Malachy Doyle was born in Northern Ireland. After earning a degree in psychology, he worked for several years in advertising and in education. Soon after his first short story won a prize, Doyle decided to become a full-time writer. He is also the author of Georgie. He now lives in West Wales with his wife, their three children and three cats.
Grade 5-8-Fourteen-year-old Jesse Flood explores his life and thoughts in brief chapters of nearly stand-alone vignettes. The metaphor of adolescence as a tunnel from which one enters as a child and emerges as an adult runs throughout the book, beginning in the exciting opening in which Jesse enters a long train tunnel and plasters himself against the wall as a train races by, thus challenging death and staving off personal painful emotions. "And you're thinking maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. You're thinking maybe there are better ways to get the constant sound of parental argument out of your head. Slightly more clever ways to get yourself a cheap thrill, to break the unremitting tedium of small town life." Indeed, Jesse himself seems almost a metaphor for the common adolescent experience. He adores his mother and is devastated when she chooses to leave him and his father. He wonders if she were not loved or respected enough in their home in a small Irish community. Jesse's voice comes through with poignant tellings of embarrassing situations and with a wonderful sense of humor, as well as with an honest exploration of painful emotions.
Crystal Faris, Nassau Library System, Uniondale, NY
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