Fatherhood frustrated
The protagonist, Howie, is a Vietnam vet, deprived of the power of speech for the past thirty years. He agrees to take on the nine-year-old son of an old girlfriend while the mother goes into rehab, and the two-month experience of parenting changes his life, opening him to strengths he had not known, and making him more appreciative of the circle of people he already has around him. That occupies the first two thirds of the book. But then the author takes some unexpected turns (as he says with pride in the reader's guide interview), perhaps wanting to avoid too easy or sentimental an ending. I am not sure that the ending when it comes is any less sentimental -- it is just a lot more difficult to follow the character through to that point. While the internal monologue is indeed expertly handled, the storytelling is so slow that the eight weeks seem at times more like two years.