Donald Cooper returns home after twenty years to purge the adolescent memories from which he left town to escape, in a compelling story that summons up the intimate and innocent family life of the 1950s. 25,000 first printing. National ad/promo.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In this quip-packed novel from the author of Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? , narrator Donald Cooper, a divorced father and gag writer in L.A., reassesses his life and finally comes of age. Donald is gloomy: the results of his lung biopsy are pending, his girlfriend has just stormed out of the apartment, it's his 45th birthday and no well-wishers have called--not even his elderly mother back in Chicago. Donald himself has avoided his hometown since his younger brother's death 25 years ago. But when he learns that his mother has been hospitalized after a fall, he rushes to her bedside. She persuades him to retrieve some items from the house where he grew up, and returning there allows him to begin a protracted eulogy to Danny, who died at 18. In no particular order, he recalls baseball games, family dinners, holidays and dating, telling how Danny, his closest friend, shrugged off competition though he was a natural at sports and easily won girls over with his mature sensitivity. Powers based this novel on a one-man show, Scissors, Paper, Rock , in which he toured the country in 1989; reading it is like watching a series of home movies.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Do not be misled by the awkwardly hyphenated title. Powers, author of The Last Catholic in America ( LJ 2/15/73) and Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? ( LJ 12/1/75), offers a well-crafted tale of humor and redemption. The story follows comedy writer Donald Cooper as he returns to his family home and confronts the grief he has carried for 20 years. Cooper's memories of growing up in a Chicago neighborhood, Saturday baseball, evenings on the porch, and unfinished lives are counterpoised with the complexities of his present relationships. Told as a series of flashbacks interspersed with ironic commentary, the result is a funny and poignant tale of the human journey and family bonds. An excellent addition to all fiction collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/15/91.
- Jan Blodgett, St. Mary's Cty. Records Ctr. & Archives, Leonardtown, Md.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Jan Blodgett, St. Mary's Cty. Records Ctr. & Archives, Leonardtown, Md.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's a real shame that this is out of print,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Junk-Drawer Corner-Store Front-Porch Blues (Hardcover)
I loved the other John R. Powers books and discovered this one, believe it or not, in an airport gift shop. As with his other books, it was a joy to read and had an emotional depth so rarely found in books that are also miraculously funny. Powers may well be the most underrated writer to emerge in the last 30 years. His books are so entertaining, you don't notice yourself being moved. Until later, that is. Like, ten seconds later. Wonderful writing I recommend to anyone with a heart and a funny bone.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Book,
By Brad Fritz (Wichita, Kansas) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Junk-Drawer Corner-Store Front-Porch Blues (Hardcover)
I think this book is an excellent book and I just love everything that John R. Powers writes. He has a way of being funny and poignant at the same time. He writes about growing up in Chicago as if you are actually doing it yourself. His way of writing draws you in because it is very funny and touching and really makes you think about life. The fact of the matter is that I loaned this book to a friend and now I can't find it in print again. It is truly a good book!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A pleasant memoir turns unexpectedly meaningful,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Junk-Drawer Corner-Store Front-Porch Blues (Hardcover)
One of the marks of truly fine writing, as it is with any work of art from film ("Glory" comes to mind) to music (Beethoven and Beatles), is a physical response from the reader/viewer. "Junk Drawer" illicited that from me. It starts as an amiable memoir, at best. The dialogue between Donald and his nurse, his mother and his girlfriend in the early chapters sound more like a trite sitcom than literature. But the story turns unexpectedly meaningful and touching. The passages in which Donald matter-of-factly evaluates what the rest of his life will be like after a major event disrupts his family are so perfectly understated, so full of insight and devoid of maudlin pathos, reading them actually made me feel flushed and dizzy. It's THAT devastating. But, of course, this is John R. Powers and the sense of hopefulness at book's end is welcome and not out of place. "Junk Drawer" isn't Powers' best work (THAT title goes to "Unoriginal Sinner and the Ice Cream God") and certainly not his funniest. But those moments of dramatic realization are perhaps the purest and most affecting things he's ever put on paper.
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