My Father's Geisha

The shifting, mobile world of children who travel from military post to post with their parents is revealed in the lives and observations of the precocious Teddy and his film-crazy sister Cora

A disintegrating marriage is harder on Teddy than on his parents, and he knows he'll have an ulcer even before he can get his driver's license. Children of a career military officer, Teddy and his sister, Cora, move from base to base, listening to their parents argue; the family conflict spans Teddy's childhood, adolescence, and adult years, concluding as the remaining family members are able to accept one another. Narrated by Teddy and told in episodic style with references to past events, the stories are serio-comic; Teddy enters his old tree house to contemplate his parents' problems, only to fall through the floor and cut off his tongue. Exuberant language and unusual analogies abound ("Mom looks as good as a spit shine"), making the book pleasurable to read. Military offspring will relate to the constant moves, the loneliness of living on bases (especially with an acerbic-tongued sister such as Cora), and the difficulty in making friends, while other YAs will identify with the typical family problems. --Pam Spencer, Jefferson Sci-Tech, Alexandria, VA
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The fortunes of a peripatetic Army major's family during the 1960s and '70s are detailed in this finely nuanced first novel. From military bases in Nevada and Louisiana to a temporary home in L.A., Cora, Teddy and their mother are flung about by the career of their charismatic but elusive father, hurt by his long absences and suspected infidelities. We watch an uneasy truce between husband and wife through the eyes of sensitive Teddy; his brilliant, eccentric older sister covers her pain with sarcastic wit while their mother, at first spunkily defiant, eventually retreats into hypochondria and depression. As young adults, Cora and Teddy find a measure of stability, but after their mother's death they are stunned to learn that their father has married an Asian woman he has been involved with since his service overseas. It's only one of many secrets he has kept from them, and Teddy must come to terms with both his unwanted new stepmother and his father's deception. Bennett demonstrates a wonderful ear for dialogue and a storyteller's sure touch, and despite a slight loss of momentum halfway through, the novel is a funny, perceptive and painful look at the difficulties of family relationships.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Are all army families unhappy in the same way? That's the question posed by this first novel, which ultimately considers how family members fail to nurture one another. There are some great characters here: shy, laconic Teddy, the narrator; his hard-boiled, bug-eyed sister, Cora, 13 going on 30; restless Mom, who drives around Beverly Hills at night; and Dad--well, Dad, who's always fighting wars, the hardest and most enduring between himself and his wife. It's the childhood aura that Bennett captures best: that sense of waiting, of being at the mercy of adults. In one incredible scene the troops parachute down and someone is killed--and for all Teddy and Cora know, it is their Dad. The novel offers great humor and dialog and some truly memorable scenes, but the ending fizzles. For larger fiction collections.
- Doris Lynch, Oakland P.L., Cal.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.