by John Rowe Townsend ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1983
After the deft farce of Kate and the Revolution (p. 311), Townsend does a neat, ennobling turn on Dickens--readable straight, or with double-edged relish. It is 1921 on City Hill, which descends from the spruce, sedate Chrysanthemums (Streets) to the wayward Orchids and Camellias and Mimosas of the Jungle. Among the respectable Daisies lives slight, sad-eyed Dan Lunn, eleven and a dreamer. Dan's grandfather is a pillar of the Chapel; the scourge of Jews, Catholics, and other derelictions; the possessor of Victorian storybooks whose perfect families fascinate Dan. His own mother, pretty young Prue, has a Wednesday-afternoon friend, ""Uncle Alex""; while his father, Dan overhears Grandpa's sharp-tongued bride-to-be Hilda say, is not boozing, footloose Frank Lunn. His mother, vowing never to tell him his father's identity, berates Grandpa and Hilda, and runs off with the married Alex. So begins Dan's passage through the Depths to Salvation, and a surprise Happy Ending (foreseeable from page four by the half-vigilant reader). Staying with Grandpa and Hilda, he succumbs to the temptation of a half-pound of choice ham, bought for the Minister--flees, and hears his grandfather's had a heart attack. Holing up in the Jungle, he befriends another stray child, spunky Olive--loses his money to her abusive ""protector,"" and sees her return to squalor. Still, he's gaining confidence. With the Bank House ""family""--dealers in stolen goods, young ladies ""in the love business,"" a pickpocket, a cardshark--he has a sense of well-being. His pitiful look, and his plaintive hymn-singing, also give him a vocation: performing outside bars. But the thieves fall out too, leaving only Benjie the shabby Jewish glazier--always asking after Dan's mum, wishing he could give Dan a home. . . . It finishes in a proper bustle and flourish--and a poignant inversion (with a place for Olive, naturally) of Dan's daydream of a perfect family.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1983
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: N/A
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1983
Categories: FICTION
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