Let's Go, Gaels - Softcover

LaBate, Jim

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0966210042 ISBN 13: 9780966210040

Publisher: Mohawk River, 1998

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Let's Go, Gaels tells the story of one day in the life of a 12-year-old boy.

The story takes place in a Catholic school in upstate New York in 1964. As the week begins, the narrator is thinking about a speech he has to give in English class on Friday, a big basketball game on Saturday, and a trip to the movies on Saturday night.

During the week, however, something happens that changes his life -- and his outlook on life -- forever. The event moves him further away from his innocent boyhood and closer to his eventual maturity as a man.

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About the Author:

Jim LaBate grew up in Amsterdam, New York, and graduated from Saint Mary's Institute and Bishop Scully High School. He earned a bachelor's degree in English from Siena College in Loudonville, New York, and a master's degree in English from The College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York.

Jim served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Costa Rica for two years, taught high-school English for ten years (one year at Vincentian Institute in Albany, New York, and nine years at Keveny Memorial Academy in Cohoes, New York), and worked as a writer at Newkirk Products, Inc., in Albany, New York, for ten years. He currently teaches writing courses at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, New York, in addition to his writing activities.

Jim lives in Clifton Park, New York, with his wife, Barbara, and their two daughters: Maria and Katrina.

From Publishers Weekly:

In this awkward novella, LaBate attempts to recreate a tumultuous week in the life of a 12-year-old boy in 1964. In between worries about giving a speech in class and about what Patty Boyleson wrote about him in a slam book, and his anticipation of the league-championship basketball game, "Jimbo" makes time to do his chores and play with his retarded four-year-old sister, Peggy. But when Peggy suddenly dies in her sleep, Jimbo's world is turned upside-down. LaBate's labored, disjointed narrative reads something like a list of 1964 memorabilia and holds more appeal for adults who remember the era than for children. With so much period detail crammed into it, the story feels hollow and forced despite its serious undertones. The conscious but inconsistent effort to clip "-ing" suffixes also feels contrived ("She kinda looked like she was sleepin', " Jimbo says, viewing Peggy at the wake). By the end, LaBate eases into a more comfortable pace, but many readers will have jumped ship long before. The pencil sketches, half of them horizontal views tipped in sideways, do little to enhance the tale. Ages 12-17.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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