The Falling Boy

by David Long

Hardcover, 1997

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Collection

Publication

Scribner (1997), Edition: First Edition, Hardcover, 288 pages

Description

"In his novel, set in a Montana town during the 1950s and 1960s, David Long charts the inner life of a young carpenter, Mark Singer, whose marriage to Olivia, one of the four Stavros sisters, draws him into the tensions and joys of family life. Raised by his grandmother, Mark is a stranger to the teasing humor and smoldering resentments that preside at the Stavros dinner table. His favorite pastime is to watch these four women: Olivia, the serious and stable sister; Celia, whose "calamitous history" with men is famous in Sperry; Helen, the dutiful manager of her father's cafe; and Linny, the oldest and most enigmatic, who slowly begins to cast a spell over her brother-in-law. The two embark on an illicit affair just as Nick Stavros struggles to save his failing business. And as events lurch out of control, threatening to unravel this closely knit family, Mark must confront the nature of marriage and desire."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member kvrfan
David Long is a master--a master craftsman of sentences and a master storyteller. He's proof-positive that the outlines of the story don't matter as much to make a good read (the story here is pretty simple: about a transgression in a marriage), as it does how the story is told. Each of the
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characters here is fully-fleshed, so that in coming to know them, the reader comes to feel what they do. Fully flawed, they become very real.

There's wisdom here, too. I usually give my books away after I read them. This one is a keeper.
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Language

Original language

English

Physical description

288 p.; 6.25 x 1.25 inches

ISBN

0684800349 / 9780684800349
Page: 0.5545 seconds