Characters
Ed Kennedy
At the beginning of the novel, nineteen-year-old Ed Kennedy is directionless and knows it. He spends most of his time playing cards with his friends and hanging out with his coffee-drinking dog. He says:
I’m typical of many of the young men you see in this suburban outpost of the city—not a whole lot of prospects or possibility.
When Ed receives a playing card in the mail with three addresses scrawled on it, he learns that he has to visit a series of people and help them solve their problems. Acting on the information in the cards not only helps improve the lives of a dozen people; it also helps Ed become the person he is capable of being.
Audrey
Audrey is Ed’s friend. He is in love with her, and she loves him back but refuses to act on her feelings. Her childhood was “one of those beat-the-crap-out-of-each-other situations,” and now she is afraid of love. As Ed grows through the story, he helps her grow too. By the end, they are beginning a romantic relationship.
Marv
Marv, one of Ed’s best friends, is self-centered and unwilling to spend money. He loves nothing so much as his “s***box car,” which he bought several years ago. He intended to use it to track down his high school girlfriend, Suzanne Boyd, who disappeared with her family three years ago—but he never actually left town. At the beginning of the novel, Ed thinks Marv never left because he did not know where to look for Suzanne. Near the end, however, Ed learns that Suzanne’s family left because she got pregnant. Marv has been saving money to help pay the child’s expenses, but he is afraid to face Suzanne and her angry father. Ed helps reunite the couple.
Ritchie
Ritchie is the most directionless of Ed’s friends. He has no job and no ambition until Ed helps him. At the end of the book, Ed has managed to shock Ritchie into action, and for the first time Ritchie starts looking for a job.
Mrs. Kennedy
Ed’s ma considers him a disappointment and is not afraid to say so. She loves her other three children, all of whom have left town, and she “kisses their feet” whenever they come home. However, she has nothing but abuse for Ed. Near the end of the book, she reveals that she hates Ed because he reminds her of his father, whom she resented and who is now dead. She says that Ed will never find direction or make it out of town, just as his father never did. Her constant insults are partly intended to spur Ed into action. When he confronts her about it, she says, “Believe it or not—it takes a lot of love to hate you like this.” He stands up to her and insists that he is a better person than she thinks even if he never decides to leave town.
People Ed Helps
The cards Ed receives in the mail bring him in contact with many minor characters. One of Ed’s first tasks is to confront an alcoholic rapist; Ed drives him out of town to protect the man’s wife and child.
Milla Johnson is eighty-two years old and lonely. Ed helps alleviate her loneliness by pretending he is Jimmy, her husband.
A fifteen-year-old runner, Sophie, trains joyfully every morning but does not run well in competition. Ed helps her realize that she needs to run barefoot, and he tells her she is beautiful.
Thomas O’Reilly is a priest with an empty church. Ed helps him by throwing a party...
(This entire section contains 876 words.)
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and offering free beer, which fills his church.
Ed helps Angie Carusso, the young mother of three children, by buying her an ice cream she would never think to buy for herself. He listens to her talk about how difficult it is to be a single mother.
Ed’s help for fourteen-year-old Gavin Rose is rather perverse. He beats the boy badly, intending to show him what suffering is like and to help him bond with his older brother, Daniel. Ed’s plan works when the boys unite with their friends and return Ed’s beating with interest.
Lua Tatupu and his family are poor but happy, and Ed adds joy to their life by buying them a proper set of Christmas lights for their house.
Ed helps Bernie Price, the owner of a dilapidated movie theater, by reminding him of his youth.
Sending the Cards
In the course of his journey, Ed meets a series of thugs and visitors who say they are acting on the instructions of the person in control of the cards. These thugs include the gunman at the bank at the beginning of the story; Keith and Daryl, who beat Ed up after he finishes his first card; and other unnamed characters.
At the end of the novel, Ed is visited by a mysterious author who claims he created Ed and put him through all of the difficulties in the story to test him. The author says he wanted to prove that people can achieve more than they are capable of, if only someone challenges them enough.