Mad Boy
An Account of Henry Phipps in the War of 1812
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- $179.00
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- $179.00
Descripción editorial
Colorado Book Award Winner for Literary Fiction: “The colorful characters make this account of the War of 1812 a rollicking page-turner” (Publishers Weekly).
In the early nineteenth century, young Henry Phipps is on a quest to realize his dying mother’s last wish: to be buried at sea, surrounded by her family. Not an easy task considering Henry’s ne’er-do-well father is in debtors’ prison and his comically earnest older brother is busy fighting the redcoats on the battlefields of Maryland.
But Henry’s stubborn determination knows no bounds. As he dodges the cannon fire of clashing armies and picks among the ruins of a burning capital, he meets looters, British defectors, renegade slaves, a pregnant maiden in distress, and scoundrels of all types. Mad Boy is at once an antic adventure and a thoroughly convincing work of historical fiction that recreates a young nation’s first truly international conflict and a key moment in the history of the emancipation of African American slaves. Entertaining, atmospheric, and touching, it is “a wartime coming-of-age story filled with nonstop action and genuine pathos” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).
“This brilliant musket blast of a novel—in which the lucky reader will encounter falling cows, repurposed pickle barrels, fascinating schemes and fabulous schemers—is alive with humor, heat and heart. Mad Boy is a tremendous accomplishment. Nick Arvin is the real thing.” —Laird Hunt, author of Neverhome
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Arvin (Articles of War) uses one family's bad luck as the linchpin of this irreverent journey around Maryland during the War of 1812. Ten-year-old Henry Phipps can still hear his very recently dead mother talking to him, urging him to bury her at sea with family around. Her dissolute, feckless husband, however, is in debtor's prison, and her older son Franklin is to face a firing squad for deserting. Henry crams his mother's corpse into a pickling barrel and sets out to make enough money looting battlefields to free his father, connecting with a varied crew of dislocated people as his scheme rapidly crumbles. Franklin, meanwhile, is alive and soon to be a father, having escaped the firing squad and a plot by the local magnate Suthers to get him killed for impregnating Suthers's daughter, Mary. Though convinced he still needs to free his father, Henry agrees to help Mary and her newborn son escape her forced seclusion. Henry rushes toward a final ill-conceived plan involving duping Suthers, a kidnapping, and a buried treasure. The colorful characters make this account of the War of 1812 a rollicking page-turner.
