- Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Blue Hen (TRD); Reprint edition (Dec 3 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0425187616
- ISBN-13: 978-0425187616
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.5 x 2.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 345 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
A molestation incident in the day-care facility of a small town sends the community spinning out of control in Akst's complex, thought-provoking follow-up to his raucous, over-the-top debut, St. Burl's Obituary. Akst narrates the story through Terry Mathers, a major daily reporter turned editor of the weekly Webster Chronicle. Mathers becomes intrigued when an attractive expert on child abuse named Diana Shirley shows up at a town meeting, and her arrival quickly becomes significant when she unearths some questionable practices at the local day-care center. Mathers writes an editorial supporting her investigation, but their quest turns problematic when they fall into an affair while Mathers's wife also has an affair, with one of the paper's most prominent advertisers. The situation gets even more incestuous when Mathers's father, a prominent journalist and national pundit, runs with the story as the allegations spread to include a possible Satanic cult. Akst underplays the sensationalism of the case as it comes to trial, choosing instead to focus on the intricate ties of smalltown life; Webster comes apart, and Mathers begins to question his original editorial as the accusations spiral into a literal and figurative witchhunt. This book lacks the humor of Akst's masterful debut novel, and the absence of a child as a principal character is especially noticeable given the plot. But this book has its own special set of strengths, the most prominent being Akst's ability to take on a hot-button topic and create a memorable protagonist whose emotional decisions reveal him to be wise, flawed and all too deeply human.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.From Library Journal
Akst's second novel promises to garner the same respect as his first, St. Burl's Obituary (LJ 2/1/96). Fans of Richard Russo will be drawn to protagonist Terry Mathers as he struggles with the declining financial stability of the small-town newspaper he co-owns and edits, his failing marriage, and his long-suffering relationship with his successful television journalist father. While he fights his own demons, he must objectively cover crucial matters in the village of Webster including the threatened takeover of a local department store by a big chain and allegations of sexual abuse and Satanism at the local preschool (a plot line inspired by the famous McMartin case in California in the 1980s). Akst, a columnist for the Sunday New York Times, uses bold and descriptive language to tell a story that takes unexpected twists and turns. Even in small towns, people are perhaps not what they seem. Recommended for public libraries. Karen Traynor, Sullivan Free Lib., Chittenango, NY
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
Anniversaries are important to journalists, and so it was that on this, the fifth anniversary of his less-than-triumphant return to the town of his boyhood, Terry Mathers prepared himself for the ordeal of the night ahead by single-handedly smoking a reefer of Rastafarian proportions and heading hatless our into the night. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Anniversaries are important to journalists, and so it was that on this, the fifth anniversary of his less-than-triumphant return to the town of his boyhood, Terry Mathers prepared himself for the ordeal of the night ahead by single-handedly smoking a reefer of Rastafarian proportions and heading hatless our into the night. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
No one is innocent,
By
This review is from: Webster Chronicle A Novel (Hardcover)
In just his second novel, Daniel Akst has certainly grasped a level of cynicism that nearly overshadows a brilliant book about the loss of innocence in small-town America.Akst's The Webster Chronicle captures a town in termoil after an allegation of spanking at a local day care evolves into a national drama with the town's newspaper editor at the center of it all. With so many integral parts to the puzzle, the message is so muddled and gets lost in a maze that eventually reaches a lousy ending in the final two pages. While Terry Mathers, Akst's complex and pot-smoking protagonist, eventually reaches an obvious epiphany, the fate Akst's creates for him is so far from what anyone might expect, particulary his final career and relationship destinations. Mathers, like his father and his wife, end the novel with no redeeming qualities. But that is Akst's ultimate goal and message. In a complex and inter-connected world, nothing and no one are as innocent as they appear.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Awful, just awful...,
By
This review is from: Webster Chronicle A Novel (Hardcover)
Worst book I've read all year (this is being written in late November) and strong contender for worst book of the decade. Flat, leaden, dull prose. Cardboard characters with no depth. Silly little trivial asides. No sense whatever of plotting, timing or narrative. The author uses a true story from the pages of the Wall Street Journal as the basis for this book, but does not realize that he still has an obligation to write well and make the characters come alive -- you can't hang your words on an extoskeleton; the book has to have internal structure. The ending is farcial, and the subplot conflict between father and son is a genuine embarassment to read. Avoid at all costs. I want my money back!!
4.0 out of 5 stars
A serious, well-written novel,
By
This review is from: Webster Chronicle A Novel (Hardcover)
Daniel Akst takes his readers into the small town of Webster, where Terry Mathers and his estranged wife Abigail run the weekly newspaper, The Webster Chronicle, in a time of change. The local department store is embroiled in a takeover bid that threatens the downtown as Webster knows it (no matter that most people shop at the mall), and the Alphabet Soup preschool is so popular that they admit children on a competitive basis (even though it is used primarily for day-care and not academic enrichment.) Single parenthood is on the rise. In this environment, the stage is set for an unknowning reenactment of the Salem witch trials: a drunken, bereaved mother shouts out a single, misunderstood accusation, and the town is forever changed by hysteria.Akst is best here when he explores Webster through the eyes of Terry Mathers, the stuttering, struggling, editor who feels that he will always be living in the shadow of his father, a well-known newscaster. Emily,the owner of the preschool who is accused of child abuse, also has a compelling perspective, but some of the others water down the central thrust of the novel. Akst, in his attempt to fully explore the issues, spreads himself too thin, sometimes glossing over areas he has carefully introduced, other times concentrating on a minor aspect. However, the quality of the writing carries this story through its weaknesses with aplomb. Although THE WEBSTER CHRONICLE does not have the emotional energy of Akst's debut, ST. BURL'S OBITUARY, it does have the mark of a maturing novelist. Akst is a literary talent to watch. I recommend this book for readers of literary fiction as well as for those interested in issues of small town America, false memories, child abuse, and mass hysteria.
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