Crooked Hearts - Softcover

Boswell, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060975865 ISBN 13: 9780060975869

Publisher: Perennial, 1994

Synopsis

After Tom, the most likely Warren to break the family cycle of self destruction, drops out of Berkeley, he finds that he and Ask--the two tormented middle-children--together form the eye of the Warren hurricane

About this title

From the Publisher:

"A delicately balanced ensemble piece that both gives us deftly drawn portraits . . . and delineates the ever-shifting bonds of love, hate, guilt and envy that connects them."--New York Times

From Publishers Weekly:

As evidenced in his prize-winning short-story collection Dancing in the Movies (where a portion of this work previously appeared), Boswell is a fearless writer. In this stunning novelistic debut, he lays bare the protective yet stifling private worlds that insulate families in his tale of the matchless Warrens. Intoxicated and immobilized by their attachment to a family that "is a drug," they love and betray each other in equally fierce measures. Epitomizing their collective resilience is the idiosyncratic Warren custom of throwing a party (complete with Christmas lights, drinking and dancing) to celebrate failure: unsuccessful science projects, dropping out of college, divorce, adultery, sickness and death. In Boswell's talented hands, this odd habit is wholly believable and provides a thread that unifies the novel. With an unusually strong grasp of child, adolescent and young adult psyches, he blends a third-person narrative with the family's first-person accounts, a potent combination of differing perspectives. Gifted with a keen sense of subtlety and timing, Boswell uses his unadorned prose to create a work of piercing and passionate complexity.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Perennial
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0060975865
• ISBN 13: 9780060975869
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352