From Publishers Weekly
Dutch novelist Moring (In Babylon) has penned a slim, elegant volume about a young boy coming of age in the Netherlands during the 1960s. David Speijir, a 12-year-old with a precocious bent for cooking, lives quietly with his parents. His father is an unemployed engineer and former pilot who builds model airplanes in lieu of available work, and his mother is a nurse. The novel proceeds at a graceful pace, eschewing the exigencies of plot and relying instead on detailed descriptions of home life. Moring slowly reveals the pressures on the Speijirs, writing delicately of buried tensions between the parents and the difficult memories they share of World War II. An old wartime friend of David's father, Humbert Coe, adds a splash of color in one delightful scene, he takes David to a restaurant, where the boy gives the chef a much-needed cooking lesson. The book ostensibly climaxes one stormy night on the Dutch coast, as waves crash against the shore outside the house in which Mrs. Speijir's parents live. Even as all the elements of a classic gothic tale converge, Moring refrains from slipping into cliche, and shades the scene with sensitivity and understatement. A coda, set in the 1990s, provides a fittingly enigmatic conclusion in the form of a strange fairy tale. This deftly woven story, subtly but beautifully written, rewards with its polished, discreet exploration of a family still suffering from the wounds of a conflict acted out on the body and the spirit.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
David Speijer lives with his parents above a doll-repair shop. One day, when he and his unemployed father are talking with the doll doctor, David comes up with an idea. His father can build model planes and sell them to children who want to play with model planes but don't want to build them. His father, a former pilot, takes to the idea, and soon the plane building becomes a family effort. But David's mother is dissatisfied with what she sees as his father's lack of motivation. When Humbert Coe, an old friend of the family and former spy, arrives at the family's doorstep, he encourages David's passion for cooking. Now a food critic, Humbert takes David to a fancy restaurant, where David ends up besting the cook after receiving a less-than-satisfactory dish and agreeing to a friendly competition. But David's idealized world is not as peaceful and comfortable as it seems, and the event that shatters his illusions will haunt him and his choices throughout his life. An atmospheric and moving tale.
Kristine HuntleyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
