Friday, January 10, 2014

Jesus Henry Christ

This is the story of Henry James Herman. Henry has an IQ of 310 (the second highest ever recorded) and remembers everything he has ever seen.

Before Henry was born, the family of his mother Patricia suffered several tragedies. First, on Patricia's 10th birthday her mother's dress catches fire and - as she is about to pat it out - Patricia's father Stan, in misguided effort to save his wife, throws the nearest liquid he can find on her. Unfortunately, it is alcohol.

Next, the twins Tim and Tom, now police officers, die in a ridiculous accident. James, the second youngest child, dies of AIDS shortly after Henry is born. The oldest, Billy, has left the US for Canada when Patricia was only 10 to dodge the draft.

Henry is born a test tube baby, something that he learns from his father Stan. When he is 10 he follows clues on Post It notes to find his biological father. This appears to be Dr. O'Hara, who has his own issues with his offspring. O'Hara published a book about his daughter Audrey, which made her her school's laughing stock. The girl, 12 at this point, is disgruntled and messed up and not necessarily happy to learn that she may have a younger brother.

O'Hara, Henry, Audrey and Patricia head to a clinic to take a paternity test. All of them. Audrey's mother left O'Hara for his oncologist, who talked O'Hara into donating sperm in the first place - as a security deposit. He suffered from testicular cancer at this point and chemotherapy may make it impossible for him to father more children. At the time he gets the news, his wife is very pregnant and greats the doctor in a way that suggests that the two are more than friends at this point already. Therefore, O'Hara is uncertain whether or not Audrey is his daughter.

Anyway, many complications and ridiculous situations spawn from this constellation. In the end, what is left of the family reunites at grandpa Stan's funeral and in the end it turns out that O'Hara is father to, both, Henry and Audrey.

Sweet and sentimental.

6/10

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