Up, Down & Sideways - Hardcover

Patton, Robert H.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1877946915 ISBN 13: 9781877946912

Publisher: Permanent Pr Pub Co, 1997

Synopsis

Follows the scion of a New England old-monied family as he breaks with tradition, takes Wall Street by storm, and tries, desperately, to achieve his goal--failure of glorious proportions

About this title

Review:

Author of The Pattons: A Personal History of an American Family, Robert Patton is the extremely talented grandson of the general. Yes, THAT general. Up, Down & Sideways, his second book, is the story of the American Dream gone whacko. Philip Halsey can't stop making money. He has two girlfriends and everything else that the American Dream dictates, yet his greatest desire is to fail at something (if you've got curly hair, you want straight hair, etc.). Philip's saving grace is that he's slightly more charming than he is disgusting and the humor of his plight is but one of this novel's delights.

From Library Journal:

The grandson of old blood-and-guts himself, Patton (The Pattons, LJ 3/1/94) is enjoying the simultaneous publication of his first two novels. In Up, Down & Sideways, Philip Halsey breaks with his father, David Holscheimer, just as David broke with his father. Demanding his inheritance and dropping out of college, Philip embarks on spectacular financial and sexual escapades. After losing all to find himself, the prodigal son returns to the home office of his family's trust and settles in as a responsible family man. Patton's first-person narrative is rich with comic episodes and wry phrasing, and his picaresque tale provides insight into recurring problems between fathers and sons, husbands and wives, and lovers of all descriptions. Focusing on a homicide and its aftermath, Life Between Wars is more somber. With a large cast of strangely intertwined characters?a Vietnam veteran who seeks revenge for a fragging incident, a prep-school student trying desperately to lose his virginity, a retarded stable boy who emulates John Wayne, an addled octogenarian who hunts miracles from the roof of his mansion, and a homosexual painter who heals in the throes of his own illness?it is also more expansive. These residents and visitors on tiny Penscot Island comprise a confused but still functioning community. Despite an often diffuse story, Patton shows how unconventional but honest affections can displace vengeance. Both books are recommended for public libraries. [For a biography of Patton's father and grandfather, see Brian M. Sobel's The Fighting Pattons, reviewed on p. 102.?Ed.]?Albert E. Wilhelm, Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookevill.
-?Albert E. Wilhelm, Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Permanent Pr Pub Co
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 1877946915
• ISBN 13: 9781877946912
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 156