A thirteen-year-old boy's diary offers an honest, raw, and unvarnished look at the difficulties of adolescence, expressing his searing emotions after he sees his father shot and killed and is forced to endure the killer's trial.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Mahon, a resident of New South Wales, was only 14 years old when she wrote this novel in 1992. But in the 45 brief journal entries that comprise her book, ostensibly the diary of a boy who witnesses his father's murder, the reader receives no such specific information about places or people, and is left to infer the gender of the narrator. Only the dates, from March 2 to May 2, ground the story in the calendar year. The boy records his feelings of loss, anger, emptiness and guilt surrounding the event, including his presumably ineffectual testimony in court against the murderer. The even more vital drama here, though, is domestic: the turbulent relationship between the unnamed protagonist and his grieving mother ("She's been crying all day, all night. She isn't worried about me. She doesn't care"). The prose effectively conveys the boy's depression, as in the many fragmentary ends to diary entries. It works best when it shows a dialectic between question and answer ("We went to a comedy. My friends said it was very funny. Was it? I can't remember what it was about"). The heaviness of tone is representative of a more general adolescent penchant toward alienation and morbidity, creating a sensitive and believable portrait of a critical time in one boy's life. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8-An emotional, two-month diary that records the trauma of a 13-year-old boy who must cope with the sudden death of his father. Withdrawn and incommunicative, the boy resents his mother's visible grief and struggles inwardly with his feelings of loss, anger, guilt, and self-pity. The trial of his father's killer, the witness stand, and the not-guilty verdict further propel him into isolation and despair. He finds solace at the beach and, eventually, in the writing his school guidance counselor encourages. His self-absorption gives way to the realization that he and his mother should be bound together rather than torn apart by what has happened. Writing with candor and intensity, Mahon offers a perceptive account of an adolescent's coming to terms with death. However, questions remain about the circumstances of the murder and about the boy's brief friendship with a blind stranger who commits suicide. While the young man's soul-searching keeps him focused inward, readers may want a more tangible explanation of the events of the story. Nonetheless, the introspective nature of this 14-year-old Australian author's book may inspire other young writers as well.
Gerry Larson, Chewning Middle School, Durham, NC
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Gerry Larson, Chewning Middle School, Durham, NC
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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