From Amazon.com
It's 1973, and Kristin Folger's diary is full of the dubious joys of being 14. Her body is doing weird things without her permission ("A giant betrayal! … My hips have spread apart like two wishbones being pulled from either side"), her parents' constant bickering is getting on her nerves ("Are there any adults who want to take responsibility for their lives? I think they're a bunch of blamers"), and school is just plain gross ("High school. Cesspool. What more can I say?"). But it's what Kristin doesn't write about that bothers her the most, and that's the "ghost" who lives upstairs--the howling, drooling ghost who used to be her brother David before he came back from Vietnam, who's now just a crippled shadow living behind a locked door. Growing up is hard. For Kristin, dealing with the treacherously changing landscapes of school and home, and her beloved brother's zombielike state, it feels almost impossible: "Now there's a canyon between me and everybody else. And all I can do is fall into the space between." Using her journal as a buffer against a world gone crazy, Kristin tries to close that canyon--one page at a time.
The Life History of a Star is a heartbreaking but ultimately uplifting chronicle of a wounded family during a confusing time, as seen through the eyes of a wise woman/child. Anyone who is or has ever been 14 will quickly find him- or herself walking the proverbial mile in Kristin Folger's platforms. First-time author Kelly Easton has written a "star," indeed. (Ages 12 and older) --Jennifer Hubert
--Ce texte provient d'une édition qui n'est plus publiée ou qui est non diponible.
From Publishers Weekly
Watergate and Patty Hearst help form the 1973-1974 backdrop to this arresting first novel, told through journal entries. Kristin Folger's typical coming-of-age crises (beginning menstruation, ambivalence about her awakening sexuality) are overshadowed by the "ghost" in her attic and its pervasive influence on her family's life. A profusion of period details (references to TV shows, bands, products) and sarcastic observations about her parents' shortcomings and school get the story off to a slightly choppy start. But it doesn't take long for the 14-year-old to find her voice she reports psychologically rich dreams, recapitulates her revealing dialogues with friends and longs for escape (at one point she even sends for a brochure from a ritzy Swiss boarding school). At times, the novel is genuinely funny, perhaps all the more so because of its wrenching contrasts. A quarter of the way through, the "ghost" is revealed as Kristin's beloved older brother, David, destroyed by the Vietnam War. David's condition is never spelled out; it is enough to see its effects on the family. Easton is ambitious in her combination of the witty and the tragic, and the authenticity of her protagonist is never in doubt. Ages 12-up. (Apr.)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--Ce texte provient d'une édition qui n'est plus publiée ou qui est non diponible.
