



Bobby's Girl
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Growing up in the Atlantic City of the early 60’s, the heroine of Bobby’s Girl intertwines her romantic fantasies of an intimate life with boyfriend Bobby Rydell, and herself as part of the in-crowd including Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, and Dick Clark against the backdrop of American Bandstand until it all but chokes off the reality of her drab, middle class existence. By learning to face the failures in her fantasies, she learns to deal with the challenges of her everyday life. Bobby’s Girl “…leaves the reader with the sensation of mental illness, helplessly spinning to a stack of 45s.” —Jill McCorkle, in the New York Times Book Review
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The troubled, unnamed heroine in this short, first novel by poet Ratner often lives in a fantasy world populated by singers such as Fabian, Bobby Rydell and Annette Funicello (the story takes place in the '50s and '60s). As for the character's real life, school is boring, her parents are by turn overly solicitous or oblivious to her suffering, and she is convinced that her schoolmates make fun of her. It is only when confronted with an impending hospitalization that the heroine begins to grapple with her outside world, a process that coincides with the collapse of key parts of her fantasies. By the end of this evocative novel, the protagonist is on the road to recovery.