- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Random House (May 10 1994)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0679422048
- ISBN-13: 978-0679422044
- Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 15.7 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 612 g
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
California dreams, suburban strangeness and Walt Disney form the backdrop for this deceptively light, engaging novel about an Anaheim real estate scheme set in the early '50s. Bud is a recent arrival to SoCal, a soda truck driver and part-time dreamer who tries to better himself and his family through get-rich-quick schemes worthy of Ralph Kramden. With friends and neighbors, Bud tries to figure out the proposed location of the animation mogul's planned theme park, then to buy a parcel of the land and sell it to Disney at an inflated price. MacPherson ( The Lucifer Key ), a Premiere staffer who grew up a mile from the orange grove that would become Disneyland, captures the loopy, apprehensive anticipation of the new California suburbs perfectly, and he surrounds Bud with a wonderfully quirky cast of couples. At heart, though, this is a novel about family, and MacPherson strikes it rich with his delicate, sympathetic writing about the wonders and limits of the nuclear unit. The conflict between Bud and his adolescent son Callum is particularly sharp and telling, as is the subplot in which Bud hocks his wife's brooch in order to pursue his dream. The flaws are minor: the pace sometimes slows to a crawl, the female characters are mostly superficial and, occasionally, a scene will be a real clunker. But Disney fans especially will delight in this fictional exploration of the goofy legacy of uncle Walt, who "swims through dreams the way a shark swims through the water."
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Bud constantly dreams of striking it rich, and when his ten-year-old son Dallum discovers that Walt Disney, the greatest dreamer of all, plans to build his Magic Kingdom right in their own southern California backyard, Bud enlists his friends and relatives in a plan to buy up available land in Orange County and make a killing by selling it to Disney Enterprises at a nice profit. Despite some broad humor and authentic 1950s touches (the Buster Brown X-ray machine, muumuus, a visit to Knott's Berry Farm), this is a disappointing novel. The writing is undistinguished, and the wide cast of characters is never developed enough to make readers really care about what happens to this group of heretofore incompetent dreamers. California libraries should consider purchase.
- Nancy Pearl, Washington Ctr. for the Book, Seattle
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Nancy Pearl, Washington Ctr. for the Book, Seattle
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Be thankful for small blessings, Aug 8 2010
By James Tortolano - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: In Cahoots:: A Novel of Southern California, 1953 (Hardcover)
"In Cahoots" has the distinction of being one of the few novels set in Garden Grove, the community immediately to the south of Anaheim. The author was a resident in his youth, and includes many details of growing up in Garden Grove in the Fifties in this pleasant book. He takes some liberties with the facts -- there was never a balcony in the Gem Theater and the fountain in Euclid Park (now the Village Green) appears to be a literary invention. The plot is pedestrian and the characters thinly sketched, but it does evoke a time and place with considerable skill. It's no "Cannery Row" which will put Garden Grove on the map, but for those of us in the shadow of Anaheim, it's better than nothing.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
I really liked it, Jun 15 2009
By Eric Mueller - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: In Cahoots:: A Novel of Southern California, 1953 (Hardcover)
I have to say-- I really enjoyed this book. I've always been intrigued by the idea of Southern California in the '50s, and especially Orange County-- and when you throw in Disneyland, well, it's about perfect. It was so cool to see so many things referenced in the book that are still around (like the Pageant of the Masters). Lovely little book.
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