Title: Harvey & Eck
Author: Erin O'Brien
Published in by Zumaya Publications
Genre: Contemporary
ISBN: 1-55410-270-7
Harvey cannot believe that she just got dumped. After taking a pregnancy test she finds herself pregnant. So now at thirty-three, not only has she been disposed of but she’s expecting a baby. Is she really ready for this? Physically yes, mentally no. When she tells her boyfriend the good news, he splits, yet her husband is excited. Yes, the same time she had a boyfriend, there was a husband. She begins wondering what is next for her, should she perhaps go on the Jerry Springer show and discuss pregnancy triangles? So many thoughts keep spinning through her head. She needs someone that will listen to her problems and help her sort out the situation that has landed in her lap. And the advice that continues to grow from others, she would rather not hear.
Harvey is left battling with her conscience whether to stop riding her motorcycle now that she is pregnant. Then she has to battle the thoughts of a tattoo, trying to understand a thunderstruck husband, while a libidinous and refined lover keeps enticing her with pledging and undying escapes to some sleazy motels. Harvey has too much on her plate with all the mental stress. The pain was terrible when her boyfriend dumped her. Not knowing how to handle the situation and needing someone to confide her troubles, she chooses a name out of the phone book and pens letters to a man through the postal service, hoping to find answers by mail.
Timothy J. Ecklenburg, (Eck), is neat and very thorough. He lives in a one-room apartment with his parakeet Dickens. As he tries to keep his own unity he is struck with alarm when Ed, a street vendor he knows, and his selective neighbors throw a celebration where he encounters transvestites dancing the Tango. He is surprised to learn that Ed is among many others that practice an alternative lifestyle, but then he had consumed a great deal of alcohol at the party. He only hopes that after becoming sober everyone will have forgotten the shenanigans that transpired at the party. There seems to be way too much going on in his life now, especially from a man who marks on his calendar when its time to purchase a new toothbrush and being an intellectual man, he must consider what others might think. After letters from an unknown troubled pregnant woman come addressed to his mailbox, he has no idea things are about to really transform his life.
Eck, (Timothy), likes for everything in his life to be in order. He has never been married and is slightly older than Harvey. Being a librarian, he is also a scholar who is shocked when letters begin arriving in his mailbox from someone that he doesn’t know. His first impulsion is to toss them in the trash after reading them then something comes over him and he decides to answer but with no name and address, he has nowhere to send them. So he keeps them all together in a safe place. If only the woman, that has changed his life considerably, would cease writing him, maybe things would get back to normal. How can he reply without a return address? If she needs help at least give him her identity, so he doesn’t have to continue stashing the letters he pens in a special place.
Harvey and Eck is a different type of story about relationships, learning to cope with new findings and discovering things that sometimes a person doesn’t even know about themselves until they open up to a complete stranger. It is cleverly composed and spans over time as Eck slowly learns much about Harvey or Harvest Moon. This is a comical way of looking at pregnancy as Harvey, the motorcycle-riding babe, finds a dubious companionship with Eck, a librarian whose only companion is his parakeet. The letters flow back and forth between Harvey and Eck spanning time between the two. The reader is able to get an in-depth look at their lives folding the good, the bad and sometimes the ugly that they come up against. Harvey gives her pen pal a name, Eck and gives him no real identity of hers or address, only sends some letters explaining her crisis and hoping that by talking to someone she will be able to come to terms with her dilemma. The story if filled with passion, finesse and is a fascinating read. It stretches the urgency Harvey and Eck have for one another and makes this a delightful book to read. Bright, amusing and a great read. It was good to see a happy ending between both Harvey and Eck in their own relations where they had discovered much about themselves and people in their existence that enriched their lives for the better.
Ms. O’Brien paints a picturesque portrait of a woman that has true human qualities, nothing sugar coated in Harvey’s life. Harvey realizes her pregnancy is about to change her, according to many that offer much advice. Harvey is not ready to give up her drinking, her motorcycle riding and many other little activities. Ms. O’Brien gives her a confidant that she can release all her worries. This story is quite unique in the way the characters are believable in every way. The way the author encrypted the idea of therapy by enlisting the help of someone just chosen out of the phone book was amazing. She gives Harvey and Eck real characteristics that grow in this story and make it a fun read from beginning to end. Even though there were some points that were quite rugged this novel delivers a wonderful message and had this reader cheering all the way to the end. A most incredible story that I could not put down. You can purchase this wonderful book at Zumaya Publications, where you will not be disappointed. To learn more about Erin O’Brien, visit her website. She is a most delightful author.
Sincerely good reading,
Linda
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