NUFU AND THE TURKEYFISH

by Janice J. Beaty ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 22, 1969

Surrounding the story of Nufu, the blotched skin he forgets and the rare turkeyfish he finds, is the fabric of life in Guam today -- and it's a pity you can't see more of it: the occasional illustrations are jottings in a tropical vacuum. Nufu wants the turkeyfish to send to a San Francisco aquarium store, thinking to earn the down payment on a new motor for his father's fishing boat, but how to catch it without equipment? ""What do you think we did on this island before World War II... before there were such things in the stores of Guam?"" Uncle Tomas asks, setting Nufu on a course of do-it-yourself-like-your-ancestors-did. And the more absorbed he becomes, the less he tries to hide his disfigured face. The quiet conclusion -- common fish would have earned as much as the hard-caught turkeyfish -- is preceded by a crescendo of climaxes. An erratic, seldom engrossing little reclamation project, and one of those tallish slim volumes with smallish print that's hard to place; but verbally if not pictorially informative about a society in transition.

Pub Date: Sept. 22, 1969

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Pantheon

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1969

Categories: FICTION