IN THE WINGS

by Katie Goldman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1982

Jesse is excited to be cast as a Brodie girl in her high school production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and pleased to be included in the after-school sessions of the other, older cast members. But she's distressed by her best friend Andrea's resentment of the rime Jesse spends on the play and her fellow players, and most of all she's disturbed by her parents' disintegrating marriage. Her father moves out and her mother seems less unhappy after he does, but Jesse has seine trouble adjusting; and the conflicting demands of the play, school work, Andrea, and her insensitive father make for seine rough going just before the inevitable opening night triumph. Despite the title and the cover picture of the rehearsing cast, Jesse's dramatic and school activities are just a pale backdrop to the family breakup story. This contains one mildly effective scene when the separated father takes out the two kids he's never bothered to get to know, and another toward the end when the mother, after a hard day and a stormy family scene, insists that Jesse and younger brother Eric join her in a glass of wine--the sweet red wine they keep on hand for holidays. Otherwise, the story is believable enough, but indistinguishable from the run of flatly recorded parental divorce stories.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1982

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dial

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1982

Categories: FICTION