THE BLACKBOARD CAVALIER

by John E. Morressy ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 6, 1966

Meet Ernie Quinn. You'll enjoy every minute of it. He's reaching the end of his first year of Walter Mittyish martyrdom at Glen Park High School en route to becoming a dropout teacher. He'll be fired, by Mr. Shefin, the principal, whose matutinal ""welcome to another day of learning adventure"" is like paraffin in the ears of a ""sleepy, surly, tenaciously unintellectual"" student body. Or he'll become a book bum (even though he hasn't read a book in months--""not even Silas Marner""). Well, Ernie's Socratic stance is more like a slouch; he broods paranoically over grievances, irritations, indignities; but he's got an escape circuit-- Doris, whom he loves (and could love more without her parents) and his fantasy serial in which he's Agent 021. Well, during this gruelling week here, Ernie has to go through the ordeal of the observation hour under his chairman Mr. Mikropoulous, as formidable as his name and devious as its spelling--and he's conned into smacking the snotty kid whose parents are real Authority Figures on the Board of Education. Ernie has a hard time facing up to reality, but as he says, ""Have you taken a good look at reality lately? Nobody in his right mind would want to face up to it."" ... Mr. Morressy is a humorist with a real undercut; he's funny and vigorous without ever resorting to physical props (and there's nothing off color--nothing black about it). And while one regretfully recognizes that this is probably a little too sophisticated to go way up the down staircase, it's one of the warmest, pleasantest, sassiest surprises of the year. There haven't been many.

Pub Date: May 6, 1966

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1966

Categories: FICTION