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Delinquency Lessons
"A Raw, Acrid Little Jewel of a Book"
Delinquency Lessons is the autobiographical story of a truck driver's son in New Jersey. Its 26 wryly comic episodes tell of a childhood spent in the West side of a little mountain town, with kids of immigrant descent from every part of Europe. A mountain brook flows by chemical factories, to the tune of 1960s’ rock and roll. The kids are left to their own devices, free to roam and up to mischief, as they were in Countess de Ségur’s or Mark Twain’s worlds. Their adventures are punctuated by the cawing and flapping crows that meet in this crossroads area, as is explained by Newsy, the narrator’s alter ego whose unquenchable curiosity makes him a living encyclopedia. David Essig-Beatty’s terse, cool, matter-of-fact prose and his childishly rude dialogues, down to an ending that sticks in your throat, make up a raw, acrid little jewel of a book. He has left his childhood behind like a trail of pebbles on the way, for us to find and treasure.
Delinquency Lessons is the autobiographical story of a truck driver's son in New Jersey. Its 26 wryly comic episodes tell of a childhood spent in the West side of a little mountain town, with kids of immigrant descent from every part of Europe. A mountain brook flows by chemical factories, to the tune of 1960s’ rock and roll. The kids are left to their own devices, free to roam and up to mischief, as they were in Countess de Ségur’s or Mark Twain’s worlds. Their adventures are punctuated by the cawing and flapping crows that meet in this crossroads area, as is explained by Newsy, the narrator’s alter ego whose unquenchable curiosity makes him a living encyclopedia. David Essig-Beatty’s terse, cool, matter-of-fact prose and his childishly rude dialogues, down to an ending that sticks in your throat, make up a raw, acrid little jewel of a book. He has left his childhood behind like a trail of pebbles on the way, for us to find and treasure.
122 pages, Paperback
First published March 25, 2009
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