From Publishers Weekly
McDonell's first novel, published when he was 17, was an acclaimed 300,000-copy bestseller—a daunting achievement for this emotionally intricate but iffy sophomore effort to match. The author of
Twelve, now 21, is a bit too experienced to be a boy wonder, but he's not quite a mature writer, a 'twixt phase that bedevils this novel about tragic family secrets, sibling madness and the abrupt onset of adult responsibility. Part one of the rat-a-tat-tat tale—most chapters are two or three pages—is set in Thailand, where Mike, a well-bred Harvard freshman interning for the summer at a Hong Kong magazine, is researching a story on stoned Western travelers. Part two takes place back in Manhattan as September 11, 2001, nears: Mike's quarrelsome parents are dead in a house fire and his revered older brother, perhaps responsible for the blaze, is prone to paralyzing hallucinations. McDonnell has a knack for capturing place with sharp-eyed, vivid prose: scenes set in Bangkok's whirl of sex and drugs, and his evocation of 9/11 disbelief and horror are both charged with a reality that's reportorial in its authenticity. But the two halves of the novel, linked loosely by Mike's search for the truth about his family, don't quite gel.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School Having delivered his first critically acclaimed novel,
Twelve (Grove/Atlantic, 2002), when he was still a teenager, McDonell shows that his talent is substantial as he turns to a different scene and character type. Mike, demonstrably sensitive and insightful, is a college student who grew up wealthy and is vaguely haunted by the mythologies of his parents' generation. He spends the first half of the book working as a journalism intern in Thailand, self-conscious of his role in the Bangkok of student tourists and expatriates, some of whom may once have known his parents in their own youth. He tries to live up to his ambition to investigate, not perpetuate, the Western fantasies of the Far East any more than is necessary to get both the story about backpackers and some personal info about his parents' college days. Back in the United States, the story takes an unexpected turn: Mike's parents have died in a house fire and his older brother has been released only recently from a psychiatric facility. The story begins again, in Manhattan, on September 11, 2001. While Mike disintegrates psychologically as these plotlines cross, McDonell offers a realistic bit of hope for his hero in the form of a faith assertion that older adolescents frequently find in the face of crisis. Teens who like the independence of Holden Caulfield will appreciate Mike.
Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
