The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

In 1989, after his run-in with David and his discovery of Eva’s infidelity, Sam has gone home and drunk himself into unconsciousness, but Mickie comes to check on him with her dog Bandit who licks Sam awake. Sam does not explain why he was black-out drunk, but when Mickie brings up his near-vasectomy and says she cannot understand why Sam would let Eva convince him to sterilize himself, he proclaims he thought he loved Eva. Mickie makes him breakfast, and he tells her the details about David’s reemergence. She wants him to report David’s domestic violence, but Sam explains that he’s afraid David would only retaliate and be even more horrible toward his ex-wife and daughter.

Sam then confesses why he was drunk, sharing that he called Eva and, after hearing a man pick up, realized she was having an affair. He decided to cope with alcohol. Mickie admits she has suspected Eva’s deception even since the beginning of the relationship, and she accuses Sam of selling himself short in every relationship he has ever had. Sam knows this unhealthy pattern is due to how he is overly grateful for the attention of any woman who isn’t afraid of his eyes. He thinks he doesn’t deserve any better: “I had a modest history of failed relationships with women who could look past my eyes, but only far enough to see a successful doctor who made a decent living. None could see far enough to see a life with me” (249). When Sam retorts that Mickie is not in a committed relationship either, she defends herself, saying she only sleeps with men for pleasure and never professes love for them. Sam realizes Eva has never said those words to him. Eva has not called Sam since he discovered her infidelity, but she is on her way home.

Ernie picks up Sam for the World Series game, but shortly after they arrive at Candlestick Park, a strong earthquake hits the area. Damage is widespread, and Sam and Ernie race home to Ernie’s family. Michelle and the boys are safe, but Sam stands alone as he watches the family embrace Ernie.

In 1975, high school senior Sam is now the editor in chief of the Friar newspaper. He skips Ernie’s game for a trip to Vista Pointe, the local teenage hangout, with the football team’s middle linebacker Michael Lark and others. Sam blacks out from drinking and falls, hitting his head, so the others drive him home and leave him propped on the porch.

Finding Sam the next morning, his father punishes him by making him mow the lawn. Max says, “Being a man means having to live with the consequences of our decisions, like getting up and going to work with a hangover” (261), and Sam sees the benefit of it: “[T]hat moment in the backyard, when my father called me a man, had been my rite of passage” (261). Because Sam’s parents also ground him, he spends his Saturday night at home. Mickie is with him. Ernie drops by, which surprises them since Ernie is supposed to be on a date. Ernie explains that when he went to pick the girl up, her father called him a racist slur and demanded he leave. Sam and Mickie are angry but feel helpless to change it.

Saint Joe’s announces Ernie as the class valedictorian, and Sam, who wanted the title for himself, is disappointed. Madeline decides she will complain to the school, but Sam forbids it. However, Ernie declines the honor, saying the board only gave it to him because he is Black. The school still does not offer the title to Sam.

The time for senior prom arrives, and Sam struggles to find a date. Three girls turn him down, but his mother insists he ask Mickie. Sam reluctantly goes to her house and, after taking her out for frozen yogurt, rudely asks if she wants to go. His rudeness offends her, and they argue, but Sam apologizes, explaining that he felt pressured by his mother. Still, Mickie agrees to go to prom with him. He sees Mickie differently and notices her beauty.

Prom night is magical, and Sam is falling for Mickie. However, a drunken Michael Lark eventually makes rude sexual comments to Mickie after trying to grope her; he says that since so many guys have allegedly touched her, he might as well touch her, too. Sam threatens to punch him, but Ernie steps in to stop them. Sam forces Lark to apologize to Mickie. She is crying when they leave, and Sam is sad that Lark ruined her night. As he drives her home, he considers the ways all three of them are outcasts—him for his eye color, Ernie for his skin color, and Mickie for her reputation. Mickie’s home life is difficult. Her father left, leaving her to deal with her mother’s addiction and three younger siblings: “It was a loveless home, and I wondered if that was why Mickie was promiscuous, if it wasn’t about the sex at all, but about feeling loved, if only for a little while” (286). Mickie kisses Sam, and they both confess their love for each other.