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With all the attention being paid these days to firefighters, it is fitting that THE
BROKEN PLACES makes its debut, as it looks into the minds of a family of firemen and the
strange turns of life that come with acts of heroism and the attending public adoration.
Paul Tucker is 12 and thinks it's about time he is considered a man. He comes from a long
line of firemen and an overprotective mom. In a dangerous rescue at an abandoned
farmhouse, Paul's dad Sonny is buried in the rubble of its eventual collapse, as is a
young hoodlum who brought the house down while making homemade bombs. (Yes, this all
sounds too eerily like a story out of the news right now, but let's go on...) Sonny
manages to wrest himself free, along with the not-so-nice kid. The rescue becomes, of all
things, a major news story, and the ensuing publicity causes Sonny to become a cause
celebre. Paul not only has to deal with the intrusion of the media into his every waking
moment, but has to manage his own jealousy at the relationship that the young bomb-maker
wishes to develop with Sonny.
The effectiveness of the story comes not from its similarity to the 24-hours a day of
"America's New War" coverage that we have become saturated with but from the
boiling heart of human nature buried among the ripped-from-the-headlines story details.
Perabo's debut is startling and showcases an intuitive grasp on the minds and souls of all
America that few writers are able to do over the course of multiple books. Paul's voice
resonates with a strength that we will all recognize and a weariness and exhaustion
uncommon to a protagonist this age. THE BROKEN PLACES concentrates on one boy's journey
and, in so doing, helps us to wander the dark canyons of fear, jealousy, and pain that
this story illuminates so well.
Susan Perabo is a talented new writer, and THE BROKEN PLACES, if and when you can find the
heart to delve into it, is a masterfully crafted coming-of-age tale.
--- Reviewed by Jana Siciliano
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