Verbose, surreal and disturbing, this picaresque tale is at times so thick with metaphor and quasi-profundity that it becomes nearly unbearable. Matt, an introspective orphan who witnessed his parents' murder, is on a idealistic quest to find Andalusia, the playful babysitter of his childhood, who lavished affection on him during her temporary residence in his family's Des Moines duplex. Misbegotten overtones of Huck Finn abound as he flees an orphanage headed by the predictably perverted Father Larry and lights out for the territory with an amoral, beautiful black boy named Jimmy. Bizarre scenes of sex and violence become commonplace for the homeless pair as they hitchhike across the U.S., and Matt admits to homosexual longings though Andalusia is no less on his mind. Later, minus Jimmy, Matt forms dynamic relationships with other hapless teens and rare moments of lucidity provide respite from the unrestrained psychedelia. First-novelist Beachy has an uncanny knack for portraying the kaleidoscopic thoughts of one who has been wide awake for too long, but in order to accompany his antihero on this unrelenting road-trip one needs a verbal snowplow.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
After the murder of both his parents, Matt escapes from an orphanage and hitchhikes randomly across America with his mysterious friend Jimmy (possibly his own alter ego). Along the road they encounter religious fanatics, disturbed Vietnam veterans, anorexic teenagers, and love-starved deviants of all sorts. This panorama of postmodern "decadence and angst" is alternately comic and deeply troubling. Through it all, Matt is seeking the lost innocence he associates with his former babysitter, a kindly black woman named Andalusia. Rambling and richly allusive, this surreal account of Matt's travels with Jimmy recalls earlier journeys of Kerouac and Cassady, Twain's Huck and Jim, and, at times, Steinbeck's George and Lennie.
- Albert E. Wilhelm, Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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