Home and Away - Hardcover

Coming-of-age debut novel set in 1951 in New York City, by the author of Him/Her/Self (1975) and others. Sixteen-year-old Murray Baum is the American son of German immigrants. His mother, the perfect hausfrau, writes him corny birthday poems, and his father is fascinated with garish Hawaiian shirts and American slang (he loves calling the Dodgers ``dem bums''). Meanwhile, little brother Theo is almost too lovable to be true. But this is the Red Scare era, and Murray's father is banished to California after refusing to sign a loyalty oath at work. Disoriented within this suddenly fatherless family, Murray is further disturbed because he can't determine his father's plans. And when confronted with the dreaded Junior Research Project at school, he decides the path to comprehension is through his parents' history. His research, however, is confusing. In tracking down The Truth, he finds differing interpretations. Was his father really in love with Barbara Jacobs, the beautiful blond from Kansas, or was she just his parents' friend? Murray can't decide about that or other slippery matters. Still, life goes on, and besides reading his parents' old letters and interviewing relatives, he hangs out with his friends at Buddy's Grill and dates Ruth and Arlie, neither of whom seems all that captivated with him, although one does relieve him of his virginity. In the end, Murray finds not answers but a realization that The Truth is very often a subjective matter open to interpretation and that a family is a complex organism in whose center he is as comfortable as he is stifled. Very well-executed and touching first novel. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Historian Filene's ( Him/Her/Self ) deft first novel is a coming-of-age tale that doubles as an allegory of the hazards of historiography. The year 1951 proves momentous for Murray Baum, a New York City teenager and a veritable pack rat (he collects baseball cards, cigar bands and much more). Now, it seems, he's collecting crises as well. First his father moves out, and Murray is unsure of the real reason. Have his father's superiors at the publishing company where he works temporarily transferred him to California for refusing to sign a loyalty oath? Is his father having an affair? Then there are the ups and downs of Murray's friendships, his own romances and, finally, the dreaded junior-year research paper in history. Prompted by his teacher, Mr. Sklar, Murray writes about his family's past, titling his paper "Truth and Consequences." Sklar voices what may well be the author's views about his craft: "Historians objectify memory. But that doesn't mean they write the truth." As he examines a pack of memories, including his own, Murray discovers a far more complicated picture of his family than he had imagined. Though Murray and his friends occasionally threaten to devolve into pale imitations of Holden Caulfield, Filene individuates his characters through dialogue that is wistful, optimistic, anxious and even flippant, and his fine debut is bound to stir memories of one's own growing up.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.