The Great Ideas

From AwardAnnals

Reviews

Amazon.com

First novels about childhood don’t come more erudite or thrilling than this. Haddie Ashton, aged 13, is embroiled in a summer holiday full of mystery, tragedy and learning the “A” section of the encyclopaedia (thus we get potted discourses on Agorazonta, Alcibiades and Animism delivered in a refreshingly wondering, childlike tone). But, together with her wilfully eccentric best friend, Louis Lewis, she gets up to more nefarious deeds—cat-burgling, for instance, and exploring an empty, neighbouring house. Thirteen years ago, from the top storey of this sinister mansion (once occupied by a Hollywood mogul) her older sister fell to her death. Haddie is convinced that there was more to this fatal leap than accident, and part of her rites of passage is to uncover the truth. Along the way, though, Cleminshaw injects some social comedy as Haddie is sent to Charm School to acquire the poise of a self-assured woman. Where Cleminshaw excels is in detailing the endearing gaucheries of an adolescent as she emerges, albeit reluctantly, into adulthood. And, although she sets the action in small-town Ohio, the story has a timeless quality that reproduces that infinite stretch of a summer holiday that we only experience as children. —Lilian Pizzichini