Loverboy by Victoria Redel
In Victoria Redel's mesmerizing first novel, the question of what happens when a mother loves her child too much is deeply and darkly explored. Left with a small fortune by her parents and the cryptic advice, "it would do to find a passion," Redel's narrator sets out to become a mother--a task she feels she can be adequately passionate about. She conceives her son Paul through a loveless one-night stand, surrounds him with a wonderful, magical world for two--a world filled with books, music, endless games, and bottomless devotion--and calls him pet names like Birdie, Cookie, Puppy, and Loverboy. She wonders, "Has ever a mother loved a child more?" But as life outside their lace curtains begins to beckon the school-age Paul, his mother's efforts to keep him content in their small world become increasingly frantic and ultimately extreme by all definitions.In this exquisite debut novel, Victoria Redel takes us deep into the mind of a very singular mother, exposing the dangerously whisper-thin line between selfless and selfish motivation that exists in all types of devotion.
Victoria Redel explores the continuing impact of the Holocaust as the daughter of survivors embarks on a journey of discovery into her family history. At 41, single professor Sara Leader decides to create a family by adopting a child. After the adoption agency asks for details about her background, Sara reluctantly begins to probe her father's secret history--in particular, his flight as a 17-year-old Holocaust refugee aboard a ship denied entry into America. Frustrated by her father's vow of silence, Sara nevertheless uncovers his secret past & must take on the burden of his life. The more she learns about her father's past, the more Sara feels the need to question him about what happened--and the more she realizes how her father's secrets have shaped her own life. Alternating between a teenage boy's energetic letters to Eleanor Roosevelt and a daughter's sifting through the fragments of her father's traumatic wartime choices, Victoria Redel brilliantly imbues her characters with not only bravery and strength but with the humor to survive the pain of the past and the uncertainty of what lies ahead.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780156007245 |
| ISBN 10 | 015600724X |
| Title | Loverboy |
| Author | Victoria Redel |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Harper Perennial |
| Year published | 2002-07-25 |
| Number of pages | 224 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |