Dough Boy (review)
2005; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 59; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/bcc.2005.0061
ISSN1558-6766
Autores Tópico(s)Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics
ResumoReviewed by: Dough Boy Deborah Stevenson Marino, Peter Dough Boy. Holiday House, 2005 [221p] ISBN 0-8234-1873-1$16.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 6-9 Tristan's home life is looking pretty tolerable—his divorced parents are amicable, he likes both his father's new girlfriend, Cyndi, and the new man in his mother's life, Frank, and he's happy that he and his mother have moved in with Frank. At school, though, he's the official bullyable fat kid of the tenth grade, despite getting a little protection from his old friend Marco, who relies on Tristan to do his homework. The torments of school spread suddenly to home with the arrival of Kelly, Frank's gorgeous daughter, an elegant and controlling presence who uses nutrition as her weapon against her plump father and near-stepbrother; soon Kelly has set the household on edge, hooked up with Marco, and threatened and intimidated Tristan into hibernation. While there have been books dealing with tormenting the outsider and difficult stepfamilies before, this is a sharply original employment of these themes to new and surprising ends. Without simply labeling it all Kelly's fault, the book dramatically demonstrates the way one high-effect individual can expose a family's weaknesses, guilt can convince parents to tolerate the intolerable, and a desire to keep a relationship alive can, even in adults with kids, impede judgment. Tristan's narration is touched with humor while displaying a keen understanding of the pain of having to pretend that one is a willing jester rather than the constant butt of torment. While readers never get inside Kelly's head, she's intriguingly complicated, a girl who genuinely resents some of the slights toward Tristan while constantly pummeling him emotionally—and sometimes physically—herself (there's a canny treatment of the way Kelly's belittling of her father and Tristan is masked as concern for their health). There's no unrealistically happy ending here, and it's bracing to see an acknowledgment that this household didn't work; it's clear, though, that Tristan and his parents are wiser and better equipped for the future as a consequence. The mixture of sympathy and uncompromising insight here recalls Going's Fat Kid Rules the World (BCCB 6/03), and readers will feel for Tristan in his trials and survival. Copyright © 2005 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
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