3 Review(s)

Jack Landry, a promising high school baseball player, and his best friend, Elphege Beaupre, live by the motto 'Never back down, never instigate'. It's a rule of stubborn passivity that Jack will follow to the end of his days. Unconsciously burdened by his heritage, hemmed in by his working-class parents' submission to authority, the church, and a life of hard work, young Jack still has big dreams. Yet his warring values and desires lead to two mistakes in his youth that will colour the rest of his days. The first causes great harm to his one and only love, a half-Cajun Gulf Coast girl. In a world where one is asked to take responsibility for actions but not always suffer the consequences, Jack punishes himself. Following the tenets of Catholicism, he embarks on a lifelong penance to atone for his sin. The subsequent renunciation of his dreams appears to be Jack's second mistake. Or is it?