{"id":7578,"date":"2021-02-02T11:04:52","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T18:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?p=7578"},"modified":"2021-02-02T11:04:52","modified_gmt":"2021-02-02T18:04:52","slug":"as-good-as-can-be-by-william-a-glass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?p=7578","title":{"rendered":"As Good As Can Be by William A. Glass"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

An addictive, humorous tale about individual struggles and family drama\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glass\u2019s deft novel paints a picture of the troubled life of his young protagonist who in the face of learning disability and his father\u2019s harsh discipline develops a give-a-damn attitude and an ironic sense of humor. From a young age, the Knights know there is something wrong with their older son. It\u2019s hard to discipline Dave, and he is extremely slow when it comes to learning stuff at school except for reading. As the family moves from one military base to other, including Iran, Dave becomes immune to his father\u2019s harsh disciplinary ways who sees his son as nothing but an absolute failure. High school throws him into the company of other delinquents, and the boys more than often find themselves engaging in dangerous escapades. After graduating, Dave is drafted into army, but with his panache for getting in trouble, he finds himself on the radar of his Sergeant. Told in third-person omniscient and spanning over more than two decades, the story is strongest when it focuses on the dysfunctionality that rules the Knights lives and how it slowly affects Dave, pushing him on the edge. Glass\u2019s writing is fluid and dialogue sharp while his entertaining storytelling keep the pages turning. He slowly and tantalizingly draws out the details as Dave struggles with his father\u2019s strict discipline and his own delinquencies. The narrative detailing young Dave\u2019s struggles in school, his inability to concentrate on his studies, and his troubled relationship with his father (with his fascination for all things trouble, he finds himself facing wrath of his father more than too often) evokes sympathy. The chapters chronicling Dave\u2019s high school life and his humorous, occasionally dangerous escapades with the other boys are fun. One of the main strengths of Glass\u2019s writing is his ability to deepen the emotional complexity of each character\u2019s actions with deeply realized backstory. In narrating Dave\u2019s story, he brings out Bobby, Lieutenant Colonel Knight, and Melissa\u2019s characters to life. While failure, punishment, and disdain of his father dominate Dave\u2019s life, his own give-a-damn attitude and his ability to form a meaningful connection with others help ease the pain. The ending is heartfelt, and though the narrative detailing mundane details of Knight family\u2019s everyday life could have been shorter, readers will adore the memorable Dave and appreciate Glass\u2019s fine rendering of the Knights\u2019 dysfunctional family life. Rich with drama and intrigue, the book makes for a page-turner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Good As Can Be<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By William A. Glass<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawkeye Publishers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy now<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pub date April 14, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ISBN 9781946005342<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Price $13.50 (USD) Paperback, $25.00 Hardcover $7.79 Kindle edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An addictive, humorous tale about individual struggles and family drama\u2026 Glass\u2019s deft novel paints a picture of the troubled life of his young protagonist who in the face of learning disability and his father\u2019s harsh discipline develops a give-a-damn attitude and an ironic sense of humor. From a young age, the Knights know there is something wrong with their older son. It\u2019s hard to discipline Dave, and he is extremely slow when it comes to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145610851,"featured_media":7579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[38100332,7223,726,7215,3328,178,110607,1747,8053601,1136176,62857929,1473,1008073,856121,309,349],"class_list":["post-7578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-amreading","tag-author","tag-authors","tag-book-review","tag-book-reviews","tag-books","tag-coming-of-age","tag-fiction","tag-indie-author","tag-indie-books","tag-indiebooks","tag-reading","tag-review-blog","tag-review-website","tag-reviews","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pajKJn-1Ye","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/as-good-as-can-be.jpg?fit=312%2C475&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/145610851"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7578"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7583,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7578\/revisions\/7583"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}