Walter Van Brunt

Throughout the history of the Van Brunt family there seems to be a continual trait of deception, lying and bad luck. These traits are seen in the seventeenth century and carry over to the descendants of the family in the twentieth century. The book starts in the twentieth century with the terrible accident that has left Walter Van Brunt an amputee from his right shin down. Walter was involved in a motorcycle accident that left him an amputee but was it an accident that he could have avoided. It seems that Walter was destined to have bad luck. The first part of the book continues to reveal more of the unfortunate events that have transpired throughout his life like the riots in 1949 that left his mother dead and revealed the deceitful side of his father, Truman. The bad luck does not stop here for Walter. Later, after the first accident that left him without his right foot, he was out on New Years with Mardi Van Wart, while his wife was at home, and again crashed his motorcycle this time losing his left foot. Walter, it seemed, was destined to have a rough life. He was living an unfaithful life but bad things continued to happen to him and he would soon find out that bad luck was commonplace for Van Brunt's. Towards the end of the book Walter meets with his dad and finds out what happened on that fateful day in 1949 that left his mother dead and Walter to be raised by Lola and Hesh. Upon meeting with his father he finds out about his mothers death and that he is not so different from his father. Both of them were unfaithful to their wives and both seemed to be destined to have bad luck. In the end of the meeting we find out that Walter had been named after his ancestor, Wouter. His ancestor, like himself and his father, was a deceitful, bad person and their was no use trying to fight fate anymore for Walter because three hundred years later the the Van Brunt's had not changed; badluck was in his families blood and bones.