The Flamingo Rising (Ballantine Reader's Circle) [Paperback]

Larry Baker (Author)

Book Description

Series: Ballantine Reader's Circle | Publication Date: June 23, 1998

In this touching, hilarious novel of the heart and mind, of dreams and memory, of desire and first love, Abe Lee comes of age in the 1960s, living with his unforgettable family at the Flamingo Drive-In Theatre on a scrubby patch of coast between Jacksonville and St. Augustine, Florida. There, some of America's last sweet moments of innocence are unfolding.

For Abe's father, Hubert, there's nothing better than presenting larger-than-life Hollywood fantasies on his vast silver screen. Nothing, that is, except gleefully sparring with Turner West--a funeral home operator who doesn't much appreciate the noise and merriment from the drive-in next door. Within the lively orbit of this ongoing feud is Abe's mother, Edna Marie, whose calm radiance conceals deep secrets; his sister, Louise, who blossoms almost too quickly into a stunning, willful young woman; and Judge Lester, a clumsy man on the ground who turns graceful when he takes to the sky, towing the Flamingo banner behind his small plane. Then Abe falls for Turner's beautiful daughter Grace. That's when, long before the Fourth of July festivities, the fireworks really begin. . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

What could be more all-American than a longstanding family feud between an earnest funeral director and the visionary, grandly egotistical owner of a drive-in movie theater in Florida called the Flamingo? Especially when the owner's son, who narrates the tale, is an adopted Korean boy named Abe. And the owner's daughter, Louise, also Korean, overcomes a slight limp to become a famous movie star. And the son falls for the daughter of the funeral director in one more classically star-crossed romance. And, what's more, in the pre?Civil Rights Sixties, the hired hand who helps keep a lid on the boiling tensions is a wily black man. Young Abe Lee's narration is partly a tender coming-of-age tale, partly an astute view of a family coming painfully apart. Everything goes up in smoke at the end, including Louise's crazy, beloved dog, Frank, whose imprisonment in a tower above the family quarters is a painful reminder that everyone else in this story is boxed in, too?but not everyone breaks free. Highly recommended.?Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

The coming-of-age story is done to a fine turn in Baker's absolutely delightful first novel, which is also a clever spin on the Romeo and Juliet theme. Set in Florida in the 1950s and 1960s, Flamingo Rising features narrator Abraham Isaac Lee, the adopted son of the owner of an extravagant outdoor movie theater located on the beach between Jacksonville and St. Augustine. The erection of his father's dream project is done in open defiance of the funeral parlor next door. The cross-purposes of his father's enterprise (a huge structure that reflected light and life and turned night into day) and the neighboring mortician's business (a quiet place that glorified death) lead in time to a vendetta between the two, but not before Abe falls for the daughter of his father's enemy. The reader knows from the outset that Abe and this girl marry and have a family, for his story is being told in retrospect, but the remembered path to that point makes for a charming tale. Abe's and his sister's home schooling, the man who came to work for his father and became more or less a member of the family, Abe's sister's incredibly ferocious dog, and Abe's sexual maturation are all amusing and poignant milestones. Brad Hooper --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 309 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (June 23, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345427025
• ISBN-13: 978-0345427021
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #689,313 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nostalgic and sweet..., August 28, 2002

By 

Dianna Johnston "Compulsive Reader" (Joplin, MO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Flamingo Rising (Ballantine Reader's Circle) (Paperback)

What good things can I say about Flamingo Rising that hasn't already been said? I completely enjoyed this story and was mesmerized by the innocent coming-of-age story by the narrator, Abraham. This novel is a quick read, chock-full of meaning and sweetness, and invokes a peaceful feeling of nostalgia for the bygone days when there was nothing more magical than a drive-in theatre.

Flamingo Rising tells the story of the feuding Lee and West families in the 1960s. Turner West has built his funeral home overlooking the Atlantic ocean. Not long after, Hubert Lee builds his lifelong dream -- the world's largest drive-in theatre, an icon of life, happiness and merriment -- right next door to the funeral home. Their sparring is nothing short of funny and immature. But what happens later, the involvement of Turner's daughter, Grace, and Hubert's son, Abraham, is what really spark the flames. It's Romeo and Juliet with a twist!

I urge everyone to read Flamingo Rising. The story is told through the eyes of the almost-50 Abraham as he reflects on his childhood and his coming-of-age. However, it is so much more than a love story between the children -- the drive-in employees are so much like a family, the relationship of the Lees and Wests are at times riotous, bittersweet and poignant. And the ending was totally unexpected and very moving. Larry Baker has created a sweetly atmospheric story and one that will stay with me forever. A feel-good, warm-in-the-belly kind of book. If you see a copy, grab it!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Reflective Voice, December 10, 1999

By 

Rebekah Smith (Chapel Hill, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Flamingo Rising (Ballantine Reader's Circle) (Paperback)

Rita Mae Brown with a little more scope, Tom Robbins stopping before the exaggeration is bigger than life, John Irving's thoughtfulness--with a touch of early, fresh, lean John Updike. The prose on page 1 of The Flamingo Rising is strikingly good, and the story that starts there is unfailingly fascinating: funny, simple, metaphorical, true.

These crazy Southern parents are much loved, fully human, and never mere caricature (I have crazy Southern parents: I know). The young man coming of age is also a Korean-adoptee narrator whose sense of himself and life is reflected both in the story's larger metaphors (e.g., Frank the dog, the giant image-tower, a graveyard by the sea, a house of images) and in a thoughtful narrative voice old enough to give one a sense of life and life's passing but true to its youth--also offering a cool but undistanced contrast between its simplicity and life's glorious exaggerations.

I recommend this book for anyone interested in: a contemporary boy's coming of age; the problem of being one's parents' child; humor and profundity where unusual life shows you life at its heart; a very moving, very funny story; how to run a drive-in. And not least for the voice of the narrator. There are a couple of sermons underlying the thoughtfulness, but it's good to have folks like this in the pulpit. (The prose continues to be good) Thanks to Mr. Baker for a deeply moving and delightful work of art.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You've never read anything like it, January 16, 1999

By A Customer

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This review is from: The Flamingo Rising (Ballantine Reader's Circle) (Paperback)

Larry Baker's "The Flamingo Rising" provides a remarkably insightful look into a time period often characterized as "dull." His characters resonate with deft depictions of memorable individuals. You will identify with the eccentrics who populate this entertaining novel, and you will eagerly anticipate the publication of his second novel. If no other follows, it would still stand on its own much as "Catcher in the Rye" would have guaranteed Salinger his permanent place in American literature.