An Ocean in Iowa by Peter Hedges

An Ocean in Iowa by Peter Hedges

Fresh and funny second novel from the author of What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? `Seven,’ says Scotty Ocean early in this novel, `is going to be my year.’ But it is a traumatic one. His mother, Joan Ocean, struggling to conform to the stereotype of the 1960s middle-American happy housewife, turns instead to painting nude self-portraits and drinking beer. Eventually she walks out on the family and ends up hospitalized; when she emerges it is not to go back to adoring and puzzled Scotty in Des Moines but to start a new life on her own. Scotty is the only boy in his class who doesn’t have a mother, while his father, the Judge, tries, with only mixed success, to recreate a `normal’ family life for his son and teenage daughters. Hedges paints an entirely convincing, fresh, painful and often hilariously funny picture of family life, its pressures and absurdities, through the eyes of Scotty Ocean. This is a gentle novel of remarkable power and resonance. Beautifully crafted and constantly surprising, it explores the fragile contracts between parents and children, and what it really means to grow up.

`An accomplished follow-up to the much praised What’s Eating Gilbert Grape… The dialogue is fresh and natural, the comedy perfectly pitched: a beautiful book’
Judy Cooke, Independent

`A heart-rending but beautifully economical child’s-eye view of break-up in an early Sixties family… An elegantly vivid masterpiece: unpretentious, unsentimental, unforgettable’
Sophie Hunter, Mail on Sunday

Peter Hedges is a writer of films, novels and television dramas. This is his second novel.

SKU	Non disponible
ISBN 13	9780006551072
ISBN 10	0006551076
Title	An Ocean in Iowa
Author	Peter Hedges
Condition	Non disponible
Binding type	Paperback
Publisher	HarperCollins Publishers
Year published	1999-07-05
Number of pages	256
Cover note	La photo du livre est présentée à titre d'illustration uniquement. La reliure, la couverture ou l'édition réelle peuvent varier.
Note	Non disponible