Evelyn Bucknow is a 10-year-old math prodigy who is being raised by her single, godless mother and her deeply Christian, God-fearing grandmother, the great love of her life, Travis, also a math wiz., lives next door and they ride the same bus to school everyday. Evelyn believes she and Travis are destined to be together, but as she grows up, she learns the heartbreaking lesson of true destiny we all discover the hard way--that not every love is meant to be, and that not all promising children end up to be promising adults. ...
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Evelyn Bucknow is a 10-year-old math prodigy who is being raised by her single, godless mother and her deeply Christian, God-fearing grandmother, the great love of her life, Travis, also a math wiz., lives next door and they ride the same bus to school everyday. Evelyn believes she and Travis are destined to be together, but as she grows up, she learns the heartbreaking lesson of true destiny we all discover the hard way--that not every love is meant to be, and that not all promising children end up to be promising adults. Set in small town Kansas in the 1980s, against the backdrop of Reaganism and religious fundamentalism, this coming-of-age tale is already drawing comparisons to Wally Lamb, Jane Hamilton, Mona Simpson, and Lorrie Moore.
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Seller's Description:
Good. 8 RELIABLE audio cassettes withdrawn from the library in the clamshell case published by Recorded Books. Some shelf wear and library markings to the box and the cassettes. The audio tapes are sturdy and presentable. Before shipping, all tapes are final tested for clarity. Enjoy this UNABRIDGED audio performance!
The Center of Everything is one of those rare coming of age novels full of emotional pathos and personal growth that somehow touches a deep nerve within, especially if you were about the same age in the Reagan era 80's as protagonist Evelyn Bucknow. It is a novel about a smart girl living in a small Kansas town with her overwhelmingly depressed, trampy "welfare queen" mother searching for a better path in life than the path her mother chose. Told from Evelyn's perspective between the ages of 10 through 18, the first half of the novel focuses on her increasingly strained relationship with her somewhat unattentive mother. When Evelyn reaches the breaking point with her mother and "a black line" is drawn between them, the novel then focuses on Evelyn's fractured friendships, painfully unrequited love and her desire to improve the quality of her life. Moriarty's prose is thoughtful and breezy with a touch of child-like innocence. The characters are achingly real keeping you riveted to the page not from suspense but from a desire to get to know them better. You'll find your emotions run high as you love/hate many of the characters, especially Evelyn's mother. Touching and poignant, sad but never sappy The Center of Everything is a believable account of a girl's search for herself and her place in the world.
