This month we are privileged to have our first guest reviewer - Mom! Here's her analysis of the book:
romp
noun \ˈrämp, ˈrȯmp\: high-spirited,
carefree, and boisterous play
farce
noun+: a light dramatic composition marked by broadly
satirical comedy and improbable plot
Dead End In Norvelt
noun+: a
synonym for "romp" and "farce"
You just gotta love it!
This is the kid's version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, or
my favorite new author's Wyrd Sisters.
If you take it seriously, you'll be insulted. If you look at it askance, you can be
charmed. This book takes a 1950's dying
small town, mixes it with "duck and cover" paranoia and turns it on
its head. I loved everything but the
nosebleeds - "please please NO MORE BLOOD!"
And what really saved the ridiculousness of it was the
humanity of the individuals - Jack's mom, dad and above all, Miss Volker. I love Miss Volker and her obituaries; she
loved those old people - her peers and friends.
And she took care of Jack, in her own way. Cautuerizing his nostrils
with a vet's instrument?? Yup - those
were the days..... and NO - I don't
think kids were driving around in cars at 10 - but most certainly at 14 - and
wasn't that fun?!!
The horrible murdering?
Nah - it was just a kid's murder mystery - and the author gave plenty of
foreshadowing so that it wasn't a surprise at the end that those old people
didn't kick the bucket naturally.
Well dear family - there you have it - Mother is wyrd!
Mom - I had no idea you were such a great and insightful writer! I feel completely humbled by the past two reviews. Our family is super lame and forgot to read a book this month! But we PROMISE to read in July. This book sounds fun - it sounds like the Amazon reviewers were taking themselves too seriously.
ReplyDeleteI bought the book, I've just got to get around to reading it. It looks like a fun book. I'll try to read it soon.
ReplyDeleteI love the review, mom! Eva enjoyed the book a lot, and now Jeff has it so I haven't read it yet, but I'm excited to as soon as I can wrangle it away from Jeff!
ReplyDeleteSo I finally finished the book! I have to admit that about 100 pages into it I kind of wanted to put it down and probably would have if not for this obligation. The plot was slow moving, the nosebleeds never ending, and historical fiction has never really tickled my fancy. But I finally started to appreciate the author's masterful writing style, the characters' honest goodness, and even the quirky plot. Not to mention the nosebleeds died down at about the halfway point so that helped immensely. :) I liked how Jack really did like helping Miss Volker, and not just because it got him out of his room. He was a normal kid who got into his fair share of scrapes but had such a good heart and genuineness that Ioved. The author did a wonderful job weaving in allusions, themes and vocabulary that all went along with each other. Like when he warned the horse War Chief that mom was headed on a warpath. Or he compared the houses in Norvelt to Monopoly houses and the the family played monopoly later on in the book. Then just a few pages after the Monopoly game, Jack describes leaping from paving stones and silently counting them like Monopoly spaces. Pretty clever, huh? So in the end I enjoyed the book. Like mom said, it was a great farce and romp, with likable characters and witty writing.
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