Amazon Fifty Handfuls Category:  Drama Publisher: Author House ISBN-10:  1420824430 Type: Fiction Pages: 332 Copyright: Jan 30, 2005 After years of hard work, Kathleen (Kat) Cutter has been offered her dream job. Only one thing is holding her back – she just found out that she’s pregnant. Kat suddenly finds herself torn between choosing her dream job, or fulfilling her husband Jasper’s dream of becoming a father. When Jasper is found dead, Kat has nothing to live for, until she finds a crayon-written contract between Jasper and herself which reminds her of a promise. A promise that she intends to keep. And so, she sets off cross-country alone, with nothing but Jasper’s ashes to help her conquer her emotions, a stalker, and the rest of the crazy world. She’s determined to keep her word…even if it kills her. Turning around to head back to the car she stopped in her tracks. In front of her was a sight she used to drive a half hour just to see. It didn’t even dawn on her that she had pulled over here. She went to the car and shut off the engine before heading to a picnic table that had a view of over seven miles. The view wasn’t at all breath taking; just a regular small hill view of a small town but it was pleasant. Each street, car and house-light glimmered as if it were it’s own star. Kat used to come up here any time things got hard in her life. It was sort of her own place. Not many people stopped here since they’d built the highway some twenty years earlier. Her friends used to tell her it was too dangerous to come up here by herself at night, but Kat didn’t care; she felt safer here than anywhere else and never ran into any trouble. As a teen, when she was down on herself she used to stare at the miniature houses in the distance and just imagine what wonderful things were going on in each separate house. Of course she imagined they all lived better lives than she. Looking back now she wished to have any one of those adolescent problems rather than the one she had now. Kat was amazed that after six years of not coming here the sight could still calm her. She laid back on the top of the table to take in the stars. Thin clouds covered most of them but there were still a few for her to marvel at. For the first time all day her mind was off of what was growing in her stomach. She thought of her youth and tried to go through all the different events that brought her up here in the past: fights with boyfriends, bad grades, too many zits, not fitting into a pair of jeans, the list was endless. After going through a few dozen she thought that maybe she made up excuses just to come here. Almost a full hour went by before she grew tired of the twinkling lights and teen reruns. She headed back to her car in a better mood than she had been in for days. As the engine turned over she realized that she had never come up here with anyone, let alone Jasper. It was always her place, no one else’s. But as she pulled out onto the desolate back road she made a promise to herself to bring him up here for a romantic evening; she didn’t want it to be just hers anymore.

Fifty Handfuls by Michael Aloisi is, to put it mildly, unique.
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Review by
Nancy Gail

Fifty Handfuls by Michael Aloisi is, to put it mildly, unique.

When Katherine discovers that she is newly pregnant, it presents a dilemma. Jasper, Katherine's husband, wants greatly to be a father. However, Kat just accepted a new job as the head guidance counselor at a local school. Therein lies the problem. Does she go ahead and take the job, or try to be a stay at home mom?

A tragic turn of events occurs when Jasper is on his way home from a run. Just as he is almost home, he runs out in front of a car and is instantly killed. Kat is not only left with what to do about her pregnancy, but now she has the additional hardship of becoming a widow far too early.

The author's creativity comes out by means of a clever title. It refers to a promise Kat made to Jasper, written out in crayon. The deal is that Kat promises to sprinkle some of her husband's ashes in each of the fifty states. So, armed with fifty baggies of ashes tucked away inside a cookie jar, Kat sets off to keep her end of the bargain.

On the way, Kat meets all diffferent types of people. For example, the cop who pulls her over for speeding, then asks what the cookie jar is doing on the front seat. She tells him about the baggies. Even though what she says is the truth, he starts to get a little suspicious.

One of the more sinister characters is Kyle, a traveling magician who has a dark and dangerous past. After Kat manages to catch his attention, the reader quickly realizes that Kyle is going to to be trouble. As much as one might like to stop reading and find something pleasant in order to calm one's heart back into a regular rhythm, there is also a strong desire to keep going and see what Kyle and Kat are up to next.

This book was not one of my favorites. However, that does not mean someone else might not enjoy it. The characters are interesting, if a little bit beyond the realm of normality. Aloisi has done a good job at creating a plot which draws readers to it.