PICKLE AND PRICE

by Pieter Van Raven ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1990

Two unlikely friends drive cross-country to no particular purpose (though they do meet some singular characters) in this aimless story from the author of The Great Man's Secret (1989). Price Douglas, 20, is finishing a two-year stretch on a work farm in the South, imposed on him largely because he's black and was in the wrong time. John Pickel (""Pickle"") Sherburn, 13-year-old son of the farm's owner, has just been expelled from fourth grade. After yet another strapping from his wrathful father, Pickle drives off in an old pickup, California-bound; meeting Price on the road, he offers him a lift to Chicago. Price hopes to finish school and go to college; when he finds a hostile gang waiting in his old neighborhood, he sticks with Pickle instead. Price's ambition is undimmed by the weird college graduates he meets en route (e.g., a doctor who keeps his dead mother among the dead cats in his garage); Pickle's dream takes a drubbing in Hollywood, where he glimpses Clark Gable and meets a spoiled former child star. In the end, Pickle and Price split up and go home to pursue their separate lives. Van Raven portrays these two as pockets of sanity in a world so dysfunctional that much of his story's offhand humor has a sour edge. Aside from an unconvincing subplot about Price helping Pickle to take more interest in schoolwork, neither character shows substantial change; any metaphorical level to the journey is well concealed.

Pub Date: March 1, 1990

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 208

Publisher: Scribners

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1990

Categories: CHILDREN'S