The word planet is derived from the Greek word for wandering
star, as the planets were seen to wander across the night sky against the
background of stationary stars. This
book opens with a character named Jude Star and then wanders on to his son
Charles and other progeny. Actually, the
book doesn’t really wander; it’s pretty sequential, but the relationships to
previous characters are a little hard to follow. Suffice it to say that alcoholism is rampant
throughout this family. Orvil eventually
becomes the main character, as he and his friend Sean wander into drug
addiction, aided and abetted by Sean’s father who makes and supplies their
drugs. All of these characters are at
least partially Native American. They
have fled massacres and survived bullet wounds and occupied Alcatraz, but the
substance abuse stories are the hardest for me to read, and they just go on for
too long.
