The Honk and Holler Opening Soon by Billie Letts

Twelve years ago, Vietnam veteran Caney Paxton opened his cafe, The Honk and Holler. The neon sign outside the cafe had to be the biggest and the brightest. But now, twelve years later, the busy highway just outside of Sequoya, Oklahoma is desolated , the sign has had its best days and the cafe has lost its customers. And Caney, who lost his legs in the Vietnam war, hasn't been outside of the cafe for 12 years..

The only other staff of the cafe is MollyO, who cares for Caney. She has a troubled daughter, Brenda, who left home to travel the country with her boyfriend Travis and his band in an old Volkswagen van.

It's christmas, and Vena Takes Horse suddenly walks into the cafe, looking for a job at the Honk and Holler opening soon. She has with her a wounded dog, and a lot of secrets. There isn't a job available ofcourse, but she just starts working for the cafe by serving customers from outside the cafe by their cars.

Bui Khanh is a young Vietnamese man, who has left Vietnam to proof his luck in the United States. His wife Nguyet still is in Vietnam, and he sends her money so she can hopefully join him soon. Bui also appears in the Honk and Holler Opening Soon, and just as Vena, he wants to work there. He starts working fixing things for Caney and MollyO. He lives secretly in a church building, where he also starts to repair things, the church members and board are surprised more and more when the building starts looking better, and Bui also meets an old lady here who helps him with his English, in trade for fixing up the church.

All of the characters lifes are coming together in the cafe. Caney first looks suspiciously at Bui because he is Vietnamese, MollyO finds out her daughter is pregnant, Vena has to make piece with herself with the loss of her sister Helen, and Bui finds out that Nguyet is pregnant, but not from him.

Just as in her previous bestselling book Where The Heart Is, this book is full of remarkable characters. Though the book ends abrubtly with a lot of loose ends; we never find out what happens to some of them, like for example, if Bui's wife Nguyet will arrive in America. This was just a dissapointment and I would really have liked it if the author had written a real end to the story or made a sequel to it.

Though I didn't like this, I loved the story of the book. I thought it was a real All-American novel, set in the heart of Oklahoma, where the author, Billie Letts, originally is from. It is really a page turner, and as a reader I just wanted to know what happened next. The character of Bui really reminded me of a Vietnamese character in a movie I recently saw, The Beautiful Country. (so if this book ever is made into a movie, which I really hope, Damien Nguyen will be a great Bui!)Anyway, I truly recommend The Honk and Holler opening soon.