Customer Reviews

Jacquelyn

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4 star:		(2)
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Jacquelyn Carleton lives a life of privilage in 1930's Chicago, but then her father's business, weakened by the Depression, goes under and they are penniless, her father in ill health, her mother lost in her own dreamland, and her brother associating with shady characters. It's up to Jacky to support the family, and her new life presents new challenges. Good Sunfire book, a lot of period detail and a good story overall. I reccommend this to Sunfire fans... E-mail if you'd like to know more.

4 stars. I loved this book, mainly because it was a STORY and not just about one girl's tough decision about whom to date.

Gordon (actually a 2 woman writing team) brought the Depression era to life, as much as YA literature goes into the nitty-gritty, anyway. The heroine finds her inner strength when her cushy lifestyle is stripped away from her in the aftermath of the Crash and discovers just how shallow that life was, and how useless her upper-class girls' school "education" really is in the desperate, clawing world of unemployment and shattered bank accounts. Fine embroidery is useless working a candy box factory machine, and Jacky suffers one humiliation after another as she tries to scrape money together for her family. She's one of the more admirable Sunfire heroines because of her perseverance and her lack of "speshulness." Throughout the story, she is very real and likable in her drive to do something useful, her failure in job after job very realistic, given her lack of skills.

The weakness in this one was Jacky's mother after the reality of their financial situation hits home. Sunfires suffer sometimes from making the adults worthless in order to make the heroine seem more mature and responsible, and in this respect "Jacquelyn" was typical.

Another weakness was Jacquelyn's Swedish immigrant suitor, Stefan. He was so overbearingly "traditional" (marry me, stay home and make babies) that I knew he was destined to exit the story sometime. It was a bit out of the Sunfire ordinary, however, because usually the "down home" guy gets the girl, while Mr. Brash-and-Flashy-Pants is arrogant and never scores. Not so here. Said Mr. Brash-and-Flash-Pants, David Burns, is a showbiz hoofer with all the decency that the Sunfire farmboys usually have and he had lots of good dialogue. Most of the easygoing, adaptable people did, in this book - the traditional people were stuffy. I have no idea if the toff on the cover is supposed to be Burns. My guess is he is Jacky's money- and society-conscious, and short-lived, fiance Broderick Stokes III. But if he's supposed to be David Burns, I had a mental image of him being like James Cagney (a hoofer himself) rather than some guy with hooded eyes in a poofy blouse and cravat. In about 40 years, that guy looks like he's going to wind up on Gilligan's Island.

The third weakness was Jacky's brother Baxter. It was obvious that what he was up to wasn't what it seemed. The dragging out of the "omg, he's a gangster!" story was a bit weak, but he was a snappy character, so all is forgiven.

If you're a selective collector, this one should be an automatic keeper.