| Female friendship -- Fiction |
| Nineteen seventies -- Fiction. |
| Connecticut -- Fiction |
| 1970s |
| 70s (Twentieth century decade) |
| Seventies (Twentieth century decade) |
Available:
Library | Shelf Number | Shelf Location | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Taunton Public Library | SHEEHAN, AURELIE | 1ST FLOOR STACKS | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
A beautiful and resonant novel about a friendship that shaped a life during a decade of instability Everyone remembers age thirteen. For Alison Glass, it was 1975, the year she moved to Weston, Connecticut, with her bohemian parents and her horse, Jazz. Life was about trying to navigate the hypocrisies of an unfamiliar affluent town and figuring out how she might blend in at school despite her status as the new girl with a back brace for scoliosis. Kate Hamilton, the popular daughter of an egomaniacal New Age guruthe sham shamanand his substance-loving wife, was an unlikely friend, the strong girl Alison regarded as her saving grace. Bonding over their love of horses, they rode away the afternoons, creating a private world for themselves as a way to survive the excesses of their surroundings and the adults who cast them adrift in such a tumultuous time. With the clarity of hindsight, Alison looks back on how the tumult inevitably broke through. Set against the backdrop of the often hilariously tacky and disturbingly reckless 1970s, Aurelie Sheehans luminous "History Lesson for Girls" is at once an emotional inquest and an elegy for a friendship that meant everything. As Alison traces the giddy highs and crushing lows that made her the person she was at thirteen, a picture emerges of a friendship that simply couldnt survive the weight of the shadows under which it was forged. Combining the poignancy and elegance of "The Virgin Suicides" with the sharp observational eye of "The Ice Storm, History Lesson for Girls" is an enchanting tribute to the lingering influence of friendship andsignificance of personal history.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Set in 1975, Sheehan's second novel skillfully depicts an adolescent girl's small but resonant steps toward adulthood; unfortunately, the bigger steps are handled with a bit too much theatricality. The teenage tendency toward obsession-whether for horses, a particular band or CD, or a single, all-consuming friendship-provides the fuel for this uneven suburban coming-of-age, capturing with artful simplicity the quotidian magic of an improbable friendship. Unpopular 13-year-old Alison Glass, new to Weston, Connecticut and afflicted with scoliosis, and the popular, independent Kate Hamilton discover one another and the world. Sheehan nails important adolescent moments like playing it cool when offered a first cigarette or having one's taste in music scrutinized by a new friend. The quiet pleasures of the pair's private moments clash with increasingly stagy subplots: Alison's persistent fear of undergoing surgery to correct her spine, the over-the-top violence of Kate's drunk, greedy father, and the indiscrete affair between him and Alison's hippie mother. Sheehan perceptively identifies the outside world as a corrupting agent in fragile friendships; however, as Kate herself comments, "It's usually not so damn obvious." (July) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Review
An intelligent, original coming-of-age novel from the author of The Anxiety of Everyday Objects (2004) and Jack Kerouac Is Pregnant (1994). In the fall of 1975, Alison Glass moves from a working-class town to the tony suburb of Weston, Conn., where she begins junior high. Alison enjoys Kurt Vonnegut. Her lunches consist of health-food abominations concocted by her mother. She wears yellow plastic clogs, a floppy hat made of pink corduroy and a back brace. To say that she doesn't fit into her new surroundings is an understatement. But Sheehan makes the wise and refreshing choice to not dwell on the indignities of junior high. Sensitive and perceptive, but not much given to self-pity, Alison is more bemused by the popular than desperate to join them. And she doesn't need jocks and cheerleaders when she has Kate Hamilton. Beautiful, self-assured and quick with a devastating comeback, Kate transcends her school's social scene, and her friendship protects Alison from the worst of its depredations. In any case, blonde girls in Shetland sweaters are nothing compared to the challenges Alison and Kate face at home. Alison's scoliosis may require surgery--despite the brace, despite the New Age remedies her mother insists they try--and her parents' marriage is falling apart. Kate's situation is even more volatile: Her father, Tut, is a self-styled shaman and a sociopath given to cocaine-fueled rages. Sheehan's depiction of Tut is typical of the way she creates all her characters. He's clearly a monster--and his crushingly charismatic presence makes it more or less inevitable that this story will turn to tragedy--but he's never a caricature. This is less loopy than the author's previous work, but her language remains carefully off-kilter, gorgeously specific and shot through with unobtrusive wit. When she considers Kate's hands for the first time, Alison thinks: "Her fingers were long and aristocratic, also a little red and chapped. They were the kind of fingers you'd expect on Joan of Arc or some other capable yet elegant heroine." Lyrical, assured, heartbreaking. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
With her cumbersome back brace and bohemian parents, 13-year-old Alison is an outsider in her Connecticut town until popular Kate befriends her. At school, and on their horses, the girls find escape together. Against a backdrop of 1970s dysfunction (abusive new-age gurus; parental drug benders), the family secrets are sharp and shocking. In her second novel, Sheehan juxtaposes small moments the way an artist uses colors, creating potency and meaning with immediate contrasts. In her bright kitchen, Alison listens to Kate's voice--a dark thread in a dark hole --and realizes that her friend is in trouble. These subtle details amplify the seeming contradictions in larger events: a normal school day after madness at home; a child parenting a parent; the past reappearing in the present. And then there's the hope that surfaces after anguish: There was no reason that I couldn't live this way, says Alison about her twisted spine. Like any imperfect but plausible thing, a tree growing around a telephone pole. A tender, unflinching, and distinctive view of how girls grow up. --Gillian Engberg Copyright 2006 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Sheehan's first novel, The Anxiety of Everyday Objects, dealt with a young woman seeking direction. Her second book also centers on a young woman recalling a pivotal year in her life. Thirteen-year-old Alison Glass, marked by the scoliosis brace she wears as well as by her nonconformist artist parents and their not-quite-successful transition into suburbia, is destined to be an outsider. She is saved from total isolation and humiliation by Kate Hamilton, a girl gifted with the ability to be different and still belong to the in crowd. The two spend hours together riding horses, Alison free of her brace and Kate free of her abusive parents. As part of a class project, they write about a lost heroine named Sarah, whose story intertwines with their own, revealing their hopes and fears. The girls' friendship is a gift that allows Alison to withstand a year of odd medical treatments and the slow dissolution of her family. It is not quite enough, however, to allow the pair a perfect, happy ending, grounding this compelling coming-of-age story in melancholy. Recommended for public libraries.-Jan Blodgett, Davidson Coll. Lib., NC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.