Make Believe: A Novel [Paperback]

Joanna Scott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 20, 2001

When four-year-old Bo is orphaned in the car accident that kills his mother, he becomes the focus of a fierce custody struggle and flees into himself--away from the sea of strangers--where he inhabits an eerie inner landscape.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Joanna Scott, much lauded for her 1997 gothic, The Manikin, sloughs that novel's gloom for the less rarified air of familial torment and interracial romance in Make Believe. A compact jostling of flashback, shifting angles, and hallucinatory impression, her fifth novel is held together by 4-year-old Bo, the object of a contentious custody battle after his teenage mother dies in an automobile accident. Through the boy's eyes we see the disorienting kaleidoscope of adult ambition and impotence, as those vying for him try to sort out not only his life, but their own. "Weep for him," the narrator adjures, "if you're susceptible to pity. But don't let your eyes grow so foggy that you miss the subtle transformation taking place, the transformation of pity into something far more powerful than even Bo could have anticipated."

When volatile Jenny Templin falls for Kamon Gilbert, she imagines that bearing his child will win her both security and love. But Kamon--artistic, yearning, and, much to the displeasure of Jenny's mother and stepfather, black--is killed while Jenny is pregnant, leaving her and the child alone with his sheltering, if overwhelmed, parents. The Gilberts, in turn, seem the obvious choice for guardianship once Bo is orphaned. Jenny's parents, however, struggling with shame and a latent covetousness, win custody of the spirited Bo, casting both families into degrees of disarray.

Bo is the eye of the hurricane throughout. "Think of all he'd been through, all the waiting, his daddy no more than letters carved in stone, his mama gone off somewhere, his grandparents scared away by the law." Predictably, his life with Jenny's parents--who refuse, even, to call him Bo--is trying. Scott tells the story in deliberate, even tones, frequently cataloging the broad and disparate panorama of Bo's horizon. What she uncovers is a world where no one is entirely devoid of selfish motivation, where love can be equal parts affection and, sadly, make-believe. --Ben Guterson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Unafraid to take risks, Scott (The Manikin) is a resourceful writer who explores new territory each time she writes fiction. Here she establishes a dramatic situation at the outset, and uses flashbacks to flesh out the characters whose actions will determine the fate of a precocious, wary four-year-old boy of mixed racial parentage. He is Bo Templin, whose stream of consciousness Scott enters as he hangs upside down, hurt and frightened, in the car his mother, Jenny Templin, has just crashed, resulting in her death. Bo knows he's a "shining brown boy" whose African-American father, Kamon Gilbert, died before he was born; he's been cherished by his paternal grandparents, Erma and Sam, but Jenny's own mother, Marge, and her stepfather, Eddie Gantz, have not made any attempt to see Bo since his birth. When Bo is released from the hospital after an emergency operation for a ruptured spleenAa potentially lethal injury that initially went undetected after he was rescuedAthe loving Gilberts take him in. But then Eddie perceives that if he and Marge win a custody battle for Bo, they could sue the hospital for negligence. Scott omits the court case, which somewhat undermines her story, because it seems unlikely to the reader that Bo would be awarded to his maternal grandparents; but this indeed occurs, on the assumption that a white couple would be perceived as more stable than a working-class black family. Bewildered Bo intuitively perceives that sanctimonious Eddie Gantz hates him; his attempt to escape Eddie's wrath leads to a stunning denouement, both tragic and redemptive. With stylistic gracefulness and technical assurance, Scott allows all the charactersAincluding little BoAto visualize their fantasies, capturing both their wishes and their fears in vivid imaginary scenarios. Depicting their emotional histories with empathy, she grants integrity to people trying to lead decent lives amid hardships. Her attempts to describe events through Bo's eyes sensitively reflect a child's innocent, flawed understanding of the world. This is a compelling story that will leave readers haunted by Scott's powerful moral vision. (Jan.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books; Reprint edition (February 20, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316776661
• ISBN-13: 978-0316776660
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,784,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, moving and significant, February 7, 2000

By 

CRZ (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Make Believe (Hardcover)

From the dazzling opening scene, where we plunge into the story by awakening into the nightmarish aftermath of a car accident as seen from the point of view of a child, Joanna Scott, one of - if not THE- most important and significant voices in modern american fiction, takes us into trip through the frail moral fiber our lives are made of. This is an intensely imagined and observed fable, a tale of the strangers among us, and inside us. It is also an adventure of the language, plotted with unique images and a great sense of moral gravity. MAKE BELIEVE is as wonderful, rewarding and relevant a walk into the fictional woods as you'll find this or any year. With this new novel, Ms.Scott takes a departure from her earlier (and by all means must-read literary gothic) novels and explores with that very same keen and bedazzling eye what lies behind everyday lives, everyday characters. It is an amazing meditation on the forgery of realities, a riddle that strikes at the heart and then goes for the brain and the soul. It is also a breeze to read, a pleasure to find such precise, exquisite and well-crafted writing. Joanna Scott is the BMW of contemporary american fiction. If you're still driving that old Subaru, you owe to yourself to discover this national treasure. Pick up ARROGANCE, or Pulitzer finalist THE MANIKIN of MAKE BELIEVE. And don't do it for notions of "literary prestige" or any such nonsense. Just for the pleasure to lose yourself into her magical world, to truly and shamefully inmerse yourself into the sort of novel that makes the world disappear for a while and , then, as we check back in, allows us to understand it, and ourselves, better. Make Believe, indeed. Of the very first order.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Please tell me that I didn't pay hardcover prices for this, February 5, 2000

By 

Julie A. Earhart (St. Louis, mo United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Make Believe (Hardcover)

Scott's fifth novel is an extreme disappointment. Unlike "The Manikin," her finalist 1997 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction novel, "Make Believe" is dis-jointed, the tone---which should be ominous---is blase, the characters are indistinguishable from each other, and the core of the book is barely discussed. "Make Believe" the story of newly orhaned, Bo, a bi-racial child. Both sets of grandparents are trying to obtain custody of the child. The African-American grandparnets have nutured and loved the boy since his conception; the white grandparents hae refused to acknowledge his existence. Until now. The white grandparents somehow manage to gain temporary custody of the boy, but it is unclear how this happens. the custody battle is only alluded too and is not fully developed. The book's language consists mostly of abstract internal dialogue that is confusing and does nothing to push the story along. Guess they all can't be Pultizer Prize Finalist's. Please try again Ms. Scott, you really area wonderful writer.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the better books of this year, February 10, 2001

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Make Believe (Hardcover)

Only four years old, Bo knows his African-American father Kamon died before he was born. Now as he dangles upside down in the car wreck, it appears to him that his white mother Jenny left him too. His paternal grandparents have always been there for Bo, cherishing and loving him. On the other hand, his maternal grandparents have not seen him since he was born, shunning him as a pariah.

However, when the hospital initially errs by initially missing the fact that the child suffers from a ruptured spleen, suddenly his white grandparents file for guardianship. Jenny's father sees Bo as a means to making millions in a negligence suit against the hospital. He wins guardianship though Bo's Black grandparents have always been there for him and already given him a new loving home. However, Bo quickly learns how much Eddie detests him as the malevolent treatment turns uglier and uglier.

MAKE BELIEVE may be the best book of this year. The story line is believable and emotionally taut and complex. The story line grips the reader from the very beginning when an injured frightened little boy wonders what he did to cause his mommy to go away. The characters are well written and their motives slowly surface so that the reader realizes how complex each key player truly is. Anyone who relishes a profound relationship novel will want to read Joanna Scott's latest story and some of her previous works such as THE MANIKIN.

Harriet Klausner