The fictional town of Cohannet, MA is a trap of sorts. Populated mainly by Portuguese immigrants and their descendants, it is a town that once thrived with factory jobs though now lays mainly dormant. Where textile machines once hummed, children now spray graffiti. It is a place that people want to leave although, according to the narrator, they always manage to find reasons why they cannot.
The narrator is one such person. Avery Alves has grown up in Cohannet under the careful watch of her hardworking single mother and her small but feisty grandmother. After teenage years spent studying and working, Avery is finally off to college when the unthinkable happens. Avery’s grandmother not only dies, she bequeaths to Avery both her home right in town and a loveable albeit, very depressed, St. Bernard named Walter. So begins Avery’s struggle with her future plans. Will she return to college like her mother insists or will she find solace in her old retail job and refuse to ever leave her home town? And what, as the title suggests, about Walter?
While many of the characters in this family saga feel well-crafted (particularly the Portuguese grandmother who remarks on the smallness of a sofa “It’s hard to tell in the store. They look so big there, and I’m only little”) the plot at times does not. Avery’s college of choice after all is in Boston and happens to be “a ten-minute sprint from the library to South Station, and an hour-long train ride home.” Did Avery really have to move to this college in the first place? It seems feasible that she could have commuted from the outset. Later it is revealed that there is a “state college the next town over”. Taking care of a house, a large dog, an overbearing parent, a job, and college is not an easy mix but it seems as though a hardscrabble worker like Avery could handle it even if she does have to settle for the “state college the next town over”.
Certain details of animal behavior, such as Walter’s love of peanut butter and a particular toy, will strike chords with dog lovers although they may become too vivid for some when Walter “lifts his leg, and pisses all over the wall.” Such are the difficulties of Avery’s life though, much in the way as she battles angry customers at her job in retail. Certain details of life in retail, such as preparing for secret shoppers will get nods of approval from anyone who has worked in retail, but they do not always make for the most engaging prose.
Anyone who has lost a beloved grandparent or dealt with a difficult pet will be able to relate with Avery and her struggles. Following these struggles to their conclusion however will depend on the reader’s interest in finding out if Avery can escape from a trap of a town that, with its train connection to Boston and nearby college, does not really seem to be all that trapping.
Reviewed by Collin Marchiando for IndieReader