The Great Equalizer - Hardcover

Borsten, Rick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0932966691 ISBN 13: 9780932966698

Publisher: Permanent Pr Pub Co, 1986

Synopsis

Benny Horowitz, a college dropout, takes a temporary job at a half-way house for retarded adults, and discovers that they are changing his outlook on life

About this title

About the Author

Born and raised in South Florida and educated at the University of North Carolina, Rick Borsten is author of the novels Rainbow Rhapsody and The Great Equalizer, a National Endowment for the Arts " New American Writing" selection and a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. In addition to writing fiction and poetry, he works with developmentally disabled adults in Corvallis, Oregon, where he has been living since 1978 with his wife Kim. He is currently at work on his new novel, a chapter of which was excerpted in Stringtown Magazine.

Review

"A splendidly original whiz-bang novel by a talented young man. I admire the writing, a musical prose come under a craftsman's control and put to the service of a sympathetic view of mankind and an appreciation for life in all its variety and beauty. Although death is said to be "the great equalizer," in Rick Borsten's novel it is life which breaks through in unlikely places."
--Doris Betts, author of Beasts of the Southern Wild

"Daring and imaginative, fast-paced and moving; a tender and loving story...and a ringing reaffirmation of life." --The Chicago Sun Times

"Borsten is able to present his mentally challenged characters without condescension, even with a measure of wit. Better yet, he knows how to fashion a scene. And at the heart of this novel is a striking love story." --The New York Times

The brief chapters of this exquisitely written first novel also work as stand-alone short stories, perfectly evoking the particulars of the late 1950s early 1960s era and the universal emotions of childhood and adolescence. Chester Chet Patterson is the perennial new kid in town, as the family follows the career path of his army-officer father from the suburbs of Philadelphia to Okinawa, Japan, to small-town Texas. Written from the perspective of an adult but employing a present-tense narration, the novel so honestly exposes pivotal moments during Chet s life that readers are almost made to feel like voyeurs. With the unique mind-set of the young, Chet is eager both to fit in with his peers and to prove that he is special. Whether, at 13, he is mooning over his 17-year-old first cousin, the older woman, or awkwardly hosting a luncheon at his all-white college fraternity for author Ralph Ellison, Chet fully embraces his experiences, struggling to rise above his insecurities and seek out life, however strange or sweet it may be. With a beautifully spare style, Moyer displays an unerring feel for those moments that distill both the pathos and the comedy of growing up --Starred review - Booklist

Edition details

• Publisher: Permanent Pr Pub Co
• Publication date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0932966691
• ISBN 13: 9780932966698
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 334