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Tell the Wolves I'm Home: A Novel by Carol…
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Tell the Wolves I'm Home: A Novel (edition 2012)

by Carol Rifka Brunt (Author)

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3,5802473,507 (4.1)154
It is 1987, and only one person has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus -- her uncle, the renowned painter Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her older sister, June can only be herself in Finn's company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies, far too young, of a mysterious illness her mother can barely speak about, June's world is turned upside down. But Finn's death brings a surprise acquaintance into June's life -- someone who will help her to heal, and to question what she thinks she knows about Finn, her family, and even her own heart.… (more)
Member:MHanover10
Title:Tell the Wolves I'm Home: A Novel
Authors:Carol Rifka Brunt (Author)
Info:The Dial Press (2012), 367 pages
Collections:Your library, Currently reading, Wishlist, To read, Read but unowned, Favorites
Rating:****
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Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

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English (242)  German (2)  Dutch (1)  Italian (1)  Swedish (1)  All languages (247)
Showing 1-5 of 242 (next | show all)
Family
  BooksInMirror | Feb 19, 2024 |
Excellent debut novel of a family dealing with the loss of their brother/uncle of AIDS. KIRKUS REVIEWBrunt's first novel elegantly pictures the New York art world of the 1980s, suburban Westchester and the isolation of AIDS.Fourteen-year-old June and 16-year-old Greta travel to Manhattan every few Sundays to be with Finn, their uncle. Finn is a renowned artist, dying of a largely unknown disease, and claims he wants to give them this last gift, though more likely it is the contact he craves. June and Finn have an intense relationship¥he is charismatic and brilliant and takes her to special places; he is part magic and part uncle, and June adores him. Greta is jealous; she feels Finn favors June and stole her away. When he dies, June is devastated. At the funeral they see the one not to be mentioned: Finn?s lover, Toby. June?s mother refuses to admit him to the service and blames him for her baby brother?s disease. Slowly, June and Toby develop a secret friendship, indulging their grief and keeping Finn alive through the exchange of memories. What she thought was simply Finn?s apartment she discovers was their shared space, and much of what she loved about the place, and Finn, belongs to Toby. As she and Toby embark on Finn-worthy adventures, Greta is slowly falling apart, hiding in the woods drunk, sabotaging her chance at a summer stint on Broadway. Finn?s portrait of the girls, worth nearly $1 million, is kept in a bank vault, and every time June visits (only she and Greta have keys) she notices additions to the painting that could only come from Greta. With Toby dying and Greta in danger, June lifts the covers off all of her family?s secrets.There is much to admire in this novel. The subtle insight on sibling rivalry and the examination of love make for a poignant debut.Pub Date: June 19th, 2012ISBN: 978-0-679-64419-4Page count: 368ppPublisher: Dial PressReview Posted Online: June 17th, 2012Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1st, 2012
  bentstoker | Jan 26, 2024 |
I'm torn between 4 and 5 stars.

I loved this story - I fell in love with the voice right away and enjoyed the story despite its sadness.

The reason I don't want to hand out 5 stars is because I had some trouble wrapping my head around Greta and really understanding the origins of the June/Finn relationship but I think details and facts matter less than the feelings and the feelings are clear and strong.

Can't wait to see what this author will come up with next. ( )
  hmonkeyreads | Jan 25, 2024 |
What a beautiful story– a unique and ultimately uplifting plot.
But my god. The number of words to get there. The self-indulgent, minuscule observances and thoughts of the protagonist, June. The superficial vitriol in both the mother and the sister lacks all nuance.
It's possible I am more harsh on the prose because I did not like the reader of the audiobook. Though skilled, I frequently found the voices she (or the producer?) chose for the characters annoying and difficult to listen to. Her men's voices are spot on, but all the women's voices in the book grate across my nerves.
I wish there were another version of this story– without the heavy-handed 80s references, without the meandering sentences that are supposed to give the reader an idea of June's inner life. (I think that's the author's intention, anyway.) I'd love to have the story that the author create told in other words and rhythms.
I'm glad I read it because of the plot, but it was hard to get to the plot through all the words. ( )
  deliriumshelves | Jan 14, 2024 |
3.5. Apparently I enjoyed this book because I read in one sitting. It was engrossing, atmospheric, and nostalgic. The setting, upper middle-class New York in the 1980s, made it feel like a Judy Blume novel for grownups.

June, a teenage misfit who struggles to connect with others, was a compelling character and her story has an emotional intensity that kept me reading. The imaginative prose, with its evocations of medieval and wild landscapes, invited comparisons to emotional coming-of-age SF novels like Diana Wynne Jones' Fire and Hemlock and Jo Walton's Among Others, even though Tell The Wolves I'm Home is strictly realism.

So I liked this book, but. I was uncomfortable about the role Brunt's uncle Finn and his partner Toby played in the narrative. Finn and Toby are the emotional heart of the book, but at times they feel unreal, avatars or reflections of June's inner life. Now, from a psychological point of view, this is just right - June is a teenager; Finn and Toby are her lifelines to art and history and love, and her relationships with them are all about discovering her own identity.

I feel disappointed that, at least in my reading, June never consciously acknowledges that Finn and Toby are symbols to her. More egregiously, Finn and Toby have AIDS, and this is yet another book where tragic gay characters further the narrative arc of a straight cisgender person.

There's a lot of talk about positive representation in fiction right now. I don't want to say this is a novel Brunt shouldn't have written. There is room for books about straight cis white folk with marginalized loved ones, because such relationships exist and should be reflected in fiction.

However, in this particular book I felt like the gay characters were romanticized and not given their own agency and reality. I wanted them to set boundaries with June; I wanted them to truly surprise her. That they did not marred the novel for me. ( )
  raschneid | Dec 19, 2023 |
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Epigraph
Dedication
For Maddy, Oakley, and Julia
First words
My sister, Greta, and I were having our portrait painted by our uncle Finn that afternoon because he knew he was dying.
Quotations
You could try to believe what you wanted, but it never worked. Your brain and your heart decided what you were going to believe and that was that. Whether you liked it or not.
You could never see any wolves in there. They hid, probably trying to pretend they weren't in a cage. Probably knowing that they looked just like plain old dogs when they were behind bars.
The gold in our hair looked so perfect right then, and I knew we both saw it. We could see the way it made us look like the closest of sisters. Girls made of exactly the same stuff.
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It is 1987, and only one person has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus -- her uncle, the renowned painter Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her older sister, June can only be herself in Finn's company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies, far too young, of a mysterious illness her mother can barely speak about, June's world is turned upside down. But Finn's death brings a surprise acquaintance into June's life -- someone who will help her to heal, and to question what she thinks she knows about Finn, her family, and even her own heart.

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