Lucky Strike
In this rambling tale, Zafris follows a cast of characters as they interact with one another in 1950s Utah. Lucky Strike follows a single mother and her two children who travel out west to attempt to strike it rich in the uranium rush of the 1950s. One might have more feeling for the people populating the story where it not for the fact that they are more caricatures than characters. Interaction between characters of depth and appeal could have made up for the unfortunately slow plotline. The stream-of-consciousness style prose becomes ponderous very quickly, and the dialogue has all the existential drama of Sartre on a bad day. The novel does contain some amusing witticisms, and one of the truly skillfully executed elements of Lucky Strike is its backdrop. From the blinding sun to the parched, cracked earth, Zafris has captured the setting with admirable aplomb. Though not without merit, Lucky Strike is a flawed and rather tedious novel. Not recommended.
