Gantos, Jack Dead End

Gantos, Jack      Dead End     

Farrar Strauss see macmillan      2011  341p  15.99 978-0-374-37993-3      ms/hs E-BN  Realistic Fiction  

Young Jack Gantos is forced by his participation in an accidental shooting incident to work for the summer or remain “grounded” for eternity.  When Jack carries food to the elderly, digs a bomb shelter & types obituaries for his feisty elderly neighbor,  the work becomes entertainment!  Jack Gantos is a delightful young man who, while growing up in small town Norvelt, plays baseball with the daughter of the mortician, records obituaries for his neighbor just to get out of the house and helps his father dig a bomb shelter.  That’s right.  He does all of this amidst Hell’s Angels, constantly arguing parents, and old ladies dying in his charming small town in Anywhere, U. S. A.  Bomb shelter?  Not quite….Jack digs while his father hides his runway for a vintage plane that he purchased while away at work!  Town busybody Mr. Spizz annoys Jack with his citizen complaints and fines, but he also annoys Mrs. Volker, the writer of the obituaries, in his never-ending pursuit of her attention.   

    When the reader least expects it, Jack’s nose erupts and he scatters blood everywhere!  Author Jack Gantos, showing a dry sense of humor that will make the most serious laugh out loud, cleverly leads the reader on a journey through the life of young Jack,  teaches the reader a bit of history on the side and makes connections to the lives of everyone.  Gantos’s strength lies in his characterizations and in his humor, both impeccable.  When young Jack confronts possibly dead Mrs. Dubicki in his disguise as the Grim Reaper, she pops up to yell at him, “Who the blazes are you and what are you doing in my house?”  Without missing a beat, he responds, “Hi, I’m the Norvelt Grim Reaper for the Public Good.”  It is lines like these that show Gantos’s dry wit, and they are frequent, especially between Mrs. Volker and Jack.   Sometimes readers just don’t want to finish a book, and they will feel that way when they reach the end of Dead End in Norvelt.                 small town life in all of its comedic splendor! Martha Squaresky