Census
By Jesse Ball
Ecco Press,9780062676146, 2019, 272 pp.

The Short of It:

A quiet, complex story about the love between a father and his son.

The Rest of It:

A widower is told by his doctor that he doesn’t have long to live. As a doctor himself, he takes this information in but then immediately thinks about how his special-needs son will survive without him. Who will the boy live with? Who could take this responsibility on?

As the man ponders this, he sets himself up as a census taker. A door-to-door census taker. One who will travel from town to town and record its inhabitants. He believes this road trip is what he and his son needs. Time together, in the car, going door to door. One last trip.

Census has been called a dystopian sci-fi. If you dig deep, you can see it. A census taker, applying permanent tattoos on the citizens he encounters, nameless towns that are only represented by a letter of the alphabet. Strange people. Often quirky and then the way this man deals with his own impending death. There is a lot to take apart. 

The author set out to write a story that would honor his brother who had Down Syndrome. A brother who passed away. Although the boy’s affliction in this story is not mentioned specifically, the reader is well aware that he is special needs. But did the author succeed in honoring the brother he lost? I think the author believes so. The way in which the boy is drawn, the interactions he has with strangers, and the bond he holds with his father speaks to something but not Down Syndrome specifically.

What I enjoyed while reading this book is how different it was from  past reads. It was unique but not overly so. Really, a quiet story that moves you along slowly. Occasionally beautiful prose. Ball is a poet and you can sense that in his writing. I enjoyed the quiet moments that the father and son shared.

I didn’t agree with the ending, even though the story opens with the ending. It should not have been a surprise to me but it left me a little unsettled. That said, I am glad I read it and I would happily read another story by Ball. He’s written nine novels!

Source: Borrowed

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