The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

The novel’s narrative is nonlinear; the protagonist, Sam Hill, narrates from an unspecified point in his adulthood and jumps back and forth through time as he charts out the story of his life.

In the Foreword, Sam does not directly chronicle a portion of his life but discusses fate and the meaning of the phrase “God’s will.” He has rejected most of the tenets of his strict Catholic upbringing. Life is too random and chaotic for him to believe in providence, though he wishes he could believe in the concept as his mother did. He ponders how fate has allowed certain events in his life, such as the death of David Bateman, the school bully of his childhood. Sam does, however, want to believe that a benevolent divinity sent him Ernie Cantwell, “the only African American child in my class, [… and] the friend I so desperately needed” (i). His other childhood friend, Mickie Kennedy, also had a significant impact on his life. Sam now lives two blocks from his childhood home despite vowing as a kid to leave. The church is nearby, and he hears the

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