BLUE SKIN OF THE SEA

Ordinary as waves lapping sand, tempestuous as a stormy sea- -the growing-up years of Sonny Mendoza in Hawaii in the 50's and 60's derive their metaphors from the surrounding sea. Taking the long view, like Irene Hunt in Up a Road Slowly, Salisbury relates a pivotal event each year: Sonny, at six, leaving an aunt and uncle to move in with his widower father; discovering the binding, quiet love between his family members; capturing a shark for a movie crew (an ambitious allusion to The Old Man and the Sea); fearing, more than once, that his father has been taken by natural enemies; etc. Salisbury has a sure hand, writing with grace and cool conviction of Sonny's confusion over his untalkative parent, his dealings with bullies, his growing awareness that he lacks the ``macho'' of other Mendoza men. An exotic and particular way of life is made universal as Sonny acknowledges the sea he feared, faces high school, falls in love. Ripe with images, the work—its writing, people, style—is tantalizing, well-realized, and mature. (Fiction. 11+)