Mairead Case

http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0983186359?keywords=see%20you%20in%20the%20mo....

Mairead Case's "See You in the Morning" (no touchstone - see the Amazon link above) features an unnamed cusp-of-adulthood high school girl who works at a bookstore and is struggling to find her place in the world. She has a wonderful elderly neighbor, Mr. Green, who is the one adult who listens to her and gives her practical help. Her closest friend is an unconventional boy named John. She may well be in love with him, and periodically tries to tell him so, but he has eyes (and more) for her best female friend. Our heroine is an outsider desperate for love, and at one point considers a same sex relationship to salve her heart. Her struggles with youthful alienation and her yearning for love are piercingly vivid, and those, along with her insights into those around her, make this a standout read.

She's generally disconnected from her parents, and the other parents she knows are divorced or in strained circumstances. Thank goodness for the insightful, marching to a different drummer Mr. Green, who brings some small measure of stability to her life.

"Is it a big day? I said and Yeah, he said, it’s my birthday. Every year on my birthday I read a poem and eat some cake. Do you want to do that with me, kid? Okay, I said, and I wished I’d worn something nicer than my sneakers. On the other hand, I didn’t—it looked right, me with my shoes covered in that red dust I always stir up walking home, and that scab from the box top at work, and Mr. Green with his fancy belt. I did wish I’d known so I could write him a card. Usually I am better in writing. I want to tell him how grateful I am to come over and sit on his porch all the time, and that he talks to me like an adult even when I don’t know what I’m doing.
. . .
Then I sat down at the table and he played jazz he likes. It’s Mingus. You say it hard on the ming, like a bell sounding. Before I met Mr. Green, I did not know you could whistle jazz, but yes you can. He picks one instrument and just sings it, which is nice because it lets you imagine all the others. It puts half the noise inside your head, half out. When Mr. Green sat back down, he had the scarf tied around his head, and he was holding a cake."

This isn't a long book, 126 pages, but every word counts. We've all been through alienation and near-to-adulthood misgivings, and her story is at times painfully easy to relate to. But the book also has a lot of subtle and effective humor. This is a promising young author. Four stars.… (mehr)