Mr. Opp

D. Webster Opp has missed more trains than he's caught, more opportunities than he's seized, and more departures than he's arrivals. Returning to his small hometown of Cove City for his step-father's funeral, Mr. Opp carries with him grand schemes for reinvention and a talent for finding the wrong direction on any given journey. His traveling companion Jimmy Fallows sums him up perfectly: if there was ever a man with a gift for missing things, it's Mr. Opp, whether it's a thousand-dollar job, a patent invention, or simply the right train. Yet beneath the comedy of this perpetual loafer lies something tender: Mr. Opp's fragile half-sister Kippy, whose special needs expose his capacity for loyalty and growth. As he stumbles through small-town social hierarchies and his own inflated ambitions, Rice paints a affectionate portrait of American aspiration at its most hapless and most human. The humor lands through period dialect and comic observation, but the novel earns its heart through Mr. Opp's reluctant maturity regarding his sister. It's a gentle reminder that sometimes missing everything is just prelude to finding what actually matters.