Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson was a much heavier book than the rest of those I read this summer. I almost gave up on it several times. The main character, Pete, wasn’t entirely believable and drove me crazy. The alcoholic social worker who dabbled in random sex and drugs just didn’t work for me. I get why Henderson cast him this way, but it made me want to bail out because I didn’t really care about him. A more altruistic man trying to save these folks would have been more effective. Nevertheless, I did finish and am glad I did. There wasn’t much closure, but I liked knowing what happened with the characters I had spent so much time with. Interestingly, while reading Fourth of July Creek, my next door neighbor posted an article about the Last True Hermit in GQ – what a funny coincidence and fascinating companion read.