Capture the Flag: A Novel

by Rebecca Chace

A game of "capture the flag" between two wealthy families is designed to test strategy and military prowess, but the game also turns up the heat on some fragile interpersonal relationships, as well. A first novel. 20,000 first printing.

Genres: Fiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published August 11, 1999

About the author

Rebecca Chace’s fifth book, Talking to the Wolf, is forthcoming from Red Hen Press in 2026. She is the author of Leaving Rock Harbor (New York Times, "Editors Choice" and New England Book Award Finalist); Capture the Flag, Chautauqua Summer (New York Times Notable Book and Picks of Summer); June Sparrow and The Million Dollar Penny (middle-grade). Chace adapted her novel "Capture the Flag" into a short film with director, Lisanne Skyler. The film was awarded the Showtime Tony Cox Best Screenplay short film award at the Nantucket Film Festival. She is a contributor to The New York Times and has written nonfiction essays and reviews for The Yale Review, LA Review of Books, Guernica, Lit Hub, The Brooklyn Rail, Bookpost, and many other publications. Fellowships include Civitella Ranieri, MacDowell, Yaddo, Dora Maar House, American Academy in Rome (visiting artist), and others. She is a Faculty Associate at the Bard College Institute for Writing and Thinking.

Reviews

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up from a library sale and ended up being pleasantly surprised. Capture the Flag reminded me that a book does not have to involve mad drama and vampires to be enjoyable ;) Written as a memoir, this coming of age novel takes place in NYC of the mid seventies ~ so there is lots of divorce, casual sex, pot and abused prescription medications. We meet the protagonist, Annie when she is either 11 or 12 and follow her and her extended family through her freshman year of high school. I was surprised by the amount of casual sex and drug use at such an early age ~ but I grew up with very strict parents in the Midwest ;) Regardless, even though Annie and her friends lived in the big city with ridiculously absent parents, I found the amount of freedom they experienced to be somewhat unbelievable. Even so, Capture the Flag was definitely worth the dollar I spent on it.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve tried to dig into this book twice now, but ultimately I find a lot of the idea and the presentation derivative over original, derivative, even, of books that themselves derivative of shocking memoir-esque material.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Capture the Flag: A Novel is a memoir of Annie, a teen girl who grows up in a permissive environment. Her parents joins her father's friend to play capture the flag game every summer. As Annie falls through the cracks of her parent's dicvore and her mother's depression she finds comfort through her father's friend children who are her age. Annie and her friends causual smokes, drink, take drugs and explore their sexuality. Her friend ends up pregnant and tries to hide her pregnacy from her parents. The lines between childhood and adulthood blurs due to the lack of attention from their families.

There is a lot of swearing and it sometimes gets confusing who is talking. It was interesting to see how Annie dealt with her friend's pregnacy and realizes how much responisblity comes when you are an adult. This is not a pleasant novel it's very gritty.

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

Admittedly, I read this book out of curiosity since the author's father is renowned military historian, James Chace who mentored Caleb Carr (author of The Alienist.)

The story follows Annie at age eleven through fourteen as she negotiates the twists and turns that is a teenager's life in the 1970s, including a love/hate relationship with a troublesome and hormonal boy, the divorce of her parents, the neglect of the parental unit in general, drugs and alcohol, sexual experimentation, a young friend's pregnancy, and the loss of a lover to an unfortunate misunderstanding. Annie, however, comes through seemingly physically unscathed, if not emotionally.

Despite the run-on sentences and confusing dialogue, this book was worth every penny and every moment spent reading.

[Laurie Stoll · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story is a memoir of a teenager going through the difficult years. The more I read the better I enjoyed the book. Even still, it was just an okay read.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance]

Sixties child gets older without much parental help