Harley Altmyer should be in college drinking Rolling Rock and chasing girls. Instead, he's marooned in the Pennsylvania backwoods caring for his three younger sisters -- a job that passed to him when his mother killed his abusive father and went to jail for life. Frustrated, overwhelmed, and utterly endearing, he's a guy in an impossible situation: an orphan with the responsibilities of an adult and the fiery, aggressive libido of a teenager. Then family secrets and unspoken truths collide with his youthful sexual obsession ...
Read More
Harley Altmyer should be in college drinking Rolling Rock and chasing girls. Instead, he's marooned in the Pennsylvania backwoods caring for his three younger sisters -- a job that passed to him when his mother killed his abusive father and went to jail for life. Frustrated, overwhelmed, and utterly endearing, he's a guy in an impossible situation: an orphan with the responsibilities of an adult and the fiery, aggressive libido of a teenager. Then family secrets and unspoken truths collide with his youthful sexual obsession, unearthing a series of staggering surprises ...
Read Less
Add this copy of Back Roads to cart. $13.91, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Austell, GA, UNITED STATES, published 2000 by Thorndike Press.
Add this copy of Back Roads to cart. $13.91, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2000 by Thorndike Press.
Add this copy of Back Roads to cart. $13.91, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2000 by Thorndike Press.
Add this copy of Back Roads to cart. $43.56, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2000 by Thorndike Pr.
Back Roads flirts with a host of Appalachian cliché?s. Incest, abuse, molestation, alcoholism and infidelity sounds like a recipe of disaster for a first time novelist. Somehow, though, Ms. O?Dell pulls it off.
Fueled by anger and lust, Back Roads reads like a redneck Streetcar Named Desire barreling full bore for a brick wall. The protagonist, Harley Altmyer is a nineteen year old boy who finds himself the head of household of a troubled and destitute family. He is, by turns, funny, tragic, flawed and immensely sympathetic. The author does a deft job of slowly doling out the twists and sordid details and, though she dances a little too close to the cliché?s sometimes, the strength of her straight-ahead prose and eye for detail carries the story.
