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Loading... The Education of Robert Nifkin (1998)by Daniel Manus Pinkwater
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Robert Nifkin is a teen in 1950’s Chicago writing an essay about his high school experience…and what an interesting one it is. He has Eastern European parents with their immigrant quirks, teachers obsessed with banishing communism, and a group of free-spirited beatnik friends. The novel is character-driven and definitely up there with The Long Game by Ben Rose. ( ) Like many of Pinkwater's best books -- LIZARD MUSIC immediately comes to mind -- this jolly book is largely wasted on the young. Largely, but not entirely, if the young readers have some sapient adult nearby to assure them that the kinds of weirdos depicted DO indeed exist. Pinkwater has merely changed the names to protect the guilty. Many years ago, in a previous incarnation as a public library worker, I rated this as the Best Book of the Year -- all genres, all reading-constituencies. I see no reason to turn back now.
Robert Nifkin never loses Pinkwater's trademark breezy, madcap tone, but in this regard, it is as serious and awe-inspiring as an earthquake. Here is a book to inspire a whole generation of extremely happy mutants.
Set in the 1950s in Chicago, Robert Nifkin tells his highly unorthodox high school experiences in the form of a college application essay. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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