Back Roads (Oprah's Book Club) (Gebundene Ausgabe)

Tawni O'Dells Back Roads spielt im "schönen, zerfallenen" westlichen Pennsylvania, zwischen billigen "Eat'n'Parks"- und "Lick'n'Putts"-Fastfoodläden und erzählt die Geschichte des Harley Altmyer, der ein zorniges, selbstbewusstes Leben auf dem schmalen Grat zwischen Kriminalität und Unschuld führt. Warum wird er von den Behörden festgehalten und worüber ist er so wütend? Vor nicht allzu langer Zeit hatte seine Mutter seinen Vater umgebracht und wanderte dafür lebenslänglich hinter Gitter. Sein Vater war ein prügelnder, hoffnungsloser Mann gewesen. Und jetzt hat er auch noch die Verantwortung für seine drei jüngeren Schwestern. Diese nerven ihn jedoch so sehr, dass er sich beispielsweise vorstellt, sie heftig ins Gesicht zu schlagen, bis sie "blutige Käsemakkaroni spucken". Aber Harley hat noch ein Gewissen -- gerade noch. Er würde seine Schwestern niemals wirklich schlagen; versucht er doch schließlich, sie zu beschützen. Die älteste, die freche 16-jährige Amber, wird von den Jungs aus der Stadt auf der Wohnzimmercouch missbraucht. Die erschreckend stoische 12-jährige Misty hat Augen so "gläsern braun wie eine Medizinflasche". Die Jüngste, die hinreißende Jody, schreibt mit ihren sechs Jahren Listen, was erledigt werden muss, mit Eintragungen wie "Für Daddys Sehle beten".

Genervt von den Strapazen des Alltags und den ständig steigenden Verlusten, beginnt Harley, gleichsam seine eigenen Worte vor seinem Gesicht schweben zu sehen. Dabei gelingt es O'Dell, Harley sowohl brutal als auch entschuldbar und reflektierend darzustellen: "Ich lag da bis zum Morgengrauen und dachte über Dad nach; ich verspürte die gleiche unnütze Frustration wie damals, als ich das erste Mal sah, wie er auf eine strahlend weiße, frische Schneeverwehung pisste."

Aber diese feinen Nuancen sind bald vorüber, weshalb Back Roads droht, eine überladene Angelegenheit zu werden, stark emotional mit einer achterbahnmäßigen Entwicklung. Harleys Zorn entwickelt sich zu einem geradezu blutgierigen Verlangen nach seiner sexy, nicht mehr ganz jungen Nachbarin, was eine Unzahl verbotener Familiengeheimnisse lüftet. So stellt sich heraus, dass Misty die ganze Zeit über irgendetwas verborgen hat. Amber rebelliert, und sogar Jodys Kritzeleien werden zunehmend bösartig. Obwohl der Stil durchweg gut ist, erscheinen Spannung und Handlung beinahe pubertär -- eine Verbindung aus gewaltgeprägter sexueller Leidenschaft und beißender Düsterkeit. Glücklicherweise bleibt jedoch O'Dells selbstsicheres und rührendes Porträt ihres Protagonisten davon unbeschadet. Man wird den glücklosen, vom Schicksal verfolgten Harley Altmyer im Gedächtnis behalten, lange nachdem seine turbulente Geschichte vorüber ist. Und unabhängig davon, wie der Richter entscheidet, erscheint es plausibel, warum dieser verarmte, zornige junge Mann wahrscheinlich der Unschuldigste von allen war. --Jean Lenihan

Not since SE Hinton (The Outsiders) has a female novelist penned such a tough and titillating portrait of lower-class, crime-ridden manhood than Tawni O'Dell in Back Roads. Set in "beautiful, ruined" western Pennsylvania, amid Eat n' Parks and Lick n' Putts, the novel follows Harley Altmyer as he walks a raging, self-conscious line between crime and innocence. Why is he being held by the authorities, and what's he so mad about? In the recent past, it's his mother, who murdered his father and went to jail for life. In the far past, it's Dad himself: an abusive, hopeless man. In the present, it's the responsibility for h is three younger sisters, which makes him fantasize about smashing their faces in until they "spit up bloody macaroni and cheese".

This first novel opens well. O'Dell does an impeccable job of making Harley both brutal and forgivable but Back Roads risks becoming an overabundant affair, pitched high, with a roller-coaster trajectory. Harley' s anger metamorphoses into an almost bloodthirsty lust for his sexy, middle-aged neighbour, which stirs up myriad forbidden family secrets. Misty, it turns out, has been hiding something. Amber revolts. And even Jody's scribbles turn malevolent. While the writing is good throughout, the tension and plotting assume an unpleasant adolescent posture--bodice-ripping passion and mordant gloom combined. Nonetheless, O'Dell's assured and touching portrait of her protagonist emerges unscathed. You will likely remember luckless, fated Harley Altmyer long after his tsunamic tale has receded. --Jean Lenihan, Amazon.com -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Taschenbuch .

Oprah Book Club® Selection, March 2000: Not since S.E. Hinton (The Outsiders) has a female novelist penned such a tough and titillating portrait of lower-class, crime-ridden manhood. Set in "beautiful, ruined" western Pennsylvania, amid Eat n' Parks and Lick n' Putts, Tawni O'Dell's Back Roads follows Harley Altmyer as he walks a raging, self-conscious line between crime and innocence. Why is he being held by the authorities, and what's he so mad about? In the recent past, it's his mother, who murdered his father and went to jail for life. In the far past, it's Dad himself: an abusive, hopeless man. In the present, it's the responsibility for his three younger sisters, which makes him fantasize about smashing their faces in until they "spit up bloody macaroni and cheese."

But Harley still has a conscience--barely. He doesn't strike his sisters; he's been trying to protect them. The oldest is sassy Amber, 16, who's having sex on the living-room couch with townies who abuse her; next is frighteningly stoic 12-year-old Misty, with eyes "a glazed brown like a medicine bottle"; the youngest is adorable Jody, who at 6 pens to-do lists with items such as "PRAY FOR DADDYS SOWL." Overburdened with the practicalities of life, and the ever-mounting losses, Harley has started seeing his own words floating in the air in front of his face. "CLOSURE. TRUTH. MOST GUYS."

This first novel opens well. O'Dell does an impeccable job of making Harley both brutal and forgivable. Here, for instance, he retreats to his basement room: "I lay there until dawn, thinking about Dad, and feeling the same useless frustration I had felt the first time I had seen him piss on a sparkling white drift of pure new snow."

But that delicacy is soon lost, and Back Roads risks becoming an overabundant affair, pitched high, with a roller-coaster trajectory. Harley's anger metamorphoses into an almost bloodthirsty lust for his sexy, middle-aged neighbor, which stirs up myriad forbidden family secrets. Misty, it turns out, has been hiding something. Amber revolts. And even Jody's scribbles turn malevolent. While the writing is good throughout, the tension and plotting assume an unpleasant adolescent posture--bodice-ripping passion and mordant gloom combined. Nonetheless, O'Dell's assured and touching portrait of her protagonist emerges unscathed. You will likely remember luckless, fated Harley Altmyer long after his tsunamic tale has receded. And no matter what the judge decides, you will understand why this impoverished, angry young man was probably the most innocent one of all. --Jean Lenihan

Harley's redemption comes as an epiphany in the book's final pages. Truth, he sees, is not in the Bible, but all around him, and he has ignored it "because I don't love it. The TRUTH is the TRUTH sucks sometimes . . . . [T]he TRUTH is I've already wasted so much of my life lying to myself."

If that is Harley's redemption, color me unsaved. Redemption rarely comes through adolescent pseudo-profundity. O'Dell's attempt to dignify her character's moment of clarity by repeatedly rendering the word TRUTH in capital letters only makes it more reminiscent of graffiti scrawled on a high school bathroom wall. O'Dell wants us to believe that Harley has changed by facing the truth, but he doesn't grow up at all. (Beliefnet, May 2000)

Nineteen-year-old Harley is left to rear his three younger sisters after their mother is imprisoned for murdering their abusive father in this searing, hardscrabble Party of Five set in Pennsylvania mining country. Doubly resentful because his best friend is off at college, Harley spends his days slogging as a Shop Rite bagger and appliance-shop delivery person, coming home to cold cereal dinners prepared by six-year-old Jody. Harley is bitter about having to take over for his motherA"she still had us kids but we didn't have her"Aand he can't shake the feeling that she prefers prison to their home life; a mystery lingers around his father's death. Meanwhile, 16-year-old Amber is sleeping her way through the town's teenage boys and flaunting her body in front of Harley; middle sister Misty, once her father's favorite and his hunting companion, practices shooting. Desperate for relief, Harley finds solace in rough but exhilarating encounters with married Callie Mercer, little Jody's best friend's mother, losing his virginity to her on a muddy creek bank and reveling in her sophisticated, sensitive words. But memories are stirring in his subconscious, and erotic dreams of the Virgin Mary metamorphose into nightmarish sexual visions. In his sessions with a court-appointed therapist, Harley edges closer to understanding his family's twisted dynamic, but it is only when the horrors of the present begin to catch up with those of the past that a series of shattering truths are revealed. By then it is too late for Harley to save everyone he loves, but in sacrificing himself, however hopelessly, he introduces a note of grace. O'Dell's scorching tale touches on all the tropes of dysfunctional families, but her characters fight free of stereotypes, taking on an angry, authentic glow. (Jan.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Gebundene Ausgabe .

A strong, thoughtful first novel that hews to time-honored fiction traditions, rooting a voyage of personal discovery in beautifully rendered particulars of character and place. We dont know exactly what kind of trouble 20-year-old Harley Altmyer is in when the story begins with him being interrogated by police officers, but we quickly learn that hes seen plenty of bad times already. Its been two years since his mother went to jail for shooting his father, and two now dead-end jobs are barely enough to support Harley and his three younger sisters in a dying western Pennsylvania town poisoned and abandoned by the coal industry. Sixteen-year-old Amber screws every guy in sight, daring Harley to do anything about it. Twelve-year-old Misty, favorite of their deceased fatherwhich means he beat her more than he did the other threeseems not to care about anything. Six-year-old Jody writes notes to herself (FEED DINUSORS/ EAT BREKFIST) and keeps secrets shes not quite aware she possesses. Harley keeps his court-mandated appointments with a psychiatrist, but resists her efforts to make him open up. Smart and sharply funny though he ishardly anyone catches his ironyHarley is trapped in the mans role he knows is a crock but cant let go. ODell does an impressive job of getting inside the head of a member of the opposite sex, creating a first-person narration of painful veracity as Harley rants against his mother and defends his father (He didnt like his job, but he went to it every day . . . . He was a flesh-and-blood man who couldnt stand it if you spilled something). The dysfunctional dynamics of a family scarred by domestic violence and incestuous longings lead to some luridly melodramatic twists, but the authors compassion and love for her characters shine throughout. When ODells plotting achieves the maturity of her character development, shes going to write a really extraordinary novel. This one is pretty darn good. (Book-of-the-Month Club main selection) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In a small Pennsylvania town depressed by coal mine closings, a young man of 19 finds himself thrust into the role of parent. Harley has become the guardian of his three younger sisters as the result of their mother going to jail for the shooting death of their father. Each sibling finds his or her own way of coping with this family tragedy. During his regular visits with a psychotherapist Harley finds some comfort while at the same time feeling disdain for this woman. He is able to satisfy his youthful urges by beginning a series of sexual encounters with an older woman whose daughter is a playmate of his youngest sister. The characterizations are vivid, and each family member generates sympathy. Reader Dylan Baker does a satisfactory job of interpreting Harley's sense of frustration and cynicism. An absorbing novel worth purchasing for fiction collections.DCatherine Swenson, Norwich Univ. Lib., Northfield, VT
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

Critically acclaimed literary thriller which was a no. 1 }New York Times{ bestseller and an Oprah Winfrey Book Club pick. "An intense story of family, frailty and dysfunction, set in the coal-mining towns of western Pennsylvania...captivatingly told" }Chicago Tribune{. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Taschenbuch .

With his mother in jail for killing his abusive father, nineteen-year-old Harley Altmyer is charged with caring for his three sisters in a backwards Pennsylvania coal town, but despite his fatherly responsibilities, he is still a teenage boy and lusts after the mother of two who lives down the road.