I ave enjoyed Larry Watson's novels and find he does an excellent job at telling a story about flawed people with flawed lives (aren't we all?). Paul, at the tender age of 11, falls hopelessly in LOVE with the much older Laura, an unconventionally pretty, and soemwhat well known poet, who has plenty of hangups of her own. Paul spends his entire life longing for Laura -- so much so that he really just goes through the motions of living without much feeling or direction. The only thing he ever seems pationate about is his intermittent meetings with his obsession -- Laura.
The novel almost reminded me of Forest Gump at times, with vignettes of his meetings with Laura and how he continues to long for her after their departures. I could hardly put the book down once I started to see where Paul's lack of direction led him and where he'd meet Laura next.
The stength of the book is in the characterization of Paul AND the characters he didn't build. We get a glimpse of what his father, mother, and sister are like -- but only through Paul's eyes. They seem peripheral to the novel, and to Paul for that matter. And we build our picture of Laura through Paul's eyes, sometimes just from news clips and articles he reads. But we can understand these characters simply from their behavior and Paul's descriptions of them.
If you have read Laura and like it, as I did, I would also recommend Larry's Party by Carol Shields.
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