The Junk Lottery

Less Self-discovery. More Reclamation.

When tragedy threatens to shatter Alma McCallum's life, she takes a chainsaw to her late husband's despised henhouse. But it's only when she unlocks the basement where Mack took his life that Alma begins to discover the secrets of the junk he stashed there.

Alma must face down the oppressive control Mack maintains even after his death in order to reclaim her life, and uncover and articulate her desires. Her runaway daughter reappears. Her best friend betrays her. The men in her life throw her off course. But Alma will not be defeated.

"Ultimately, The Junk Lottery is a coming of age story, one that explores what, often, wives give up of themselves by "making the best" of their relationships. Alma is forced to realize she's been hoarding her love. When she discovers in the basement exactly what Mac had withheld from her and her children, she begins the process of getting herself back again, going on, and finally growing up.

In the tradition of Joyce Carol Oates and Anne Tyler, Getty is a new voice speaking in defense of the feminism we first propounded three decades ago, and which threatens to be eroded with each new generation. Nonetheless, Junk Lottery has no political agenda. It is, quite simply, a rousing good story with chickens and chain saws, bears and blood, and all manner of seduction."

--Rececca McEldowney

Manual for Normal, Guardian Devils, and Soul of Flesh

"Mickey Getty's The Junk Lottery is the warm and compelling story of the belated coming-of-age of Alma McCallum. It is rare to see a woman like Alma, in her fifties, a mother and grandmother, as a central character in a novel; generally the stories of such women, as Alma herself realizes, are presumed to be over. Their lives are what they are. But Ms. Getty turns that notion on its head, and shows us that there is plenty that remains to be told in the story of a woman's life… Alma herself is the centerpiece of the novel, alternately brave and cowardly, assertive and meek, a woman in search of her own voice, and it is a credit to Ms. Getty that, after following her through her darkest moments, we, too, feel we have emerged into some sort of light and discovery. "

--Aimee Levitt

"Much like the work of Anne Tyler, Getty creates her characters from the inside out, molding them in such a way that the reader feels a connection and an intrinsic tug in identifying with Alma's thoughts and feelings. The author's prose stirs the reader as Alma moves toward self-acceptance. Getty has written a literary page turner. You won't want to put The Junk Lottery down until the last page is turned."

--Diane Duritt, In Confidence

"Mickey Getty's The Junk Lottery takes us through a suicide in order to bring us more squarely back into life. Getty's prose is as earthy, pungent and redolent of a midsummer's night as her protagonist Alma. Too seldom do I read a book like this, stripped of all sentimentality in order to make more room for genuine emotion. The governing sensibility makes me hang tough, knocks me to my senses, and then--puts me into a lofty, waking dream. Equal parts harrowing and tender, this novel is a treatise for the wise. If you're not wise, it will certainly help you get that way."

--Johnny Payne

Kentuckiana and North of Patagonia, She-Cat and Other Quechua Folk Tales, Chair Dept. of Creative Writing, UTEP

"The Junk Lottery is a book I really enjoyed reading. Lush and filled with humanity and warmth. The characters really live in their dialog and complex motivations. Wonderful descriptions and setting. Getty has a real talent for bringing a scene alive."

--Karen Blomain, A Trick of Light