The author of the acclaimed novel The Year of the Zinc Penny offers the story of Ozzie Santee, an appealingly clueless 1950s teenager. When Ozzie graduates from high school, his future becomes embodied in the person of the undertaker's luscious daughter. Thus begins Ozzie's darkly hilarious adventures as The Mortician's Apprentice.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
DeMarinis's intelligent, engaging, often funny novel--a sort of West Coast, blue-collar Catcher in the Rye --takes satiric aim at '50s Americana while chronicling the maturation of Ozzie Santee. Raised by a casually promiscuous mother and a succession of stepfathers, high-school rebel Ozzie is graduating, unsure of what he wants to do with his life but cynical and pessimistic about his prospects. Even when he is pursued by Colleen Vogel, daughter of San Diego's preeminent mortician, he proves reluctant to set a wedding date and to embrace his fate as her father's apprentice. The Korean War is lurching to a conclusion, but its effects are everywhere: Ozzie's best friend, Art, marries and has a child to avoid the draft; San Diego's economy is dominated by defense dollars; and Art's father is in danger of being deported for suspected subversive activities. DeMarinis accords his characters grace and dignity. Even Colleen, a scheming temptress determined to become a Donna Reed-ish wife, is portrayed with understanding. Yet DeMarinis ( The Year of the Zinc Penny ) is not at the top of his form here. He introduces an alter ego for Ozzie who seems gratuitous to the story; there are too many passages where the momentum dips; and the ending is rushed and anticlimactic. But his mastery of character nuances, his precise and pungent language and the novel's iron-clad sense of time and place make up for a handful of sins. First serial to GQ; author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In this appealing coming-of-age novel, Ozzie Santee is an 18-year-old high school senior in 1953 San Diego whose life revolves around thoughts of sex and his beloved jazz. With the Cold War raging, his fellow graduating seniors are planning on college or marriage in order to avoid the draft. Ozzie, who thinks he would be happy living in a beach shack with his jazz records, unexpectedly falls in lust with Colleen Vogel, well-to-do daughter of a funeral home director. Colleen begins to guide him toward marriage, family, and an assured position in the funeral business, with Ozzie fighting every step of the way. His rebellion takes the form of trips to Mexico for alcoholic binges and prostitutes, followed by swims in the ocean to clear his head. DeMarinis (The Voice of America, LJ 4/15/91), who has created a wonderful character in Ozzie, has succeeded in capturing a young man's feelings of confusion in the Cold War era. Recommended for most collections.
Patricia Ross, Westerville P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Patricia Ross, Westerville P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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