Secondary Attachments

by Greg Herriges

Johnny Spector is a newly divorced author, a popular English teacher in inner-city Chicago, and an honorary member of the Cobras - one of the many gangs at Freddie Prinze High School. On the verge of being fired and caught in the middle of the violence surrounding his students, he grows increasingly disillusioned until he meets 18 year old senior Marlyn Valentin.

251 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1986

About the author

Greg P. Herriges

Reviews

[Josephine (biblioseph)]

Since this book lacks any other review, perhaps you'll pardon the intrusion of an interloper:

"There is a lot to like about this somewhat unusual novel, beginning with its central character, Johnny Spector. A veteran of eight years of teaching in Chicago's inner city at the incongruously named Freddie Prinze High School, Spector is a renegade, disdained by the administrators. He is also distinguished as the author of a novel with a small cult following. Newly divorced, hassled by his principal, worried about the fate of his pupils as a major gang war looms on the horizon, Spector is thrown into further disarray when he falls for an extraordinary student. Eighteen-year-old Marlyn Valentin seems to have the brains and the will to escape the dead-end neighborhood. As Spector struggles to salvage his nearly burnt-out career, he and Marlyn engage in a torrid romance. Although its ending lacks the perfect turn the book needs, this is one of those rare contemporary novels brimming with humor, life and reality. (April 21)
DETAILS
Reviewed on: 04/01/1986
Release date: 04/01/1986"

From Publisher's Weekly