After the Dancing Days

A forbidden friendship with a badly disfigured soldier in the aftermath of World War I forces thirteen-year-old Annie to redefine the word "hero" and to question conventional ideas of patriotism.

Grade 6-9 Annie is both fascinated and repelled by the wounded soldiers whom she sees being wheeled off of a train in her small Kansas town at the end of World War I. When her father, a doctor, begins to work in the veterans hospital, and her grandfather reads to a blind vet there, Annie has the opportunity to visit and make friends with two soldiers. This provokes a series of questionsabout the war, the woundeds' recovery, and her dead unclethat precipitates her coming of age. This is a skillfully constructed story, with plot and character development mutually dependent and smoothly woven to present a believable and satisfying tale. Annie's mother's opposition to her hospital visits acts as a catalyst to Annie's loss of innocence. Annie's growth is revealed naturally through situations and her reaction to themsudden boredom with last summer's games, a visit to the opera, learning the circumstances of her uncle's death, and especially her trips to the hospital. The setting is subtly and distinctly fixed in time and place; the theme is timeless and universal. The moodsomber, tranquil, reflective of a time when life, even in wartime, was lived at a slower paceis consistant throughout. The book's only significant flaw is a pace that is occasionally too slow; in these places, subtleties become affectations and sensitivity becomes maudlin. However, this is an excellent first novel, and Rostkowski an author to watch. Allen Meyer, Vernon Area Public Library, Prairie View, Ill.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Winner of the 1985 Publication Prize in the Utah Original Writing Competition, this first novel, set in a small town near Kansas City, deals with both the realism and the ironies of heroism. Thirteen-year-old Annie finds herself drawn to the veterans' hospital where her doctor-father has started to work after World War I. There she begins a tenuous friendship with Andrew, a young veteran who has been horribly burned by gas. Despite her mother's opposition to it, Annie maintains her friendship with Andrew. Through Andrew, Annie finds out the real circumstances of the wartime death of her Uncle Paul, the only adult ever to treat Annie as though she counted. Then Annie faces her first test of maturity: she must confront both her mother's anger and the true nature of war. Fine characterizations and a powerful theme combine in an important debut.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.