THE LATE, GREAT DICK HART

Still inconsolable over the death of his best friend six months ago, Tom is given a chance of joining him in a perfect parallel world. One snowy night Dick reappears and takes Tom through a hole in an old tree to a town just like his--but it's midsummer, everyone there has already died in Tom's world, and there are no problems: no poverty, litter, anger or sorrow, just picnics and pleasant times; even a cake Tom's mother made sits in the refrigerator in his house. Dick hopes Tom will accept his destiny, die tomorrow in an automobile accident in the snow, and join Dick's life after death. Tom's not sure; he'd like to know what the rest of his life might bring. After a bit of of agonizing, he decides to evade his premature demise, live to be 92, then rejoin Dick and be 12 forever. The boys' bantering, admiring relationship is well drawn, as is Tom's yearning grief, but the utopian life after death is so simplistically devised that even the most uncritical reader must notice its lack of logic. Still, as a lightweight ghost story, this should provide some entertainment.