A Keeper of Sheep - Softcover

William Carpenter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0349106649 ISBN 13: 9780349106649

Publisher: Abacus, 1995

Synopsis

While spending her summer on Cape Cod, "Penguin" Solstice gets involved in caring for a composer who is struggling to complete his work before he dies of AIDS and learns to trust her emotions instead of depending on her intellect. IP.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

Poet Carpenter hits the ground running in his first novel with rich language and lofty ideals, but loses steam with a premise that becomes exhausted by the end. Penguin Solstice, a radical feminist freshman at Dartmouth, and three activist friends translate their passion for justice into arson when they torch the Beta Sig house in retaliation for a gang rape that took place there. Expelled from school, Penguin travels to Squid Harbor, Cape Cod, where her divorced father, a famous sculptor, and his 26-year-old prot‚g‚e and new wife, Dorothy, are living in a seaside cabin. Unsure of her next move, Penguin accepts the invitation of long-time family friend and neighbor, distinguished Harvard professor Joshua Brand, to care for his dying lover while he's out of town. Responsibility has never before disturbed Penguin's cynical, cerebral life, but she rises to its challenge by tending well and becoming attached to her patient, Arnold Franchetti, a composer who is fighting to complete his last score before succumbing to AIDS. The plot conflict--and the obstacle to readers' appreciation of the novel- -involves the unquestioned assumption that nobody must know of Arnold's existence or disease. When proselytizing Dorothy discovers and reveals it, the community's fearful reaction (extreme even for a late '80s setting) strains the novel's credibility. Would nobody in a small town, even friends, know about Joshua's love life? Would bohemian artists be shocked and frightened by AIDS? Aside from this big wrinkle, the novel is intelligent and strong. Literary images and devices--the blood-carrying mosquitoes, the purple birthmark that gave Penguin her nickname, sheep--show their effectiveness with their seams, and the trials of our scrappy heroine transform her convincingly from a self-righteous student into a thoughtful adult. The vigor and insight of the poet's pen overcomes his sometimes overwrought material in a promising debut. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

Award-winning poet Carpenter's ( The Hours of Morning ; Rain ) entertaining, often moving first novel is a coming-of-age saga reminiscent of Mona Simpson's The Lost Father and Brock Cole's Celine . Penelope, nicknamed Penguin, disfigured by a birthmark and additionally scarred by her parents' divorce, has retreated behind a screen of extremist politics. Technically adult at 20 but still a child in many respects, Penguin is expelled from Dartmouth for setting fire to a fraternity house where another student has been raped. She returns to her father's Cape Cod home, where his next-door neighbor, a writer, hires Penguin to care for his AIDS-stricken lover. She forms a friendship with the dying Arnold just as the wealthy beach community decides that his presence is a threat. For the first time, Penguin sees a political debate in terms that are not abstract. With relentless, crackling dialogue, Carpenter creates a perceptive narrator who is by turns annoying, funny and wise, and surrounds her with characters whose believable interdependencies suggest an extended family of the '90s. While some scenes involving the younger characters are stereotypic, the author generally exerts firm control over his sensuous, highly textured prose, which unfolds with grace and sometimes heartbreaking accuracy. Author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Abacus
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0349106649
• ISBN 13: 9780349106649
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336