Bewilderment of Boys - Softcover

Luddy, Karon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 099155180X ISBN 13: 9780991551804

Publisher: Backbone Books, 2014

Synopsis

A drought has besieged Red Clover, South Carolina and the heart of seventeen-year-old Karlene Bridges. Her big sister, Gloria Jean, is pregnant, and everyone carries on as if she were incubating the Light of this World—but Karlene feels hysterical at becoming an aunt at such a young age. Her best friend, Lucinda, is leaving for college soon. Billy Ray Jenkins, former heartthrob, joined the United States Navy six months ago, and Karlene has been incommunicado ever since. To soothe her jangled nerves, she has taken up songwriting—and she is terrible at it—truly terrible. And now, Spencer, her songwriting buddy, might get drafted and end up in Vietnam, sloshing around in rice paddies, which agonizes Karlene because she knows that peace of any kind is unobtainable on this whirling blue planet.

About this title

From the Author

From the Author's Note:Readers inspire me. Readers like the woman, who called from Jamaica to say Billy Ray Jenkins had stolen her heart and that I should give him a bigger role in my next book. Readers like Mr. James, Mama's sweetheart, who eagerly anticipated more kissing scenes and kept asking me about my progress. And young readers like Michael from Lacy, Washington who asked: How come Karlene cusses so much at the beginning of the story, but barely does at the end? 

Then there is Paul, who sent an email which made my heart sing:
I have fathered three girls and this is one of the first books I've read--maybe the first---which depicts a real girl who even owns a body (scandal). The absence of the body from most of these books is weird, but you kind of get used to it and I didn't even notice it until I read Spelldown--a book about a real girl with a real body as well as emotions and thoughts. I appreciated all that, and Karlene's salty language, which both of my girls particularly relish. I'm so happy the editorial censors didn't ruin this book.

But here at the bittersweet end, it has been the Dead who motivated me to weave six years of work into Bewilderment of Boys.  Frances Robertson Gleaton, my profound mother and greatest teacher, died on April 15, but she would not let me rest! Every time I doubted my ability to complete this project, she whispered, "You were born to write this book." She had said the same thing about my first novel, so I took her at her word. 

And here's a story about the cover:
Six months after Spelldown was published, my photographer friend, Erin Hubbs, emailed a photograph of a handsome  boy and a cute girl sitting on opposite sides of a spewing fountain. When I saw the caption, Karlene and Billy Ray Sighting, I broke out in goosebumps. Had my photographer friend gone rogue on me and stalked down two young characters from my novel like a paparazzi, and captured the chemistry between them with her camera? But then another notion fluttered in my heart: Maybe Karlene and Billy Ray had gone rogue on ME, their so-called author--and now lived happily in the MINDS of READERS where they could pop up, unannounced, at any time, in any place--even at a fountain in Charleston, where Erin immediately recognized them and took their picture. I am thrilled that Erin's classic photograph graces the cover of Bewilderment of Boys, the sequel to  Spelldown.

About the Author

Karon Luddy grew up in Lancaster, SC and lives in Charlotte, NC with her husband Tom. She is the author of the award-winning novel Spelldown published by Simon and Schuster and Wolf Heart, a book of poetry, published by Clemson University Press. In 2005, she received her MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University and became an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte where she teaches writing intensive classes in the American Studies Dept. In 2014, Luddy's passion for writers, readers, and literature inspired her to create Backbone Books. Bewilderment of Boys, the debut title of this new imprint,  was published in June. It is also the sequel to Luddy's first novel Spelldown.

Edition details

• Publisher: Backbone Books
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 099155180X
• ISBN 13: 9780991551804
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 236