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Loading... Pushing Back (Boone) (Volume 1)by Jim Hartsell
None No current Talk conversations about this book.  CDJLibrary | Apr 3, 2024 |  no reviews | add a review
Tormented by an abusive father, Boone spends most of his time second-guessing himself and looking over his shoulder. At 16 he's old enough to just leave, but, with his mother and younger sister still in the house, he can't quite make himself. Then, in a single weekend, everything changes.Boone is left struggling to come to terms with what just tore his family apart and the guilt he still feels about what happened to his brother Frankie almost two years ago. And to top it all, he sees the parts of his daddy that he hates most in some of his own thoughts and actions.With no one in his small farming community to turn to except maybe the old man who lives in the next house up the road, Boone's options are limited. School is a waste of time, money is almost gone, and if there's one thing his daddy taught him, it's not to trust anybody.The discovery of a moonshine still on the property where his family was living leads Boone into a friendship with Gamaliel Everett, the old recluse who lives next door. They form both a partnership and a friendship that Boone leans on more and more. Gamaliel's sudden illness leaves Boone no one to talk to about his fumbling attempts to start a relationship with Nancy, a classmate of his before Boone dropped out of school completely.Boone finds himself at odds with Gamaliel's son-in-law, Jerry, who takes an immediate dislike to Boone. Gamaliel's daughter, Carrie, grows to count on Boone to take care of her father and, after Gamaliel's hospitalization, his house.Boone has to contend with the loss of his family, his awakening feelings for Nancy, Jerry's attempts to get rid of him, the local authorities who would like to see him back in school, and a couple of thieves roaming the neighborhood. Far from being a saint or even a hero, Boone manages to survive his first year on his own and develop some forgiveness for the family that abandoned him. No library descriptions found. |
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Wikipedia in English
The first book in the series finds Boone at sixteen years old, in a family he can't wait to escape. His father is an angry drunk who scrapes out a living doing farm work and takes out most of his frustration and rage on his family. Boone's mother is a passive sort, unable or unwilling to stand up to her husband, and his sister is only seven, so he feels like he can't leave. Then, in one weekend, his family disintegrates around him and Boone finds himself alone for the first time in his life.
Soon he begins to realize how much of his father's anger and mistrust is also a part of him, and much of his struggle to become an adult revolves around trying to let go of most of what his daddy taught him. Circumstance brings him into contact with an elderly neighbor, and he and Gamaliel form an unlikely friendship. Gamaliel's son-in-law has nothing but contempt for Boone and the conflicts with him bring out the worst in Boone's character.
Boone's low social standing and his inexperience with most kinds of relationships makes his growing involvement with Nancy, a former classmate, full of stumbles and missteps on his part and a determination on hers to make things work, even though she has her share of normal teenage insecurity as well.
A decent person at heart, Boone's battle with his inner demons and his almost complete lack of knowledge about the adult world make his progress intermittent at best, full of setbacks often of his own making. He approaches maturity clumsily, but when he can figure out the right thing to do, he usually does it. Unfortunately for him and those around him, sometimes his anger and insecurity get in the way.
-Amazon description