Showing posts with label The Agony of Bun O'Keefe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Agony of Bun O'Keefe. Show all posts

Thursday, January 04, 2018

Debbie--have you seen THE AGONY OF BUN O'KEEFE by Heather Smith?



A reader wrote to ask if I've seen The Agony of Bun O'Keefe by Heather Smith. Published in 2017 by Penguin Teen; here's the description:
It's Newfoundland, 1986. Fourteen-year-old Bun O'Keefe has lived a solitary life in an unsafe, unsanitary house. Her mother is a compulsive hoarder, and Bun has had little contact with the outside world. What she's learned about life comes from the random books and old VHS tapes that she finds in the boxes and bags her mother brings home. Bun and her mother rarely talk, so when Bun's mother tells Bun to leave one day, she does. Hitchhiking out of town, Bun ends up on the streets of St. John's, Newfoundland. Fortunately, the first person she meets is Busker Boy, a street musician who senses her naivety and takes her in. Together they live in a house with an eclectic cast of characters: Chef, a hotel dishwasher with culinary dreams; Cher, a drag queen with a tragic past; Big Eyes, a Catholic school girl desperately trying to reinvent herself; and The Landlord, a man who Bun is told to avoid at all cost. Through her experiences with her new roommates, and their sometimes tragic revelations, Bun learns that the world extends beyond the walls of her mother's house and discovers the joy of being part of a new family -- a family of friends who care.
Busker Boy is Native, and apparently, there is a lot of Native content. At one point, someone calls Busker Boy a "drunken Indian" and Bun tries to intervene. There's also something about the actor who played the part of Tonto. I'll pick up a copy at the library and be back with a review.