ARFUR

by Nik Cohn ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 27, 1971

In the first of the Rock Operas, Tommy, the final lyrics went ""Even my usual table/ He can beat my best/ His disciples lead him in/ And he just does the rest./ He's got crazy flipper fingers./ Never seen him fall. . . / That deaf dumb and blind kid/ Sure plays a mean pin ball."" The author, a rock reviewer, has provided this freaky but fascinating study of a ""teenage pinball queen."" It takes place after the fall of the personality destined to become Arfur, a ten-year-old girl child who crashes through a contemporary Looking Glass into a world where freaks pass the time of day. Like Lim Fan, the Chinaman hungry for the history of the world who regales her with an amalgam of myths; or Otto Schultz, who sells tears in tear-gas cannisters; or Willie the Pleaser, 300 pounds and ""a cardshark without equal and flash and fly without limitation."" He teaches Arfur the secrets of the pinball -- ""It looks perfect and sounds perfect and falls perfect. . . . And always there is this, a certain secret connection, him and it, the player and his machine, and a time arrives when it isn't possible for the player to miss, when he is one with the table and he understands everything."" The oneness is not the ""Fun"" that Arfur is looking for as she grows toward fifteen. This is ultimately a sad/mad world, all in orbit.

Pub Date: April 27, 1971

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1971

Categories: FICTION