Patrick Cantwell is a good
kid, however misguided. He's a seven-year-old with a conscience, growing up in
the 1960s in Webster Groves, a middle-class suburb of Saint Louis. The nuns at Mary Queen of
our Hearts parochial school have done a good work in Patrick - he feels guilty
about playing on the train tracks (and lying about it afterward), sneaking
orange soda during lent, throwing tomatoes at buses and failing to sell enough
raffle tickets for church. Swept up in a quest to help his brother get a drum set, Patrick's level of mischief escalates until he
gets caught up in a robbery at the neighborhood convenience store. Amid his
antics, Patrick must deal with a secret crush on schoolmate Ebby Hamilton, the impending prospect of his first confession, his
39 year-old mother being pregnant again and how pretty, young Aunt Jenny, who is
"almost" a nun, is having second thoughts about her choice of vocation.
Kevin Killeen's novel breathes
life and nostalgia into a bygone era. You can almost smell the pomade, see the
paperback James Bond novels, S&H Greenstamps, Frank Sinatra 45 records, the family's Ford Falcon and hear the cheers for The
Beatles. The story follows young Patrick's life over
the course of a few months, from Easter until Christmas. The book is filled
with a balanced blend of humor and poignancy, structured in short chapters that
are richly woven with period details and a pitch-perfect re-creation of the Roman Catholic Church of the 1960s (the rituals, tenets and mindsets therein) and how morality and faith
were once the cornerstones of American family life.
Publication
Date: December 8, 2012
Note: This book was provided for review by TLC
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