Younger Than Springtime

After returning from a troubled tour of post-World War II Germany, "Chucky" Cronin O'Malley's plans for a golden future are sidetracked by a beautiful woman who may have mob connections. 100,000 first printing.

The immensely prolific Fr. Greeley brings back the crazy O'Malley family (A Midwinters Tale, 1998) for a post-WW II romance about the perils of coming of age. Chucky O'Malley, who joined the army in 1946 for the GI Bill's college benefits and became a sergeant in Germany, returns to Chicago in 1948 as a decorated veteran and enrolls at Notre Dame. Despite overseas encounters with beautiful Fruleins, he still has fond feelings for his childhood girlfriend, Rosemarie Clancy. Shes a kind of foster sister, though the recent photo he took of her in a two-piece bathing suit gets him in trouble at Notre Dame, as does reading Joyce's Ulysses, which is on the Index. Will Chucky become a photographer? Father Raven has asked him to save Rosemarie. Her father is a mountainous, diabolical psychopath, a gambler and investor, a member of The Outfit; her mother's a drunk, and Rosemarie, three years younger than Chucky, denies her own drinking problem. When a dozen bottles of beer are found under his bed at Notre Dame, Chucky is expelled and falls into steep hatred for the university and especially for his nemesis there, the intolerably intolerant Father Pius (`` `The university will be free from your evil soul! Father Pius exulted''). Chucky goes on to get a job as an accountant and becomes deeply involved with the beautiful Cordelia, who eventually dumps him. Then, in Rome, he has some steamy affairs before returning home and enrolling alongside Rosemarie at the University of Chicago. Will he, can he, save her? It's a question the author has the good sense not to answer. Greeley clearly likes to jump into a plot and row steadily, just to see what's up for a whole batch of characters who will, of course, at last find themselves aswim in family warmth and Christmas carols, unwrapping middlebrow presents like Younger Than Springtime. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

The leisurely, enjoyable sequel to Greeley's A Midwinter's Tale again follows the O'Malley family of Chicago. Here he chronicles the romantic and spiritual fortunes of returned soldier Chuck O'Malley, who comes home in 1949, having been stationed for two years in postwar Germany. Enrolling in Notre Dame, he finds himself chafing against the narrow intellectual limits of the curriculum, and he also struggles mightily, even self-mockingly, with the sin of lust. The conversational, reflective first-person narration sets a relaxed tone as Chuck, admiring the two-piece bathing suits newly in vogue, develops a passion for photography. The central image, bookending the novel, is a snapshot Chuck takes of beautiful Rosemarie Clancy, the troubled alcoholic daughter of Chuck's father's best friend. The photo of Rosemarie, in d?shabill?, gets Chuck into trouble at Notre Dame and concatenates his search for spiritual meaning within the strict prohibitions of the Church. Chuck and Rosemarie's lifelong mutual attraction permeates the novel, with Greeley shifting focus in the middle of the book to Chuck's father, John. The elder O'Malley tells of how he met Chuck's mother, and the part Rosemarie's father, Jim Clancy, played in the eventual union. John O'Malley's story is deftly set in the center of Chuck's saga, creating correlative resonances that would be less graceful and harmonious in a single plot line. Greeley conveys a palpable nostalgia, as if each story of love won and lost is simply the latest echo of an earlier story, itself the echo of another. He captures, with signature expertise, both the essence (torturous guilt over sexual longings and transgressions) and the evocative details (students forbidden to read Ulysses, descriptions of women's fortresslike undergarments) of growing up Catholic in the late '40s. By the end, where Greeley skillfully ties up one plot line as he keeps the other aloft for the next book, readers may discover that they, too have been romancedAby an expert storyteller. $100,000 ad/promo. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"Chuck" Cronin O'Malley is back, safe in Chicago after his tour of duty in post-World War II Germany. But then he finds himself in conflict with a mob boss even as he falls in love with lovely Rosemarie.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

What's next for Charles Cronin O'Malley, better known as "Chucky," whom readers first met in Greeley's A Midwinter's Tale (1998), World War II is over, and Chucky comes back from occupied Germany to his native Chicago turf to participate in the postwar boom. He always wanted to go to Notre Dame and become an accountant, but that dream fizzles when he gets himself expelled, in part because of a mildly suggestive photograph he took of beautiful Rosemarie Clancy, his sister Peg's best friend, a kind of O'Malley foster daughter. As one door closes, another seems to open. Chucky's interest in photography leads to work on a student magazine and a developing relationship with the editor, Cordelia, not to mention a prize in Life's college photographer contest. The romance with Cordelia is not helped by Chucky's unresolved feelings for Rosemarie. Meanwhile, how to help pal Jimmy Rizzo, who is engaged to Monica Sullivan? Monica's father opposes the match because of Rizzo's mob connections. For the most part, this novel is fairly somnolent. Drama and action are impeded by a long section, plunked down in the middle, in which Chucky's father recounts his own youth and courting days, and by Greeley's narrative style. Too often, his attempts to capture the spirit of the times get mired in exposition ("The Russians had exploded their first atomic bomb; Communists in East Germany and China were establishing governments. What we would later call the Cold War was underway"). Younger Than Springtime is more a bridge between the last installment in the Chucky saga and the next than a genuine advance, but for Greeley's loyal fans, this trip down memory lane is a safe bet. Mary Ellen Quinn