Editors’ pick Best Literature and Fiction Books 

I was thrilled to find an active, dynamic book club at our local Y and attended for their June selection: One-In-A-Million Boy by Monica Wood. The book club meets once a month and is very popular. They have a curated list of books and the members have already chosen one for each month of 2025. Each have available a “Book Club to Go” kit. The book selection next month is Beartown by Fredrik Backman, and of course, I’m familiar with Backman.

Book Blurb (audiobook):

For years, guitarist Quinn Porter has been on the road, chasing gig after gig, largely absent to his twice-ex-wife Belle and their odd, Guinness records-obsessed son. When the boy dies suddenly, Quinn seeks forgiveness for his paternal shortcomings by completing the requirements for one of his son’s unfinished Boy Scout badges. For seven Saturdays Quinn does yardwork for Ona Vitkus, the spry 104-year-old Lithuanian immigrant the boy had visited weekly. Quinn soon discovers that the boy had talked Ona into gunning for the world record for oldest licensed driver. Despite himself, Quinn picks up where the boy left off, forging a friendship with Ona that allows him to know the son he never understood.

©2016 Monica Wood (P)2016 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Warning: Spoilers ahead

 

There are many reasons I read, few of them would to become depressed. On reflection, yes, it’s a good book, heavy on relationships, memory, love, loss, and hardship.  The storyline is unique, rift with emotion.

But Lordy, is it a downer!

The Boy is an atypical youngster, unusual, quirky, and autistic. He’s also smaller than his peers and smart as a whip. He’s sweet. The kind of little boy you just want to hug. But sadly, much of the book is a deep dive into 104-year-old Ona Vitkus’ life and that of the boy’s father, Quinn, trying to complete his son’s Boy Scout badge work.

The Boy discovers Ona’s amazing history and becomes determined to get her into the Guinness Book of World Records.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t live to see through the process.

I never warmed to Quinn, but did get an occasional chuckle from Ona’s character. Sharp as a tack, she has memories sufficient to cross your eyes. But then, many of those are of hardship and loss.

When the end arrives, it’s quiet, low-key, and almost slips by (in my case) the listener. Is it a satisfying ending? You’ll need to read the book and then you tell me. I felt relieved the experience was over but also with just a blush of satisfaction at the wrap-up and epilogue.

When I mentioned that I thought the book could be depressing, there were a number of agreeable head nods and quiet affirmations. As always, there were a number of varying take-aways, each finding a different point to the story.

While there was a division of opinion on the major characters, the fact that “the boy” is never named became quite the point for extended discussion, including research into why the boy was not named. And, yes, I was caught off guard as well at the end of the book, realizing that the main character did not have a name. (Many of the members thought the author’s explanation was a rather weak one.)

One hang up occurred when the question of Friendship vs Family ties came up as we delved deeply into the character of the father, Quinn, and that of Ona, who, at 104 had outlived all her friends and only had a son still living whom she did not know. So it was that we could understand, perhaps, the deeply personal and loving relationship that this special boy and a centenarian could develop.

Once again, it was fun to hear all the different opinions the same novel could develop and open my eyes to the prose, purpose, and meaning that I might not have digested. The voting was lively but on the whole—they liked it!

Many thanks to my local library for providing me with a copy of the audiobook and the opportunity to read and review this book. The thoughts expressed here are my own.

Book Blurb (print):

Winner of the Nautilus Award and the New England Society Book Award, Monica Wood’s The One-in-a-Million Boy is the incandescent story of a 104-year-old woman and the sweet, strange young boy assigned to help her around the house—a friendship that touches each member of the boy’s unmoored family.

“The story of your life never starts at the beginning. Don’t they teach you anything at school?”

So says 104-year-old Ona to the 11-year-old boy who’s been sent to help her out every Saturday morning. As he refills the bird feeders and tidies the garden shed, Ona tells him about her long life, from first love to second chances. Soon she’s confessing secrets she has kept hidden for decades.

One Saturday, the boy doesn’t show up. Ona starts to think he’s not so special after all, but then his father arrives on her doorstep, determined to finish his son’s good deed. The boy’s mother is not so far behind. Ona is set to discover that the world can surprise us at any age, and that sometimes sharing a loss is the only way to find ourselves again.

 

Book Details:

Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Contemporary Literature & Fiction, Family Life Fiction
Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC
Narrator: Chris Ciulla
ASIN: B01E5126WY
Listening Length: 10 hrs 27 mins
Publication Date: April 18, 2016
Source: Audiobooks – Local Library

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US  |  Amazon-UK  

 

The Author: Monica Wood is the author of four works of fiction, most recently The One-in-a-Million-Boy, which won a 2017 Nautilus Award (Gold) and the 2017 fiction prize from the New England Society in the City of New York. She also is the author of Any Bitter Thing which spent 21 weeks on the American Booksellers Association extended bestseller list and was named a Book Sense Top Ten pick. Her other fiction includes Ernie’s Ark and My Only Story, a finalist for the Kate Chopin Award.

Monica is also the author of When We Were the Kennedys, a memoir of her growing up in Mexico, Maine. The book won the Maine Literary Award for Memoir in 2013, and the Sarton Women’s Literary Awards for Memoir in 2012.

Monica Wood website

©2025 V Williams