“Nerdection Excellent Read”
In One Happy Accident, Gary R. Simonds explores the journey of Sean McLaine, a young soccer player grappling with self-doubt and ambition. As he navigates the challenges of youth, including the arrival of an inspiring exchange student, this novel masterfully highlights themes of resilience, love, and personal growth.
Spoiler-free Plot
Would-be soccer star Sean McLaine knows what it’s like to still inhabit a child’s body in high school. Well into junior year, he remains woefully puberty-challenged, and it’s messing up with his soccer dreams. Ignored by his coaches, he faces daily embarrassment and bullying. Out on the pitch, he’s up against practically full-grown men who don’t mind greeting his undeniable talent with repeated pummeling.
At school, none of the girls seem to see him at all. He’s nothing, a nonentity. But not in the eyes of brilliant, whimsical Kayleigh McLaughlin, a recent transplant from Ireland. She is hopelessly drawn to Sean’s poetic nature, both in class and on the soccer pitch.
Kayleigh wants to help Sean clear the hurdles of a potentially career-ending injury and the echoes of a horrific past trauma. But will Sean’s unbridled devotion to soccer doom the couple’s budding relationship? He can juggle a soccer ball, but can he juggle reaching for his dreams and having a personal life too?
My take on One Happy Accident
The author of One Happy Accident, Gary R. Simonds, who also wrote Death’s Pale Flag, another Book Nerdection’s Excellent Read, has a long career in neurosurgery. Both as a practitioner and professor, achieving high standards in both fields. In addition to writing about his area of expertise in medicine, Simonds has also expanded into other topics such as humanism, personal wellness, spirituality, and death, as well as fiction, like this, his latest work that will be released in early 2025.
The work has a soccer context because Simonds is a big fan of that sport. This is clear in the different references and details spread throughout the book and in the sentences at the beginning of each chapter, where some of the main football stars are cited, such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Pele, Marco Van Basten, or Lionel Messi, who opens One Happy Accident.
Sean McLaine, our protagonist, is a character that many people, both young and old, will identify with, as he has a dream of being a soccer player and would give everything to achieve it. However, his technical conditions are not up to his desire despite his attitude that is worth gold. The problem is that in Sean’s small world of soccer; he does not stand out. In fact, quite the opposite, he is ignored by his coach and his teammates.
As if his situation were not difficult enough, Sean suffers a serious injury that takes him a little further away from his dream. And, when the scenario could not look darker, Kayleigh McLaughlin comes into his life, an exchange student from Ireland, a girl who in any other scenario would be unattainable for Sean but who, for some reason, has a very particular empathy for the young soccer player.
This is how a story begins that takes us through the life of a young sports fan and how he manages to combine his student’s life and his new love life with his serious injury and his dream of becoming a great world soccer star. The book has a simple structure as it consists of 57 chapters although they are relatively short, which makes it easy to read as well as mixing Sean’s thoughts very well with dialogues that give an additional realistic touch to the story.
One Happy Accident may seem like just a funny or perhaps adolescent story, however, that disguises an interesting and powerful story, which will captivate many for having an almost simple but familiar realism that allows one to feel identified and at the same time, involved with the events and sensations. Simonds uses small moments in the book to explain certain things about soccer, which can help people less familiar with the sport not feel alienated and can enjoy the story almost as much as a fan.
The fact that the author has a different background than the one usually found in this world is much more convenient than one might think at first, since it moves away a bit from the common literary style in these types of stories and offers something much fresher.
About The Author Of
Gary Simonds was the founding Chief of Neurosurgery and Neurosurgery Residency Program Director at the Carilion Clinic and the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, until retiring from clinical Neurosurgery in 2020. He remains a Professor at the Virginia Tech School of Neuroscience and the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. He routinely presents and teaches at various national and international courses and meetings. He has written three books on burnout and building resilience, and a novel, a medical/psychological thriller, entitled “Deaths Pale Flag.” A fervid fan of soccer, he has recently completed a new novel, One Happy Accident, a coming of age tale of soccer and love. He loves to discuss a range of subjects including: anything neuroscience, writing, healthcare delivery, critical conversations, leadership, science and religion, ethics, school applications, leadership, sports, soccer, development, ethics, society, sustainability and much more.
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