A teenage boy's image of his older brother is shattered by tragedy in
this "remarkable first novel" by the author of Midnight Cowboy (New
York Herald Tribune Book Review).
Some families get a reputation for being strange, and so it is with the
Williamses of Seminary Street. The father, once an outspoken socialist,
now keeps to his rocks glass. The mother has a reputation for scaring
children. But the older son, named Berry-berry, is the most
whispered-about of them all. A traveling vagabond, he's known for his
cleft chin, loose morals, and streaks of violence.
Then there's sixteen-year-old Clinton, who spends his time filling
notebooks with every conversation he can overhear, word for word. When
Clinton escapes the confines of home to find his big brother, he hopes
to make a connection more real than anything he's put down on paper. But
finding Berry-berry in coastal Florida will set off a tragic series of
events that will stay with Clinton, and his family, forever.
"There is something very wonderful about this book; it has a luminous
thing that is the best thing in writing or any kind of art." --Tennessee
Williams
"Herlihy writes with an edge of iron." --Nelson Algren, National Book
Award-winning author of The Man with the Golden Arm
