Product Title:
Whistling In the Dark
Description:
It was in the summer on Vliet Street when we all started locking our doors. . . Sally O’Malley made a promise into her father before he died. She swore she would look after her sister, Troo. Keep it safe. But like her Granny always said actions speak louder than words. Now, during the summer of 1959, the girls’ mother is hospitalized, their stepfather has abandoned them for a six pack, & her big sister, Nell, is too busy with her boyfriend into notice that Sally & Troo on are the Loose. And so is a murderer & molester. Very imaginative Sally is pretty sure of two things. Who is the murderer. And that they are the next on his list. Now she has no choice but into protect herself & Troo as best she can, which is on their own courage & the kindness of its inhabitants.
“Whistling in the Dark” is an endearing story about the “O’Malley sisters Sally and Troo, 10 and 9 years old, and her summer chalked full of anxiety and tension. Her mother is very ill, they can be by a drunken stepfather, a selfless older sister are cared for, and a neighborhood full of delicous, eccentric characters. Set in 1959, remembers the book lazy days of summer filled with “Red Rover”, “green light, red light,” and playground antics. Although apparently hidden the time of innocence, darkness, stumbling in the shadows, and Sally and Troo him in his most dangerous form. Fortunately, the O’Malley’s enough to enable family and neighbors in their arsenal this book is enlightening, humorous and charming, and intense.
Ms. Kagan has the ability, the reader experience the stomach with laughter, making trembling, tingling fear, sadness and sentimentality. Descriptions and dialogue are spoken language, while the plot turns the pages for you. Poison you to treat this summer. . . . . You will not regret it.
Rating: 5.5
Told from the perspective of a young girl, Sally O ‘Malley, this is the kind of summer reading, that your life can change – or do you remember a world you used to know, if you grew up in the ’50s.
From beginning to end, I was absolutely delighted. Sally is an entirely credible child and she has a combination of innocence, goodness and common sense, which is unique. She also has great sensitivity, which can finally make sense if real danger is round (although it takes a few dead ends on the way).
I do not know how best categorize this book – it is the story of two sisters who proposes each other to learn crisis again? Is it an exciting Murder Mystery? It is certainly a great danger in the form of a child killer, true evil in a world full of nostalgia 50s, was still more against the contrast of the simpler times, long summers and friendly neighbors.
To the drama, Sally and her sister, Troo, add almost on their own for the summer, while her mother recovers from a long illness. Yes, sister Nell is supposedly in charge, but it is far more concerned with her boyfriend and other distractions to do a proper job. SO Troo and Sally depend on each other. They have intensely different personalities, but an equally strong bond.
Do not ignore the Conversation Guide by author Leslie Kagen, on the back of the book. It offers insight into how they actually wrote the novel, not something they had great confidence in actually completed. It came with a wonderful, heartwarming work full kindling heart, tension, and a master’s touch, time and place.
Rating: 5.5
Told from the perspective of the 10-year-old Sally O’Malley, this story of a brilliant blend of living history (I did not live in the 50s, but I felt like me, when reading), thriller (it’s a child murderer at large walk in the streets), and simple drama. At points, I was convinced, as was Sally, who is the murderer, because the evidence that Sally had no one else can see or understand. Their black-and-white view of the world are often at odds with what I do have taken place, but because of the way the story is told, I looked through their eyes.
Sally is a great character, whose true heart shines through the whole book. Although there are great hardships in her life, she sticks with her sisters and looks to the end. Supporting characters such as Nell, the older sister, who will care for her siblings, spends more time but “exercise” with her boyfriend, Hall, the vile stepfather, and the rest of the cast really pull together the story. And the background of the plot keeps moving.
Fun reading!
(*)>
Rating: 5.5
A great generosity of spirit and a genuine respect for the anguish of a tormented child animate Lesley Kagen’s moving debut novel “Whistling in the Dark.” Set in a working class neighborhood of Milwaukee in the summer of 1959, “pipes” focuses on Sally O’Malley’s discussion of loss, guilt and fear. Suffering after the death of her father, with a sense of shame for some unspecified misconduct drenched and frightened at the sudden hospitalization of the mother, Sally navigates the currents of childhood without the stabilizing comfort of a coherent family. Instead, she endures a rough, cruel stepfather, his drunken forays to leave Sally and her younger sister, Troo virtually indomitable homeless.
Kagen has created a credible end of the 50′s sensibility, and its protagonists O ‘Malley bounce between the domestic and comforting quirky characters in their ceaseless efforts to achieve a sense of stability to bring their lives. Her older sister is indifferent to their fate, than it consumes, with its burgeoning bust and raging hormonal attraction to a friend, Eddie Haskel is similar to the best of “Leave It to Beaver” fame. Sally and Troo able to bear her loneliness, the latter with an aggressive assertion and the former with an introspective concern. Sally’s increased sensitivity is aware of it, that the neighborhood is no longer a safe haven, not after his two young girls were found murdered after they sexually harassed.
“Pipes” succeeds on several levels. creates the novel is to combine a compelling story with a bittersweet nostalgia. The ones of us who have grown up in the 1950s, Kagen the accuracy of the descriptive detail’s witness, its version of the coherence of a single street in a well-defined community is a unique strength of the book. The author also allows a chalky residue of foreboding on the misadventures of the protagonists to penetrate with their friends. Homosexuality, teen-age sexual experimentation, abuse in marriage and parental cruelty appear dampened if, these social ills are never ignored. In fact, Kagen’s understatement of what was now a glaring social problems are magnified its impact. The novel is engaging in some stereotypical representations, the most glaring of which is Kagen characterization of an otherwise strong African-American woman.
More and more women modern American authors explore the effects of family and community on the emotional development of young girls. As girls to women – through their interpretation of Community, Friendship and trauma – is important for male and female readers. “Whistling in the Dark” teaches us that even young girls to have the courage, to the agonizing burden of loss and guilt in the face and appear as confident, compassionate young women.
Rating: 5.4
Set in 1959, Whistling in the Dark follows two tough young girls through an ominous summer. Her mother is in hospital fighting for her life, has left her step-father for alcohol and another woman, and her older sister is too wrapped up in her boyfriend to tend them. It is therefore the O’Malley girls alone – imaginative Sally and Troo cheeky, little sister Sally promised to her dead father, she would remain safe filled – Running Wild on Vliet Street, an area with colorful characters, and at least a very dark person harassed and murdered two little girls. Sally is convinced it will be his third victim.
This wonderful book is a voice that is telling you tug on the heart, and a plot that keep your eye is committed to the last page. Yes, the plot is serious, but Kagen manages to weave enough wit and warmth in this story, so read it a thoroughly uplifting. I absolutely loved this book, and have placed Lesley Kagen at the top of the list of my favorite contemporary writers.
Author Sandra Kring Carry Me Home and the Book of Bright Ideas’ , br />
Rating: 5.5