The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread: A Novel by Don Robertson

How great of a title is that?  And the cover?  I had little choice on whether or not this gem would make it into the basket last fall at the Border's going out of business sale.  Since then though, it had just sat on the shelf and was passed over time after time.

One day (I think it was after reading the Jacyee Duggard book) I pulled this book off the shelf and set it on my night stand.  I started to read a little before bed every night and wasn't getting very far until last week when I picked it up in the morning before Taelin got up and finished the second half really quickly.

It was first published in 1965 but had been re-released in 2008.  I gave it three out of five stars on Goodreads because I just couldn't help but LOVE the little boy in the story, Morris Bird III.


The book is mostly told from his perspective and the author does a wonderful job of making the book read just like I would think a 9 year old boy's brain would sound like.  Morris decides to take a trip across town to see a friend that had moved away and to prove something to himself.  It is set in Cleveland in 1944 which I found out was the setting for the worst industrial disasters in our country's history.  The last half of the book was heartbreaking and inspiring all at the same time as we followed little Morris through this tragedy.  I just loved this little boy and he reminded me of all those funny third graders that I had over the years.

You might have noticed, however, that I only gave it three stars.  I did like it but the writing style really started to get on my nerves.  When it was Morris that we were following the jumpy style worked because we were following a nine-year old boy, but the author could have a paragraph and actually jump around to four or five different characters within that paragraph.  It was okay at the beginning but it was hard to really keep everyone straight when you only read one sentence about them every few pages.

What it came down to is that I wanted to follow Morris.  Most of the characters did somehow come together with Morris at some point, but it was just a little too ADHD for me I guess.

Bottom line is that I am glad I read it and thought it was worth my time but I probably won't go out of my way to pick up the other two books that were written about Morris because as I read reviews about them the writing style was pretty much the same.

I did finish this a week ago and am just getting around to blogging it now mostly because once I finished I have been reading A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin every single free second I get.  In fact, I need to finish this post because I need to go to bed...and read.