The Flamingo Rising - Softcover

Larry Baker

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0349109923 ISBN 13: 9780349109923

Publisher: Abacus, 1999

Synopsis

Set in the 1960s, in Jacksonville, Florida, this "great American tale" ("Atlanta Journal & Constitution") tells a compelling story of living, feuding, fireworks and an extraordinary family whose home is the biggest drive-in theater in the world.

About this title

From the Publisher

Excerpts from reviews of Larry Baker's The Flamingo Rising

"A first novel that dares mix the Icarus, Oedipus and Earhart myths, risks
a Romeo and Juliet update, plunders Dante, references the Bible, rewrites
movie history and inside-outs the American past. Yet Baker's book is far
from pretentious. It's one of the more endearingly adept debuts to come
along in a while....A novel that is as fully realized as it is inventive,
humorous and heartaching."

--Los Angeles Times

"Like his flamingo, Baker never loses his footing."

--The Star Ledger

"[The Flamingo Rising] is an American original, as big and as full
of promise as a drive-in movie screen, formed out of the grist and gristle
of late 20th century fiction."

--Atlanta Constitution

"This is much more than a sum of memorable parts; it is a literary tour de
force, a study of barriers built and torn down."

--New Orleans Times-Picayune

"This pitch-perfect first novel is reminiscent of the best of John
Irving....Like the giant July 4th fireworks display toward which the story
builds, this engaging, moving novel sends up one sparkler after another on
its way to a crash-bang, heart-stopping ending."

--Publishers Weekly

"The coming of age story is done to a fine turn in Baker's absolutely
delightful first novel, which is also a clever spin on the Romeo and
Juliet theme."

--Booklist

"A truly affecting work, and an inventive one."

--Kirkus Reviews

"[Baker's] own sense of theatre is so grand that only after three hundred
pages does everything come joltingly into focus....Larry Baker is writing
for grownups but he remembers how it felt not to be one, and renders the
experiences in unforced, unshowy prose, neither folksy nor formal. The
result is a novel that's both modest and surprisingly seductive."

--The New Yorker

From the Back Cover

"An American original, as big and as full of promise as a drive-in movie screen."
--Atlanta Journal & Constitution

"WONDROUS . . . HUMOROUS AND HEARTACHING . . . ONE OF THE MOST ENDEARINGLY ADEPT DEBUTS TO COME ALONG IN A WHILE."
--Los Angeles Times

"[A] WINNING FIRST NOVEL . . . Baker is writing for grown-ups, but he remembers how it felt to not be one, and renders the experience in unforced, unshowy prose, neither folksy nor formal. The result is a novel that's both modest and surprisingly seductive."
--The New Yorker

"Resonates with good humor, adolescent lust, complex love, and heartrending loss."
--Entertainment Weekly

Edition details

• Publisher: Abacus
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0349109923
• ISBN 13: 9780349109923
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320