This is a story about the journey of a man used to the settle life in suburbia to reunite elements that were important to his father and interesting to the family while sorting his own karma in the process. Raleigh Witter lives in a boring suburban housing development named Starry Haven with his wife, Aura and his two daughters. In this story he must discover a way to get all the items that are assigned to him by his father and get them to New Orleans while also navigating through seemingly spoiled Karma to realize what matters in the end after having mad the best connections. He works as an insurance agent in the Forbes Building while his obese friend Mingo is a store clerk. Things start going haywire when someone replaces good wishes in the fortune cookies of the characters in the Lotus house with bad ones. This is seen when Raleigh's situation at home and work starts unhinge. Mingo even warns him that his wife is having an affair. At one time, Vera, who has her mouth wired shut snags it on to the crotch of Raleigh during a freak accident. Mingo finds them in the compromising situation and grabs a gun upon which they take great pains to explain to him it is not what it looks like.
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Earley, Raleigh's father who has a heart condition goes to New Orleans after buying a Cadillac and has in his presence a young black lady. He tells Raleigh to get a few items, and his half brother, known as Gates and a man called Jubal Rogers. He hassles to make the deadline by getting all of the items and people. He gets a bust from a library and steals a Cadillac from his cousin but there are a lot of obstacles on his way. For example, he gets mugged on the highway and ends up in a swamp. This is his luck turns and this is where he finds Gates at a rental property.
Gates has problems of his own including a debt to a man he stole from, not to mention being hunted by cocaine drug cartels in the area. He finds Jubal but he has no inclination to go to New Orleans and he gives up trying to convince him. He has collected enough things and people to form a jazz group including Mingo, Weeper an escaped prisoner who plays the bass, and a man he met in Charleston who knows how to play the Saxophone. After almost dying because of Gates and his problems, the group gets to New Orleans where Earley introduces the girl as Billie who happens to be Jubal's and Raleigh's aunt's grandchild. While performing at the club, Jubal appears and joins with his clarinet. Earley dies during the performance having received his last dying wish. Billie reunites with Jubal and they go their way while the rest go back to Thermopylae.
Best part of story, including ending:
I like this story because there are a lot of quirky people within the family but the one thing that they all share even among the friends is the love of music and hence the reunion and performance in New Orleans which acts as a soul healing attribute for everyone.
Best scene in story:
I like the scene in chapter 34 where Jubal and Victoria argue about a letter that was sent to her grand uncle that did not get to Jubal's wife, though it seems that they are arguing about things which are irrelevant having been apart for so long. They realize that the present moment is what that matters at that time.
Opinion about the main character:
I like that the main character, Raleigh is able to put aside his present issues with his job and his wife to grant his father's wishes before he died.
