If Wishes Were Horses: A Novel

Author: Whiteford, Merry

Edition: First Edition

Binding: Hardcover

Number Of Pages: 256

Release Date: 14-03-2003

Details: Review

"A strong, fresh, and vivid account of adolescence that doesn't sink into morbid sentimentality or hip despair."-Kirkus Reviews (December 1, 2002)
Star's redemption and fledgling career as a poet could be inspiring to teenagers..." Publisher's Weekly (February 17, 2003)

"Star is an engaging narrator....Her story is sad and depressing and uplifting and inspiring all at the same time." (Richmond Post-Dispatch)

Product Description

If Wishes Were Horses is a moving coming-of-age novel that explores the depth of friendship, the hope for redemption, and the heartbreaking choices one must make in a difficult, brutal world.

It's 1974, and 16-year-old Star Hennessey is living with three other foster children in a broken-down central New York town. The daughter of an alcoholic prostitute, Star has so far escaped the gritty, painful circumstances of her life through the poems and stories she writes and recites in her head.

When she discovers she is pregnant, Star's search for the right course of action brings her face-to-face with the cruel exploitation she fears is her legacy-but culminates in her personal and spiritual triumph.

If Wishes Were Horses is a stunning story expertly told by Merry Whiteford, a graceful writer who delves into Star's harsh reality with compassion, hope, and beauty.



From Publishers Weekly

Whiteford weaves a tale of self-discovery in this affecting story of a young girl growing up in upstate New York during the 1970s. Star Hennessy's mother, Mildred, is an alcoholic prostitute who has long since lost her hold on reality, relinquishing Star and her brother, Lucky, to a strict foster home that they share with two other emotionally scarred orphan boys, Pig and Skeeter. Star is a typical teenager in many respects, but she and her three companions are street smart and world weary, facing the harsh realities of their dubious social status with a bravado incongruous with their adolescence and a touching loyalty to each other. At 16, Star finds solace in poetry, but despite her intelligence and her sophistication about her mother's profession, she becomes pregnant by Pig. This cataclysm leads her to new insights about her background, as well as a pivotal decision about the direction of her life. Star's narrative voice is strong, but her patience with and sympathy for her feckless mother strain credulity, and many of the events in this sentimentalized portrait of a sensitive girl battling for a decent life are improbable. Star's redemption and fledgling career as a poet could be inspiring to teenagers, however, and this uplifting novel could find a home on the YA shelf.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

Praise for Merry Whiteford and If Wishes Were Horses

"Written with fierce grace and a retentive eye and ear, If Wishes Were Horses fairly canters to its conclusion: a coming-of-age story in which innocence contends with rage, and loss with hard-earned gain. For Star Hennessey and her creator, Merry Whiteford, the love of language, truth-telling and inventiveness all emerge intact." -Nicholas Delbanco, author of What Remains

"If Wishes Were Horses lives up to the shining promise of Merry Whiteford's first two novels. Here is a narrative that will joyously break your heart. A writer to watch." -Harry Crews, author of A Feast of Snakes

"If Wishes Were Horses enlightens and entertains. In the course of this beautifully written novel, we are uplifted and gently assured of the power of the human spirit to soar above even the darkest times through love, forgiveness, and redemption. A great read that will stay with you forever." -Kathleen Brehony, author of After the Darkest Hour

"This person is a writer. This person has a lot to tell us." -Kurt Vonnegut



About the Author

Merry Whiteford is the award-winning author of two other novels, Dog People and Burning Down the House. She lives in Virginia with her husband Neil.

EAN: 9780312301880

Package Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.0 inches

Languages: English