Synopsis
Examines the relationship between Danny Meadoff and his father during the summer of 1955, when Danny's world seems to take unforeseen turns
Reviews
Exploring the interplay between fathers and sons and the gradual demythologization of adulthood, this evocative bildungsroman chronicles the summer adventures of three teenagers on the cusp of manhood in 1950s Brooklyn. At the center of the tale is Danny Meadoff, a student of both Dante and the Dodgers, who, due to family financial difficulties, forgoes a summer literature course to work as a Fuller Brush salesman. Meanwhile Danny's father, an underwear importer, shows increasingly worrisome signs of buckling under the stress of job-related pressures. Danny, noticing his parents' frailties for the first time, wants to help but cannot yet fully understand. Ducker ( Rule by Proxy ) maintains a difficult balance in his narrative, penetrating characters' complex thoughts and emotions while never losing the feeling of a summer break in a simpler time, pregnant with youthful possibilities. Although the events leading up to the novel's resolution are a bit less credible than its earlier portions, Danny's many moments of discovery en route to that resolution are genuine and often moving. Ducker makes his underlying theme--uncompromising youth refreshing world-worn adulthood--absorbing and compelling.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Brooklyn, summer 1955. The Democrats wonder if the nominee will be Symington, Kefauver, or Stevenson again; Walter O'Malley threatens to move the Dodgers if they don't get a bigger stadium; and 16-year-old Danny Meadoff calculates the odds against three teams from the same city so dominating the World Series as he trembles on the verge of manhood. Life is golden for Danny, who starts the vacation by talking himself into a job as a Fuller Brush man working under the even faster-talking John Everett Raycroft. He's good at the work, even though he's still waiting for ``the nookie payoff'' his buddies Rick Rappaport and Angie Valeriani kid him about; and his customer Frances Gunnerson, though she's nothing in the nookie department, is growing into the friend and confidante he can't find at home. Okay, there are clouds on the horizon: the Meadoff kids (Danny and two sisters) are constantly reminded that the family needs to cut back, for instance by having the maid in only Tuesdays and Thursdays; the three boys go into the hole to cover their bets at Aqueduct; Rick's flirtatious mother complains about his father's affair with a receptionist, and Rick talks more and more brazenly about stealing from Bernstein the candy store owner; Danny's father, an overextended importer, quietly moves out of his wife's bedroom into the spare room over the garage as he agonizes over how he and his unsympathetic partner are going to cover the uninsured loss of a shipment of jerseys; Danny recoils at having to deliver a threatening message to his father from a goombah collector. Ducker (Marital Assets, 1993, etc.) writes with the easy charm of William Saroyan, though he has yet to find a voice of his own. It's not giving anything away to say that everything turns out all right, except for Dodgers fans. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
The summer of 1955 is a halcyon time in New York City: there's time for both the Dodgers and the Yankees, some college prep courses, football practice in August, and maybe a summer job. Or maybe not: though Danny Meadors isn't doing badly in high school, and his life seems on track, he is having intimations that life isn't always as it appears. His father's business is failing, his best friend's father has run off, the Dodgers might leave Brooklyn, and the sax player on the corner must be a diabetic, otherwise why the rubber cord and the hypodermic? Danny must pick his way through the minefield of life, save his father, learn his job, and grow up a little. A nice coming-of-age story by Ducker (Marital Assets, LJ 3/15/93), who has a good ear for dialog and a deft touch in tracing things unseen and unknowable. Recommended for general fiction collections.
Edwin B. Burgess, U.S. Army TRALINET Ctr., Fort Monroe, Va.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Danny Meadoff and high school buddies Rick Rappaport and Angie Valeriani share childhood memories, a fanatical loyalty to the Brooklyn Dodgers, and, in the course of the year 1955, a Fuller Brush route and secret excursions to the racetrack. But their familiar, unchanging world is less stable than they (and nostalgic readers) think. Brainy Danny spends the summer selling brushes and lotions (rather than studying Dante) because of the financial pressures his father faces. Rick's flashy father is now a Republican (horrors!) and has moved across the river to Manhattan with his secretary. Only Angie's housepainter dad marches steadily across the borough, reflecting the changing tastes of Brooklyn families in the paint colors flecked on his skin and clothes. Though the novel's title reflects a younger Angie's misunderstanding of the words of the Lord's Prayer, it is Danny and his father's struggles and successes that are the heart of Ducker's tale. Lead Us Not into Penn Station captures a long, eventful summer that has significant lessons to teach a young man on the brink of adulthood Mary Carroll
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