Customer Reviews

Safekeeping: More Ta

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The protagonist of Safekeeping, Robbie James St. James Burnes Walter Farhall-Pladroman, is a boy-hero cut of the same cloth as any archetypal boy-hero, but no one knows who he is! No one has to read about his trip to America in their English class at school, nor do they have to hear about his being placed in the charge of Thadeus Lowry, a journalist who is like W.C. Fields with a typewriter, or his subsequent run from a mob hitman, or his hiding out in the home of a Harlem prostitiute. That's just a shame. The author's notoriety for his Fletch books and movies seem to have overshadowed this little-known gem he produced in the early '80s. There was not much in the arena of children's literature suitable for adult consumption for him to compete with in the latter half of the twentieth century, but the book was published with nary a ripple in the literary pond. Pick it up. For the love of a hero. For the love of words strung so tightly and beautifully together that they cradle a reader like the mother Robbie is left without. For your children, the same reason that compelled my mother to pick it up for me. It's not readily available here, but finding it is worth the effort, and saving it from obscurity is a noble, noble crusade.

This book was given to me by my mother based on a bit on the back cover that compared the author to Mark Twain. As wrong as that may be, I'm glad she picked it up. The fellow who wrote it is actually better known for the Fletch character and the related books. The same whimsical, tongue-in-cheek tone is present here, but where the book really distinguishes itself is in character development. The personalities of Robbie, Thadeus Lowry, and the Savalos are trompe l'oeil paintings of people done in the broadest strokes, and the evocation of the war era in New York is magnificent. While a thrilling and entertaining read, the book also affords insights into America, as seen through the eyes of Robbie, a young stranger here. The most amazing thing about Safekeeping, and the thing that has stayed with me for well over ten years (the time since first I read the book) is the cultural differences between America and England being so clearly illustrated by Robbie's ten-year old eyes taking in America as a whole as if it was an unfinished work, waiting for his more mature hand to coax some beauty out of it and out of the lives of the people he meets here.