Resumo de Suchar, Louis

SUCHAR, LOUIS - HOLES 1999 Bloomsbury Books. Young Stanley (Caveman) Yelnats (Notice the backwards spelling on the surname) is arrested for stealing a famous pair of sports-shoes. It is a crime that his first person narration tells us he did not commit. He was walking under a road bridge as the real thief threw the shoes over the bridge. When they landed at --- feet, the police saw him, and assumed that he was the culprit. In court, Stanley is sentenced to working at a brutal prison camp, similar to that in the film Cool Hand Luke. Work and living conditions are appalling. The boys in the prison have to dig five foot deep and five foot round holes in the hard desert rock with specially designed spades. Escape is impossible, as the desert runs for miles in every direction without water supplies. Stanley resigns himself to his fate He knows that his whole family is cursed. His great Grand-father has promised a mountain woman that he would carry her up a mountain called Thumbs Up, but he had failed to do it. She had cursed his bloodline for that. Another sub-plot features a woman who became a notorious outlaw after the racist Wild West towns-people had murdered her black lover, (a man who sold special onions in the community). Stanley?s Father had become an inventor but all his inventions failed. After a meeting with the evil warden, (a woman descended from the Outlaw). Stanley realises that the holes are being dug in a search for the Outlaw?s treasure. Stanley has been teaching a young illiterate fellow convict called Zero how to read. When the pressure becomes too intense, Zero tries to escape, fleeing into the desert, and to potential certain death. Stanley gives chase, putting him at risk of death by thirst, or from the poisonous lizards that populate the desert. The renegades find themselves at the Thumbs Up Mountain. They climb it. Zero slips, but --- rescues him and helps him to the top, where there are onions growing and rainwater. They are saved. Better still, the onions ward off the killer lizards. ---- Gets to know that Zero is actually Zeroni, a descendant of the old mountain woman who cursed ---?s family. As he has helped her great-grandson at his hour of need, the curse is lifted. Everything now workout well for --- family and friends alike. Using a few clues, --- breaks into the prison and organises the digging of one more hole, in which he finds the treasure. As he does so, social workers arrest the prison warden and her entourage frothier inhumane running of the facilities. They even faked reports of Zero?s death rather than admitting he had escaped. ? Father?s inventions start to work. Zero admits that he was the real thief of the boots. The famous sportsman who owned them becomes a friend of the family?. Etc. The story weaves many seemingly separate strands and events seamlessly together to create a sense of destiny rolling full circle. This is a wonderful novel for children and adults of all ages. A recent film version is also well worth a look.

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