A tough, persuasive examination of the devastating effects of divorce on the members of what appeared to be a strong, solid family. When Michael Levine divorces Lacey and Rosie’s mother, each of those left behind retreats into her own protective shell. Ma takes up with a bodybuilder named Vinnie; Rosie’smart, pretty, and talented—finds solace in an increasingly physical relationship with her boyfriend, Joey; Lacey, feeling deserted and alone, moons over self-centered, wise-cracking David. Just after Lacey discovers her sister and Joey having intercourse in the Levine basement, Rosie learns that she is pregnant; the family has to support Rosie as she decides whether to have the baby or to have an abortion. Ultimately Rosie decides to have her baby and to give it up for adoption, with a hope that she will somehow remain part of its life. Caseley (Jorah’s Journal, 1998, etc.) leaves the meaning of the title ambiguous, and allows the story, at times, to be realistically depressing in its portrait of a family trapped in pain. Only when Michael Levine—offstage most of the book—reappears does the family reconfigure itself and find a way to move forward. In the end, readers know that the Levines will survive, and that Lacey, a particularly memorable character, will be there for them. (Fiction. 12-15)
Pub Date: March 24, 1999
ISBN: 0-374-34665-8
Page Count: 236
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999
Revisiting characters from The Cook’s Family (1998), Yep again explores personal and cultural conflicts arising between the generations in a Chinese-American family. Suddenly saddled with caring for four younger siblings after a wealthy businessman hires her widowed mother as a governess—or amah—for his daughter, Stephanie, Amy Chin is forced to miss several ballet rehearsals for Cinderella, to listen to glowing accounts of Stephanie’s sophistication, and to accept expensive clothing and other gifts from her. While gaining new insight into how Cinderella’s stepsisters must have felt, Amy’s understandable resentment is compounded by the news that Stephanie will be moving in while her father is away on a trip. Yep builds that feeling to fever pitch, then dispels it by casting Stephanie as a lonely child hurt by one parent’s death and the other’s neglect; becoming friends, Stephanie and Amy clear the air and mend some fences with their well-meaning parents in a climactic face-off. The characters, most of them familiar from previous appearances, are distinct if not particularly complex, the San Francisco setting is vividly drawn, and the issues are laid out in plain terms and tidily resolved. It’s formulaic, but not entirely superficial. (Fiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: June 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-399-23040-8
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In this Australian import, Marchetta gets the voice of teenage angst just right in a hormone saturated coming-of-age story. Josephine Alibrandi, 17 and of Italian descent, is torn between her traditional upbringing, embodied by both her immigrant grandmother and her overprotective mother, and the norms of teenage society. A scholarship student at an esteemed Catholic girls’ school, she struggles with feelings of inferiority not only because she’s poorer than the other students and an “ethnic,” but because her mother never married. These feelings are intensified when her father, whom she’s just met, enters and gradually becomes part of her life. As Josephine struggles to weave the disparate strands of her character into a cohesive tapestry of self, she discovers some unsavory family secrets, falls in love for the first time, copes with a friend’s suicide, and goes from being a follower to a leader. Although somewhat repetitive and overlong, this is a tender, convincing portrayal of a girl’s bumpy ride through late adolescence. Some of the Australian expressions may be unfamiliar to US readers, but the emotions translate perfectly. (Fiction. 13-15)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-531-30142-7
Page Count: 250
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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