Dave King's 1st Novel THE HA-HA Has Many Touching AH HAH Moments

King's THE HA-HA has been awarded the Quill's Fdtn. Best Debut Novel.  It is a very touching & affecting novel the speaks directly to the heart.  It's protagonist, Harold, a Viet Nam Vet., lost the ability to communicate verbally from a severe head injury that nearly killed him a few weeks into his tour of duty.  Physical therapy restored his strength & mobility.  He sustained a grotesque disfigurement to his skull and speech therapy was unsuccessful.  His guttural gruntings and physique created a barrier between himself & most people.  Harold displays a card stating he is of normal intelligence but unable to speak which is a source of humiliation. "I'd have loved more people if I hadn't been injured." Ha-ha is defined as a landscape design element that sets up a barrier while permitting views. Our protagonist, works as a gardener for a nunnery. He is cut off from others. Yet, we experience & empathize with everything he feels & thinks.  I thought of him as a kind, misunderstood character similar to the hunchback of Notre Dame. Harold's only romantic link was to Sylvia from high school. Sylvia is deceivingly self-centered & self-destructive. She uses Harold and he is at her beck & call.  She's headed to drug rehab & asks Harold to care for her 9 yr. old son, Ryan, on a moments notice for an indeterminate amount of time. Their growing connection causes Harold to feel "Something has shifted, and one more something has switched open within me."  King has written a winning novel about human connection, unrequited love, kindness & cruelty.  Harold is an unforgettable character.  He  learns "…to choose this life more than {he} thought. " THE HA-HA is a powerful testament to the healing power of human contact and the collateral toll of war.