AURORA 7 - Hardcover

Mallon, Thomas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0899199380 ISBN 13: 9780899199382

Publisher: Ticknor & Fields, 1991

Synopsis

Young space enthusiast Gregory Noonan skips school to watch Scott Carpenter's Aurora 7 voyage on T.V. in Grand Central Station, crossing paths with an acerbic novelist and a confused priest before his destiny gradually becomes clear

About this title

About the Author:

Thomas Mallon's books include the novels Henry and Clara, Two Moons, Dewey Defeats Truman, and Aurora 7; a collection of essays, In Fact; and his book on the assassination of JFK, Mrs. Paine's Garage. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The American Scholar, and GQ. He received the National Book Critics Circle award for reviewing in 1998. The recipient of a 2000 Guggenheim Fellowship, he lives in Westport, Connecticut.

From Publishers Weekly:

Astronaut Scott Carpenter's triple orbit around the earth on May 24, 1962, is the launching point for this audacious novel. Its hero, fifth-grader Gregory Noonan, obsessed with outer space, plays hooky and hops a train to New York City's Grand Central Station to join crowds awaiting news of the astronaut, who loses radio contact with Cape Canaveral during his perilous reentry. Other characters in star-struck Gregory's orbit are his anxious, squarish parents; his nerdy best friend; and his Irish grandmother. Using an omniscient narrative voice, novelist Mallon ( Arts and Sciences ) interweaves other lives--those of a highly sexed young priest, a snooty writer who's just dumped her husband, a Puerto Rican high school dropout desperately seeking a job, a New York cabbie, etc.--to show what effect Carpenter's historic flight has--or does not have--on each personal trajectory. Period detail is enhanced by walk-ons by JFK, Walter Cronkite, LBJ. The cumulative effect is exhilarating. Mallon also wrote Stolen Words , a study of plagiarism.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ticknor & Fields
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0899199380
• ISBN 13: 9780899199382
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 238