"Tinkers" By Paul Harding

Title: Tinkers
Author: Paul Harding
Published Year: 2009
Pages: 191
Awards: Pulitzer Prize

Harding takes us into the life of a man who is at his last few days of his life. The man gives an account of the room he is slowly dying in and the family members who have come to be with him in his last living days on earth. He is a man known as a tinker, as his whole business is dealing with fixing clocks, and when he isn't actually fixing clocks he tinkers with them.

We are not only taken through these last few days of his life, but also through the days of some of his father's life and his own from his childhood on. The description of his father's life shares a story of struggle when his grandfather must be put away and the family is dealing with the issue of mental illness. Struggles like this can happen in any family and Harding has a fantastic way of expressing the turmoil and troubles that it has brought family of the main character's father. To make things better understood the main character's name in George.

As the book progresses, another story of struggle in his own life as a child and how his own family has overcome it. In his youth his own father develops seizures and his family learns to deal with the effect it has on his father and how his own parents work really hard to keep it outside of the young children's sight so they are not traumatized or affected by it.

This book is mesmerizing and full of literary genius. After reading it I can completely understand why this book won the Pulitzer Price. It is for the reader that thirsts for a great book that tells a story in a heartwarming way. Since it deals with subjects we will all deal with in life at one point or another, it is also very easy to identify with.