Starbuck O'Dwyer

As a child born in the 60's, the story took me back to a time when things were definitely different. I didn't give it five stars because I am female and the book is written from a male perspective. In other words, some of the things that interested Starbuck would not have interested me at all. I laughed about the yellow blanket incident, although I should not have. My own son did the same thing with sucking on the blanket. It was crocheted, and he toted it EVERYWHERE! The way we weaned him was to have my sister-in-law make a new yellow blanket, made shorter each time. Then, one day when it ended up being potholder size, my son threw it down disgusted and gave it up himself. Children need to keep their lovies as long as they need them. That is just my opinion. I could not relate to the long distance traveling trips, as my family was poor, and the one time we went from SC to Tennessee was a huge event for us. I liked the mom's style of handling apologies. The dad's style was all too familiar. I do not want to offer too much information because it is a good book to read to glean information and values. I think it would even be appropriate for a middle school student to read.… (más)

David Horvath's life is going nowhere. He has just lost his job (again), his most recent girlfriend has left him (again) and his grandmother expresses a wish to die and expects him to help. David's only recourse is to promise his grandmother he'll take her to the Oscars. This promise morphs into a quest to bring the Oscars to Rochester and sets him on a collision course with Rochester's venal and corrupt mayor and finds him and a group of friends at the top of High Falls ready to jump. Along the way David becomes a mentor, attacks Santa Claus and investigates the possibility that he was a dragon in a previous life.
After what I felt was a very slow start, the novel picks up comic steam once David earns the enmity of Mayor Candee, one of the most delightful portraits of a corrupt politician I have ever read. Once Mayor Candee showed up the novel took on a flavour that was reminiscent of Carl Hiaasen, lacking only the villain's comeuppance at the hands of Mother Nature. Still the good guys (mostly) prevail, the bad guys get what they deserve and the Oscars come to Rochester.… (más)