| From Publishers Weekly Chorao's brooding debut offers a first-person portrait of a nine-year-old boy who embarks on a life adventure of sorts when he runs away from his home on Manhattan's Upper West Side in the mid-1970s. Nicknamed Bruiser ("because I'm always bruised")， he's a somewhat sullen child at the mercy of a suicidal mother and a philandering father. His only outlets are running around his neighborhood or burrowing into the depths of the clothes hamper. Bruiser befriends resilient 10-year-old Darla， who lives with her pill-popping single mother across the alleyway and persuades Bruiser to run away with her. They board a bus with full backpacks and several hundred dollars swiped from their parents and head toward North Carolina， where Joey， a boy Bruiser became fond of while on summer vacation， lives. On a detour through West Virginia， they stop off to see Darla's long-lost father， but her reunion with him turns out to be a disappointment. Their parents are tipped off and immediately arrive on the scene， but the pair escape on a railway car full of oranges and head for Joey's house. A kindly Japanese farmer takes them in， but he cannot prevent a tragic tractor accident that renders Bruiser partially deaf. The search for Joey's house ends in another disappointment. Thoroughly discouraged， both decide to return home by ferry and end up in a rowboat heading into a hurricane. Starkly beautiful and unrelentingly grim， this novel looms like a roadside accident: harrowing to behold， yet impossible to ignore.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information， Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Booklist Starred Review Nine-year-old Bruiser is the youngest of three sons in an angst-ridden Manhattan household. The year is 1977， and the already precarious marriage between his mother， a poet， and his father， an architect and teacher， is further threatened by his father's affair with a student. Bruiser seeks release from family discord in rough play with the boys on his block， hence his nickname， and in his friendship with Darla， a 10-year-old neighbor distraught over her divorced mother's severe depression. When Darla asks Bruiser to run away with her， these two unhappy， intrepid， and smart children embark on a mythic journey of discovery of both their own nascent strengths and of the great， mysterious world beyond the brick canyons of New York. For all his bluster， Bruiser is keenly sensitive and preternaturally observant， and Chorao， an extraordinarily gifted first-time novelist， achieves a lyrical intensity and psychological acuity akin to that of Henry Roth in his masterpiece， Call It Sleep， although Chorao's mystical renderings of the children's harrowing adventures in the wild are all his own. Bruiser's extreme experiences at once isolate and elevate him， and Chorao's exquisite evocations of all the pain and wonder his young hero confronts are profoundly transporting. Donna SeamanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. See all Editorial Reviews |
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