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thingtwo 's review for:
Tell the Wolves I'm Home
by Carol Rifka Brunt
A vacillated between amusement at the ridiculousness of the story line, and annoyance with the writing. Overall, the story has some merit, but it fell so short of where I think it needed to go.
June is a pre-teen in the late 70s/early 80s. She lives with her accountant parents and her elder sister, with whom she has a typical angst filled relationship. The story centers around the death of her uncle/godfather who dies of AIDS within the first few chapters, and the ways in which she copes.
It was interesting to revisit this time in the AIDS saga; I could identify with how the family reacted to being around someone with AIDS. I can remember being told that sharing a swimming pool with an AIDS victim might put me at risk for catching the disease (this was said by a medical student while we were swimming a pool in Key West!) There were also lots of little clues - the daily use of a crock-pot - that accurately date-stamp the book.
The writing fell short with character development, IMHO. I would've liked to see the parents be multi-dimensional, for instance, and I didn't quite believe everything that came out of June's head. She seemed to me to be speaking as an adult, not a young girl. For a while I wondered if this wasn't being written as a look-back-in-time story, and was hoping there'd be a surprise at the end, the way [a:Philip Roth|463|Philip Roth|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1399886959p2/463.jpg]'s [b:Nemesis|7703038|Nemesis|Philip Roth|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327700046s/7703038.jpg|6518262] ends.
Honestly, if it hadn't been a book-club read, I'd have skipped this one. Waffling between two and three stars here, probably will end up closer to two.
June is a pre-teen in the late 70s/early 80s. She lives with her accountant parents and her elder sister, with whom she has a typical angst filled relationship. The story centers around the death of her uncle/godfather who dies of AIDS within the first few chapters, and the ways in which she copes.
It was interesting to revisit this time in the AIDS saga; I could identify with how the family reacted to being around someone with AIDS. I can remember being told that sharing a swimming pool with an AIDS victim might put me at risk for catching the disease (this was said by a medical student while we were swimming a pool in Key West!) There were also lots of little clues - the daily use of a crock-pot - that accurately date-stamp the book.
The writing fell short with character development, IMHO. I would've liked to see the parents be multi-dimensional, for instance, and I didn't quite believe everything that came out of June's head. She seemed to me to be speaking as an adult, not a young girl. For a while I wondered if this wasn't being written as a look-back-in-time story, and was hoping there'd be a surprise at the end, the way [a:Philip Roth|463|Philip Roth|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1399886959p2/463.jpg]'s [b:Nemesis|7703038|Nemesis|Philip Roth|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327700046s/7703038.jpg|6518262] ends.
Honestly, if it hadn't been a book-club read, I'd have skipped this one. Waffling between two and three stars here, probably will end up closer to two.