French Leave: Maxine Harrison Moves Out! (Livewire Books for Teenagers)

Gr 8 Up--Maxine, almost 16, tells the story of her disenchantment with her life and family in a series of letters to her friend Jean who has moved to the north of England. Maxine's father is unemployed and sees her employment in the local department store as a partial solution to the family's economic woes. Who, then, could blame the girl for running off to her own bed-sit where she envisions that Jean will join her. This is a typical story of teenage alienation from family values and the need to strike out on one's own. That Fairweather chooses to depict Maxine's family and their life together as abjectly dreary is a vehicle to present Maxine's adolescent point of view. But dreary it is, and Maxine is as disagreeable a protagonist as her family is uninspiring. Her own worst enemy, she alternately alienates Jean with her acerbic letter-writing campaign and her ensuing repentance. She fails to study effectively for important exams and then whines about her failures. Max's escape to the bed-sit eventually reveals to her that not only are the anticipated freedoms and pleasures of independence far from what they are cracked up to be, but also that the problems and pressures of home are all a part of a life that brings strength and security. Fairweather's story is not just laced with Briticisms--it is so overloaded with them as to disarm all but the most urbane of American readers.

Sylvia V. Meisner, Allen Middle School, Greensboro, NC

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