Seventeen-year-old Noah Munch craves acceptance more than anything in David Fitz-Gerald’s coming of age novel, Waking Up Lost.
As a biracial boy growing up in a small village in upper New York, Noah doesn’t feel that he belongs to either part of his heritage. Having lost his Native American father before he was born, Noah has spent his short life trying to connect with that missing part of himself. Meanwhile, he has to keep the peace with the Wilmington villagers who find his native side offensive. Noah also protects a family secret. His mother, Mehitable, speaks with spirits and his brother, Moses, has an uncanny ability to predict disaster and show up with inhuman speed to prevent it.
As a result of his complex home life, Noah spends a great deal of time alone. He dreams of someday being a mountain man, living off his wits and the nature around him. However, Noah can’t stop himself from admiring Arminda, the prettiest girl in town. He doubts he will ever have a chance to court the blonde beauty, especially considering the meanest young man in town, Erastus Moss, has spoken for her.
Erastus, whose grandparents died at the hands of Native Americans on a journey out West, begins to harass Noah when he notices Noah’s interest in Arminda.
Noah endures taunts, feeling the burden of prejudice and simultaneously the inadequacy of being the only “normal” member of his family until the night he wakes up on top of a mountain.
He begins to experience strange episodes, which he believes are sleepwalking fits. One night appears inside the home of his beloved Arminda. Once the town discovers his odd behavior, suspicion and fear turn even more people against him, and Erastus uses it as an excuse to escalate his torture. Can Noah stop the crazed man and find a way to control his abilities before it’s too late?
The fourth installment of the Adirondack Spirit Series revolves around Noah’s coming of age.
In true bildungsroman style, Noah embarks on both a physical and spiritual journey. He suffers the distance between himself and other boys, including his twenty-year-old brother. Noah, small, scrawny, and by his own admission, doesn’t have the physical presence that others expect of a boy his age. Though often the most handsome boy in Wilmington, Noah’s dark hair and olive skin set him apart in his racist town.
However, Noah never knew his father’s people, so he has nobody other than his white neighbors to socialize with. He can’t see himself as anything other than a clumsy daydreamer who will never fit in, driving him to live alone in the mountains as his father had done years ago. Noah yearns to connect to the father he resembles, but when he isolates himself, nature and man conspire to bring him right back to the town he hates.
He finds no solace in his mother and brother, even as they assure him that he possesses great power.
Even amongst his family, Noah doesn’t fit. He despairs his ordinary nature with a mother who guides spirits to the afterlife and brother with inhuman speed. If he could rely on a secret talent, he could tolerate his neighbors’ prejudice. But when he does develop an unexplainable ability, it proves nightmarish and deadly. Noah never knows when it will happen or, more importantly, where it will take him. Ironically, this strange power becomes paramount in discovering the very purpose he longs to find.
Faith and trust in God frame Noah’s life.
Noah often relies on his faith to carry him through the unbelievably tricky situations in his life. In pain, he turns to prayer for comfort and reassurance, and later when he commits a crime (albeit justified), he only frees himself of the burden when he seeks absolution from God. Though his episodes sometimes prove horrific, Noah realizes his power borders on the miraculous.
He searches for God’s plan for his life even while questioning how he will know it when he sees it. When Noah hits his lowest point, fearing for his life, he feels the “warmth” of God physically and hears His message that Noah isn’t alone. Noah becomes God’s servant, and he begins to understand that he must become what God expects, not what he wants.
The supernatural elements in the story set it apart from the typical novel of this genre, creating a hybrid between historical and paranormal.
The family members’ unusual abilities heighten their outsider status. Mehitable raised her biracial sons in a town of hate and prejudice for seventeen years. Though she does have a few staunch supporters, these people can’t always keep the wolves at bay. She and her sons suffer from the racism so prolific during the 1800s in America. Compounding her pariah-like treatment, she speaks to spirits and must keep her gifts secret for fear of further mistreatment. Moses must also keep his powers hidden. Noah suffers for his gift. Though he has no control over its occurrence, the townspeople practically exile him, leaving the young man to find a way to bridge this chasm between himself and others.
