High school as it should have been.
A teenaged actor’s quest for Juilliard tuition and a steady girlfriend—or boyfriend, whatever.
Insouciantly overcoming the handicap of being described as “the gay Dave Barry,” columnist Acito proves himself worthy of whatever praise people may want to throw his way with his first novel. His kid-with-promise is high school senior Edward Zanni, a somewhat pudgy and extremely theatrical lad from Wallingford, New Jersey, a place he can’t stand: “I find the term ‘bedroom community’ sort of sexy,” he comments, “but it probably just means that not much else happens in Wallingford beyond sleeping.” Edward dreams of escaping to Juilliard, after which he can become a famous actor and pointedly forget to mention certain people in his Oscar acceptance speech. Because of a near-nervous breakdown during his Juilliard audition, interpreted as incredible acting by the staff, Edward actually gets in; the only problem is that his fascist stepmonster has convinced his dad not to pay for college, meaning he’s got to come up with, oh, about $10,000—and that’s in 1983 dollars. Fortunately for Edward, he’s got a mélange of misfit friends who are pretty devoted to him and have a knack for lies, theft, and blackmail, none of which they hesitate to use on Edward’s behalf. The actual story of gathering money for the tuition only really starts up at the book’s halfway point; until then Acito is mostly just hanging around (quite enjoyably) inside Edward’s pinball-machine head, limning the absurdities of early ’80s suburban life, and having a lot of fun with Edward’s bisexual confusion. (He’s attracted to both his girlfriend and the football player that she’s not so secretly smitten with.) This approach has the added advantage of keeping the attention off the admittedly silly plot and more on Acito’s memorable, warmly described characters. The outsider edge to the proceedings here never devolves into snobbishness and keeps the free-form story humming hilariously along.
High school as it should have been.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2004
ISBN: 0-7679-1841-X
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Broadway
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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