An Everyday Savior: A Novel

By Kathryn Larrabee

Harley Cookson is a good, kindhearted man living in rural New York state. Determined to keep his ailing mother out of a nursing home, he brings her into the house he shares with his new wife. A chance encounter with his high school sweetheart, Lynette, threatens to upset this tenuous domestic balance. Suspecting that Lynette is a victim of abuse, Harley becomes determined to protect her. But when Lynette's husband dies in an apparently freak accident, small-town suspicion is raised, and Harley must confront the possibility that his attempt to save her has put them both, and his marriage, in jeopardy. With this unadorned tale of a man struggling valiantly with a past that he can neither recapture nor fully escape, Kathryn Larrabee, winner of the distinguished Hopwood Award for creating writing, has created a moving debut novel.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1568582250
• ISBN13: 9781568582252
• Release Date: May 2002
• Publisher: Four Walls Eight Windows
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 1.5" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Modern Man Struggling to be a Hero

A charmingly simple story with complex layers. The male point of view is refreshing and captivating. I loved the descriptions of the rural settings and the relationship between Harley and Sonia. Sonia prompted her husband to do the right thing even when that action might be against her interests. I especially found the ending provocative; who are the saviors in our lives?

Loved it!

I'm not much of a fiction fan, but I may be a convert after reading An Everyday Savior, by K. Larrabee! I fell in love with the characters, and found myself, at the end of the book, having the same pit-of-the-stomach feeling we all get when we watch loved ones drive away after a lovely bonding time together.The characters quickly became REAL to me, and their feelings/realities so deftly described by Ms Larrabee that I found myself fully understanding and empathizing with situations that are, personally, foreign to me! This is surely the mark of a talented writer.

Sure-handed writing and vivid characters

In the Instant Age, with so many throwaway books published by the truckload, it's a breath of fresh air to read a book by an author so loving in her craft, sculpting each page, each paragraph, each sentence, with so much thought and awareness. When Harley Cookson's mother is forced to move in with him and his new wife, our protagonist also must face the ghosts of his past: particularly the ghost of a former girlfriend, whom he believes is being physically abused by her husband. Shifting deftly between the present-day and carefully-chosen flashbacks, AN EVERYDAY SAVIOR is really a book about all of us -- our memories, our regrets, our triumphs, our losses. It's the kind of book that makes us remember what we love about reading. Kathryn Larrabee is a writer to watch. I look forward to reading many more of her books in the future!

An easy read with something to say

The characters in Ms Larrabee's book are so real they breathe right on the page. This book has humor, tension, and a real move along story. My favorite character was Harley's mother. She's coping with old age and dependence but she's not a stereotype. She's a real person with pride, humor, frustration etc.The best thing about this book is that it deals with a modern day man trying to do the right thing...trying to take care of the women he loves. Sometimes he's clueless but he keeps trying and the reader just has to root for him.

Number one for my summer reading list

After reading An Everyday Savior, I feel like I have just made four new friends, Harley Cookson, his wife Sonia, his old girlfriend, Lynette, and his mother Margaret. Harley feels tremendous obligations to each of these women, and it would be humanely impossible to care for all of them in the way that Harley perceives as necessary. As I got to know each character, I felt that I knew the intimacies, human weaknesses, and personal traits of these people better than I know many of the real people in my own life. Kathryn Larrabee has a real talent for making her characters live on each page. As their lives unfolded, and Harley was faced with some difficult decisions, I stayed up into the night reading fervently, unable to put the book down. This book is number one for my summer reading list.