October 15, 2014
A vivid portrayal of the disappointed young adults in Elephant Beach, a fading East Coast seaside town, in 1972. Beware the seductive lure of sex, drugs, and rock and roll.The world-weary proprietor of a local hangout tells Katie, the 18-year-old narrator of this affecting debut short story collection, "You're different than the other kids around here. You want my advice? Get out of Dodge. Now." But in the summer after her high school graduation, there is some life lesson that Katie needs to learn from this on-the-skids town and her colorful, chain-smoking friends. Everyone around her is trying to escape the challenging circumstances that surround them in this working-class community. The women's dreams are quickly crushed in evanescent sexual affairs, which end in abandonment, arguments, abortions or just male indifference; the men they get involved with are too troubled or immature or stoned to be dependable partners. The rest of the country, roiling from the Vietnam War, seems distant, as does nearby Manhattan. Katie's friends are both contemptuous and jealous of the occasional hippie or privileged student who drifts by. Mitch, who lost a leg in Vietnam and is drinking himself to death, is the poster boy for those unable to withstand the vicissitudes of life. Katie, who comes from a more affluent family but works at an A&P, is obsessed with Luke, an elusive, recently returned vet; she is also grappling with her own adoption. What makes the desperation that abounds compelling is Chicurel's perfect pitch for the characters' patter, which is blunt, cynical, often profane and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny.Will Katie get her man? Will she make a break from this hard-luck population? The author's masterful writing makes this short stay in Elephant Beach worthwhile.
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Starred review from October 1, 2014
It's 1972, Katie has just graduated from high school in her small New York beach town, and life stretches out before her. First, though, comes that magical summer that separates the adolescent years from adulthood. Katie spends her days working at the local grocery store and her nights partying hard with her friends, and she has her sights set on a handsome boy just back from Vietnam. Though her parents are nagging her to pursue her education and escape the rough, working-class neighborhood and its rampant drinking, drugs, and sex, Katie is happy and can't imagine leaving. Nothing remains the same, however, and with even her friends itching to get out of town, eventually Katie will have to acknowledge the pull of time. In a beautiful and honest coming-of-age story, Katie acquaints readers with the people and character of her hometownthe struggles, losses, hopes, and dreamsin chapters that resemble short stories, all tied neatly together by Katie's own bid for the future. The result is a stunningly evocative portrait of a down-on-its-luck town and its people, who, like Katie, are trapped between the past as they've known it and the promise of the future.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)