the biggest change she has made is in Max, who begins to accept the loss of his wife and begins to live again by telling Chancy the story of his one and only love, a woman who was such a wonderful free spirit until the very end. PAPER HEARTS is a story that I will always remember and I highly recommend.

October 2007