Amazon.com Review
"'Don't make things more complicated than they should be' would be my philosophy if I had one." The year is 1975 and that's single-minded Richard Riley Moncrief talking, a Boston seventh grader too focused on his one true love--baseball, especially the Red Sox--to even contemplate that anything else in the universe might have significance. That endearing, maniacal obsession equips Richard with all the philosophy and metaphor he needs to navigate the insular world of St. Colmcille's parochial school, his working-class neighborhood, and all the baseball-related holy sites (the Northeastern U. batting cages, Fenway Park) in between. That is, until busing begins in Boston, racial tensions rise, and a polished, young Dominican émigré named Napoleon Charlie Ellis (who happens to be a bang-up cricket player) enrolls at St. Colmcille's.
The other major event in Richard's life is the arrival of touted rookies Fred Lynn and Jim Rice--the Gold Dust Twins--to the Sox roster. Not long after the two boys find themselves magnetically drawn together, Richard cooks up a new obsession: he will reform this cricket player, and the two of them will fulfill their destiny as the next Gold Dust Twins.
Chris Lynch's convincing sensitivity to a difficult age and topic--along with his clear love of the game--combine to make Gold Dust simply superb, a touching, subtle, and insightful book that comes across as clean as the crack of a bat. (Ages 9 to 12) --Paul Hughes
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Lynch's (Gypsy Davey; Slot Machine) latest novel is set in 1975 Boston, when the Gold Dust Twins, Fred Lynn and Jim Rice, play for the Red Sox and school bussing has begun. Seventh-grade narrator Richard Riley Moncreif sees the world in terms of the snap, crackle and pop sounds of the baseball hitting his Adirondack. That is, until Napoleon Charlie Ellis arrives at his Catholic school from the Dominican Republic and opens Richard's eyes to another set of rules on the playing field. Lynch's best passages concern Richard's passion for the game, as when he describes Fred Lynn's stroke ("Some people see what I'm talking about in ballet or in the shapes of sculpture . I see it in a flawless, speedy and powerful swing of a baseball bat in pursuit of a ball"). But the chapters do not flow easily between the almost poetic baseball scenes to the building of Richard and Napoleon's rocky friendship. The author introduces several provocative situations that go unexplored, such as Napoleon's offhand comment about his professor/poet father ("We function in our own worlds, even though we live in essentially the same place") and the tension that results from Napoleon being black and more affluent than Richard's white working-class family. But baseball fans will not be disappointed; Lynch's acute understanding of the way a person's passion colors his view of the world results in a credible, sympathetic protagonist, and the novel's denouement is as honest as it is heartbreaking. Ages 10-up. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
