MIDNIGHT HOUR ENCORES

by Bruce Brooks ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1986

In The Moves Make the Man (Newbery Honor), Brooks drew a close-knit, supportive family, mother and sons. Now he postulates a father with a daughter, 16, intellectually gifted and already one of the world's finest cellists. Sibilance T. Spooner has always managed her life, with (she feels) little support from her journalist Dad, Taxi, loving but scrupulously non-interfering. Suddenly, she accepts his perennial offer to take her to meet Connie, her mother, a hippie who decided when Sib was a day old that motherhood would interfere with self-realization. Sib's ulterior motive is to become a student of a fabulously gifted Polish cellist who is at a West Coast school. On the coast-to-coast journey, Taxi tries to recreate the hippie ambiance in order to soften Sib's response to Connie's abandoning her, but Connie turns out to be a prosperous businessperson with whom Sib easily establishes rapport. She falls in love; she auditions successfully; but, at the close, she decides to return east with Taxi. In this complex, richly textured novel. Brooks successfully makes different styles of music metaphors for the inner lives of his characters; yet there is so much musical detail that non-musical readers may lose interest. And the characters are well drawn, but exaggerated: Sib has all the intolerance of youth and the single-mindedness of genius, Taxi is almost saintly. A more serious reservation: Sib narrates, but the novel's real point of view is Taxi's; when Sib stays with him, it confirms their loving relationship but seems inconsistent with her dedicated artistry and the need of any 16-year-old to look toward the future. Still, an interesting effort from a fine author.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 263

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1986

Categories: CHILDREN'S