A Streak of Luck

By Richelle Kosar

At forty-odd years of age, Mona is a waitress in a pizza joint. The mother of two daughters, she is married to an out-of-work labourer who still whiles his days away remembering when he was the lead... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1896951473
• ISBN13: 9781896951478
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Cormorant Books
• Length: 1 Pages
• Weight: 0.79 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.8" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Characters that stay with you

I found this book while browsing in a bookstore, while on vacation in Ottawa, Ontario. The book's local color for rural, then urban Canada adds to the interest.Since there is no book description on this page, I'll describe the book first: Mona and Jesse, and their teenage daughters Rebecca and Cory, live in a shabby Toronto apartment. Mona is a waitress in a pizza restauant, Rebecca sells clothes in a dress shop and dates a wealthy man, Cory is assigned to a school drama project with the class geek, and Jesse is a songwriter and musician who won't compromise his originality to please an audience.As Mona and Jesse discover that they have a winning lottery ticket, worth several million dollars, Mona reviews the events of her life, including her romance with Jesse, the children that totally changed her life but not Jesse's, family tragedy, struggles for survival, and loyalty.The story is told by narratives from Mona, Rebecca, and Cory; Jesse's point of view is given in the form of song lyrics. The characters are completely real, and the reader comes to like them and care deeply about them. Having recently finished the book, I miss them all; I almost wish I could go and visit them, and find out how they're doing now.I've never played the lottery, but the book is an interesting portrayal of the associated hopes and desperation. I found myself feeling an interesting mix of reactions to the family's new-found fortune. I wanted something good to happen to these folks, but on the other hand, they become so smug that I sometimes resented them. They acted too much as if they had earned the money through their wits and hard work, rather than a sudden stroke of luck.I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys reading about people and relationships. It's also a very good story, and well told.If you don't want to know the ending, please stop reading this now, because I need to raise a question that will give away the ending. I am hoping that someone else has read the book and can answer a question for me - how did they end up with a list of winning numbers, rather than a ticket? Doesn't Jesse tell Mona that he had picked the numbers himself? Was that just bravado on his part? Didn't he buy the ticket before the drawing? I'm not sure if there's an inconsistency in the story, (maybe the author had to find a way to make them lose, and got a little sloppy about it,) or if I'm missing something. I'd appreciate any additional insights!