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Bezig met laden... The Center of Everything : A Novel (origineel 2003; editie 2004)door Laura Moriarty
Informatie over het werkThe Center of Everything door Laura Moriarty (2003)
Books Set in Kansas (12) Bezig met laden...
Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. We follow Evelyn from grade 4 thru high school as she learns some tough lessons about life and fulfillment of our dreams. Author?s first book. Not much plot but great characters. The book is set in the early to mid eighties and the narrator is a poor, nerdy, smart girl in small town Kansas. I was the same age as the narrator at that time and I think the author did a great job of bringing that era to life again for me. The book is a quick read -- I finished it in about 2 days. This is a sweet coming-of-age story narrated by Evelyn Bucknow who is on the cusp of adolescence when the story begins, and ready for college by the end. She lives in Kerrville, KS ("the middle of nowhere, but the center of everything", "what everything else spirals out from") in a cheap, roadside apartment complex (Treeline Colonies) with her single mother, Tina. It is the Reagan era -- at least he is running for President and so the 80s time-frame was quite familiar. Evelyn is just becoming aware of the facts of life when her mother gets pregnant during an affair with her boss, which simultaneously ruins her job, her health and her relationship with Evelyn. Tina is already estranged from her family because she was not married to Evelyn's father who has never been in the picture. Only her grandmother, Eileen maintains contact with them and she saves Evelyn in more ways than one. While their relationship is not idyllic, she genuinely cares for her granddaughter (and daughter) and helps them financially, and while Tina is bedridden in her pregnancy, takes Evelyn to her church (Covenant of the Second Ark) to be saved. Her perception of God is touching: "I picture God sitting in front of a computer with blinking lights, putting on headphones when voice comes in like a radio frequency from far away. He turns dials, adjusts the headphones watching words flash on a screen." Evelyn is eager for a place to belong and this suits her for awhile, until her world gets more complicated as she gets older and her favorite science teacher is on the hotseat for teaching evolution. Evelyn questions everything, which leads to her growth. She also is walking through the minefield of friendships and relationships -- her best friend Deena and her crush Travis who also live at Treeline Colonies get together, making for an awkward threesome, but the only friends Evelyn has. She is smart and teachers encourage her to work hard and take advantage of opportunities. She in turn encourages Travis to do the same, but Deena is beautiful and lazy and not very good at school. You can guess where this is headed. When she ends up pregnant and they leave high school to get married the whole dynamic changes. "It's biology after all, pushing us into each other, pushing us around.... I think of dead moths inside a porch light, lemmings jumping to their deaths." Meanwhile, Tina gives birth to a premature baby boy, Samuel, who is dismissed as retarded (being the 80s) and she struggles to get services and to get through to her son. She and Evelyn repair their relationship and come to a steady peace. This is all a lot to juggle, but the plot is united well through Evelyn's self-discovery, growth and understanding of her life and her determination to make something of it. Good but not great. Das Leben ist unberechenbar mit einer Mutter, die nie eines ihrer Versprechen hält - das musste Evelyn früh lernen. Doch an wen kann sich eine hochbegabte Zehnjährige aus der Provinz wenden, die ihren Vater nie kennengelernt hat und deren Mutter jeden Tag zu einer neuen Herausforderung werden lässt? Laura Moriarty erzählt uns in mitreißender Weise von einer ungewöhnlichen Mutter-Tochter-Beziehung - und sie zeigt uns, wie wichtig es ist, den eigenen Weg im Leben zu finden. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Fiction.
Literature.
HTML:Critics and readers everywhere stood up and took notice when Laura Moriarty's captivating debut novel hit the stores in June '03. Janet Maslin of the New York Times praised The Center of Everything as "warm" and "beguiling." USA Today compared the scrappy yet tender-hearted Evelyn Bucknow to Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. It garnered extensive national attention; from Entertainment Weekly to the Boston Globe and the San Francisco Chronicle, the press raved about the wisdom and poignancy of Moriarty's writing. The Book-of-the-Month Club snatched it up as a Main Selection, as did the Literary Guild. It was a USA Today Summer Reading Pick, a BookSense Top 10 Pick, and a BN.com book club feature title. And still, months after The Center of Everything's original publication date, reviews and features of the book continue to run nationwide. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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