MIXED-UP SUMMER

by Bianca Bradbury ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1979

Does she or doesn't she want to marry her straight-arrow electrician boyfriend? That's the problem facing Gay Wyatt, a 19-year-old nursing-home aide, and somehow Bradbury manages to drag the dated dilemma through almost 200 pages. It's hard to understand what Gay sees in Tom Nesbitt, the humorless workaholic son of an alcoholic mother, who is so inflexible he doesn't plan to return a repaired TV to an old invalid couple until they've paid in full. Supposedly Gay is very attracted to Tom but true to the Fifties heroines from which she is cloned, they never do more than kiss. For a time Gay calls it quits, with Tom and with the nursing home (she gets spooked when ornery Mrs. Audley dies holding her hand), but eventually she returns to both. And on the penultimate page Gay unaccountably comes to the realization that life without Tom ""was impossible."" Much ado about nothing--and, frankly, we don't give the marriage six months.

Pub Date: April 1, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1979

Categories: FICTION