As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth

Lynne Rae Perkins book As Easy As Falling Off the Face of the Earth begins with a catastrophe and keeps on going. Here are the three main ones (although there are many more):

1. Ry is on his way from Wisconsin to a hiking camp. The train he is on suddenly stops in the middle of nowhere. He gets off the train (against the conductors warning) to make a call but his cell phone has no reception, so he starts moving further away from the train. Of course, at that point the train starts moving and he is left in the middle of nowhere.

2.Rys grandfather, Lloyd, is staying at Rys house to take care of the dogs while Ry and his parents (see item 3 below) are away. While walking the dogs, he trips and hits his head. Hes unconscious for a while and when he awakens, he has amnesia. In addition, the dogs have wandered off.

3.Rys parents are cruising the Caribbean on a dream vacation. They lose their cell phone and are basically incommunicado and know nothing of Rys and Lloyds predicaments. They also have their own problems to contend with.

The main story concerns Ry, who wanders into a nearby town and meets the towns do-gooder, Del. Del decides to drive Ry home to Wisconsin (from Montana) and when they arrive, Lloyd is still nowhere to be found. So they then decide to find Rys parents in whatever island they happen to be onan implausible strategy, in my mind.

My personal feeling is that the story of Ry and Del and the adventures they have on their road trip would have been an excellent story. The addition of Lloyds and Rys parents trials and tribulations just muddle the works. As I mentioned earlier, there is catastrophe after catastrophe.
If Perkins was trying to be humorous, the humor was lost on me. If she was trying to be serious, it was just too much.

Having said all that, I do like the way Perkins writes. Her use of language is excellent. You can visualize every location and every event. I like the main characters, Ry, Del and his friends, Yulia who is Dels love interest. I like the adventures they experience, especially with Carl, the driver with alzheimers disease and cataracts, who can barely see the road, and who picks them up as they are hitchhiking. As a road trip book, without the catastrophes that Perkins uses as catalysts for the action, this could be a 4 or even 5 star book.