The Left and the Lucky

Set in Portland, Oregon, the novel follows Eddie Wilkens, a forty-two-year-old housepainter, and Russell, an anxious eight-year-old boy who becomes his surrogate son as the boy's family life collapses.

The story opens with a hostile meeting between two families. Connie, a thirty-five-year-old single mother, sits beside her fifteen-year-old son, Curtis, across from the family of Yvette, a pregnant fourteen-year-old. Yvette's mother accuses Curtis of pressuring her daughter. When her boyfriend threatens to kill Curtis, Connie drags her son out and warns him she will not pay his child support.

Eddie enters the story when he finds Russell alone in a grocery store late on a rainy Saturday night. The boy is soaking wet, coatless, and hungry. Eddie recognizes him as the grandson of his neighbor Gladys, takes him to a taco truck for dinner, and drives him home. Russell reveals that constant fighting between his grandmother, his mother Connie, and his brother Curtis drove him from the house.

Russell's home life is dominated by Curtis's cruelty and Gladys's withdrawal. Curtis claims the bedroom and bans Russell from the kitchen. Russell moves into Gladys's room, where the old woman retreats into seclusion, subsisting on candy, coffee, and Cup Noodles. Her bursts of energy, such as plans to sew Russell a cape or paint a mural, never materialize. Curtis's abuse escalates when he and his friend Josh force Russell to strip, put on Connie's underwear, and duct-tape it to his waist before locking him outside. Gladys soaks Russell in warm water to remove the tape. Connie confronts Curtis, who storms out.

Meanwhile, Eddie runs a small painting operation with Houston, a fifty-three-year-old painter with a history of severe alcohol addiction. Eddie spots an old red Pontiac LeMans on the street and buys it for a thousand dollars without knowing if it runs. Russell, who has begun visiting Eddie's backyard each evening to pet Eddie's dog, Early, helps steer the car into the driveway. Eddie gets the engine running and installs a kill switch, a hidden device that prevents the car from starting, to deter theft.

Russell reveals bruises from Curtis. Eddie visits the strip club where Connie dances and threatens to call child services if the abuse continues. Soon after, Curtis, Josh, and their friend Berny steal the LeMans, forcing Russell along. Russell hits the kill switch, stalling the car in a busy intersection. Curtis beats Russell, punches a police officer, and is arrested. The next morning, Russell tells Eddie he deliberately let Curtis hit his face, knowing the visible injuries would keep Curtis from coming home.

When Houston vanishes on a bender, Eddie brings in Cordarrel, a retired sixty-one-year-old painter from Chicago, to finish a deadline job. Houston resurfaces broke and drunk. Eddie fires and then rehires him. Russell, spending every evening at Eddie's, reveals escape fantasies: building an airplane from a lawn mower engine to fly to Hawaii and buying a motorcycle. Eddie vetoes both plans.

Curtis is released from juvenile detention after three and a half months. Eddie gives Russell a house key on a chain, telling him to run to Eddie's if Curtis threatens him. Russell's life becomes a cycle of dread: Curtis and his friends bang on his door at night. Russell installs a crude latch, stops eating and doing homework, and attempts another escape by stealing a neighbor's kayak, planning to paddle to Los Angeles. Police find him without a paddle or life jacket.

Connie gives Russell an old iPhone to record Curtis's behavior as evidence. The crisis peaks when Curtis, Josh, and Berny break into Russell's room wearing ski masks. They strip him, and Curtis holds a box cutter to the corner of Russell's left eye. Russell screams so hard his bowels release. The phone records the attack. When Connie finds Russell at four a.m., she calls Eddie. They listen to the recording together. Eddie offers to take Russell in, and Connie agrees.

Cordarrel becomes Russell's after-school companion, walking him home from school, taking him to yoga, and playing cards at a café. Yet Russell's terror persists: each night he sits hidden between the wall and the couch, holding a steak knife, until Eddie comes home.

Eddie's calls with Marlene, his estranged wife, reveal deeper fractures in his life. Marlene left him for another man and moved to Florida, where she bartends and cannot stop using cocaine. She asks Eddie to bring her home. He says he cannot: Russell's stability is his priority. During Christmas break, Eddie travels to New Orleans to meet her, leaving Russell in Houston's care. Russell bonds with Houston and plays matchmaker between Houston and a waitress named LaDawn at the Overlook Restaurant. Marlene never appears. She admits she has met another man and cannot bring herself to come. Eddie tells her he will always pick up the phone.

Curtis, meanwhile, stalks Yvette for weeks. When he confronts her, she reveals she has been seeing someone else and hopes the baby is not his. His trajectory spirals further: he robs convenience stores with Josh and Berny, then confronts Connie's boyfriend, Dixie, with a knife at home, accidentally cutting Connie and slashing Dixie before fleeing. He breaks into Eddie's house using the key he stole from Russell months earlier. Early barks. Curtis, crying, asks why Eddie chose Russell over him. As he flees, he stabs Eddie in the stomach. Dixie, who followed Curtis, restrains him until police arrive. Russell sits beside Eddie on the floor, pajamas soaked with blood, and asks if Eddie will make him leave. Eddie, fading, tells him no.

After Eddie recovers, Houston disappears again. Russell, terrified that Eddie will send him away if the business fails, skips school and rides his bike across Portland in the rain. He traces Houston through bars to a wrecking yard, negotiates to have Houston transported to Eddie's house, tells LaDawn that Houston got a perm for her, and recruits a replacement painter named Donny from a bar crowd. Houston and LaDawn begin dating, and her structured routine stabilizes his life.

On the anniversary of his sister Kathryn's death, Eddie visits his aunt Frances at her retirement community. Kathryn had lifelong depression and profound shyness, and Eddie was her protector. When Eddie was 21, he took a job in Arizona without considering how his absence would affect her. Seven months later, Kathryn died by suicide. Eddie tells Frances that having Russell keeps him from giving up. Frances replies that having someone who needs you is "the luck."

In the final movement, Connie announces she is moving to Atlanta with Dixie. Russell is devastated. He lashes out at Eddie, listing every escape plan Eddie blocked: the airplane, the motorcycle, the kayak. Eddie kneels and explains he is now Russell's legal guardian. The house is Russell's home, Early is his dog, and Eddie is not going anywhere. Russell offers to leave so Eddie will not feel burdened, but Eddie refuses. As they walk to the St. Johns Twin Cinemas to see Captain Marvel, Russell proposes a new plan: two boats glued together like an egg with a pedal-powered propeller. Eddie suggests adding a balloon as backup and a window so Russell will not go crazy. Russell mentions he cannot swim, and Eddie adds swimming lessons to his mental list: a small, ordinary problem he can actually solve.