By StanleyGordon West, published in 1997, 274 pages, a well written, fiction, based in St. Paul, MN in 1949, when the replacement of streetcars by buses was imminent. Another very quick read and a great book by the Author. This is fiction, the life story of Cal Gant through late adolescence. His father is a man set in his ways, a veteran of WWII who drives streetcars with pride. There is a bit of whimsy when the description of hanging onto the street cars happens as the teens amuse themselves. There is the interlude with Gretchen Luttermann whom Cal befriends in a strange pitiful alliance and her world with her mysterious but brutal father. But over all, it is a tale of choices one makes in life and paying the consequences, or living through the results of ones actions. I would have liked a different outcome for Cal, another chance, a bit more time. Some of life's events can overtake us, and this fiction is in that way a tear jerker.
The opening lines caught my attention immediately, "If I'd never run into Gretchen Luntermann I wouldn't have landed in that crummy jail. And better still, her father wouldn't be trying to kill me. I know it sounds pretty normal that a girl's father wants to kill some kid, but he really wanted to kill me and she wasn't even my girl and it kept getting all mixed up when I tried to explain it."
I enjoyed this book and am fortunate that a friend loaned it to me. I give it 4 ****.
Welcome to my book blog created 2012 of books I read and review. I exhausted space on my other blog, Pat's Posts. Better to separate my readings from my writings. Eventually I will display my entire library here. I am in the process of moving some reviews from the other blog here as well. The design of this blog has been a work in progress, slowly, bear with me...
MY OTHER BLOG
If you got here because I commented and you were directed to this blog, it is because Blogger will not show both blogs. So you can get to my Pat's Posts, by clicking this link..my miscellany, the first blog while this is just about books.
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