THE SEVENTEENTH-STREET GANG

by Emily Cheney Neville ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1966

It's the Seventeenth Street location that structures the gang, the author's least successful group of New Yorkers. They're all different ages and types; an oddly disparate assortment who come up as if on flashcards. But then they are left as peripheral dead ends to the aimless, negative efforts put into action by the bullying insistence of Minnow, the girl who comes closest to being the leader. Their impulse plan is to somehow bring down Hollis Rourke, the new boy in the neighborhood. He is our nominee as the most interesting underdeveloped character of the year--busy father, pushing mother, ferocious-looking but lovable dog make up his home. He's lonesome, doesn't know how to make friends, seems willing to hide behind the dog and is acutely intelligent. Minnow exists as a type and so do her circle of assorted friends and flunkies. It's her street and her Seventeenth St. world is divided into ""flots"" (People who don't do anything""--rather people who don't respond to Minnow?) and her gang. Minnow is strong enough as a character to come across as a sneak. Her plan to lure Hollis into the river to show him he's not wanted bounces back at her; he breaches her circle as one by one they defect from the motive force of hostility. The gang-up may be true to juvenile activity, and Minnow true to her sorry type--but it's adults not children who can feel sorry.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1966

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1966

Categories: FICTION