RAMSHACKLE ROOST

by Jane Flory ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 26, 1972

Ramshackle Roost is inhabited by a big, close-knit, home-loving family whose summer adventures -- catching some local housebreakers, making friends with their unwelcome house guest Guy ""Gooey"" Hanley and enjoying the antics of their shaggy sheepdog George -- are as comfortably familiar as the old joke about Richard Stands (""I pledge my legions to the flag and to the country for Richard Stands"") which substitutes for more sophisticated pleasures. If the 1922 ambience at the Roost seems a little passe, eldest daughter Hildy will find partisans among her contemporary counterparts as she compulsively makes lists for self improvement (Things to Find Out About, Things I Have Learned), triumphantly overcomes her fear of water and laments her ignorance (""You read about towering oaks and lofty arching elms. . . but how do you know which is which, which ones tower and which ones arch?""). The cozy domesticity and the neat coincidences which do duty for a plot are stereotyped, but the manifestly recognizable commonplaces of day-to-day life are still surprisingly enjoyable despite the unabashed unoriginality of the whole.

Pub Date: April 26, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1972

Categories: FICTION