Francis Albert Forsythe, teenager and aspiring professional baseball player, experiences a series of near-death events and discovers that God may have different plans for his future in Perkins’ debut novel.
Former reporter and freelance writer Perkins tells of an adolescent boy coming of age somewhere near the Pacific Northwest in 1964. Francis, introspective and the oldest of eight, loves to read and play baseball. His life’s ambition is to become a center fielder for the New York Yankees, although he confesses to considering other career paths, including the priesthood. His ambitions and freshman year in high school are abruptly interrupted by rheumatic fever resulting in a lengthy hospital stay and recovery under the watchful eye of his protective Italian mother. While ill and near death, Francis dreams vividly of an encounter with Jesus, who tells Francis the decision to live or die as well as his own destiny, whether baseball or priesthood, is in his own hands. Post-illness, it is during a visit to his grandparents in Oregon, which includes several more close calls with death, that Francis finds his way to adulthood and the path to his future. Perkins deftly captures the inner workings of the adolescent male with all the accompanying angst of budding sexuality, desire for independence and poignant self-discovery. Adolescent readers will easily identify with Francis’ chafing against his mother’s restrictions and his uneasy relationships with his stepfather and siblings. Perkins’ descriptions of Francis’ home and the places he visits are vibrant and filled with small details that smoothly draw the reader into Francis’ world. Perkins is less adept at keeping track of the large cast of supporting characters and occasionally stumbles. Aunt Ramona, described on page 63, becomes Aunt Lenora on page 68. Francis’ sister, Loretta, is sometimes referred to as Rena, with no explanation if this is a nickname or the wrong name. These inconsistencies can be distracting against an otherwise attentively detailed backdrop. An enjoyably insightful story that gives readers a glimpse into the heart and mind of a young man on his way to making life-changing decisions.
Pub Date: Nov. 20, 2011
ISBN: 978-0615543147
Page Count: 184
Publisher: The Red Jacket
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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