
An Ocean in Iowa
Peter Hedges(Author)
Flamingo (Publisher)
Published on 5. July 1999
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-0-00-655107-2 (ISBN)
Description
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.
`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.
Reviews / Votes
`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
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers
Product notice
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Weight
198 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-00-655107-2 (9780006551072)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Peter Hedges is a writer of films, novels and television dramas. This is his second novel.