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Summary
Summary
Max Apple was lucky enought to share 40 years of his life with his grandfather. This is Apple's poignant yet funny testament to the man who influenced and shaped his entire life--and helped to hold his family together. "A tender, tough and totally compelling account".--USA Today.
Author Notes
"It was my fascination itself with the English language that made me a writer," Apple wrote in an essay for the New York Times Book Review. Its endless suggestiveness has carried me through many a plot, entertained me when nothing else could." Growing up in a Yiddish-speaking family, Apple writes a prose that is remarkably attuned to America's cultural and linguistic
With the 1976 publication of The Oranging of America, and Other Stories, Apple established himself as one of America's most affectionate, humorous, and astute critics. Like other postmodernist writers, Apple describes famous historical figures and American pop cultural heroes mingling with his fictional characters. Howard Johnson, Norman Mailer, Fidel Castro, and J. Edgar Hoover are but some of the figures that have all turned up in Apple's fiction. One critic stated that Apple creates "the literary equivalent of a Magritte painting.
Apple is currently a professor of English at Rice University.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
YA-A vivid account of a life fully lived through four generations. Rocky Goodstein, who lived to the age of 106, was remarkable not only for his longevity, but also for his vigor and capabilities. He accompanied his grandson to college at the age of 93, and subsequently had a great effect on the younger man's courtship. At the age of 103, he took over the care of two motherless great-grandchildren. The flaws, strains, strengths, and attachments of a lifetime are amusingly and clearly presented.-Frances Reiher, King's Park Library, Burke, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
The saga of an ambitious, immigrant Lithuanian Jewish family in Michigan and the exceptional bond between baker grandfather Rocky and his grandson, the author, who replaced a dead son in the old man's affections, is recounted here by Apple ( Free Agents ). This focuses on the choleric but lovable Rocky and his guidance of his grandson into manhood, including their sharing quarters during the author's graduate studies at the University of Michigan. Their loving though often stormy relationship was seriously tried only by Rocky's dislike of Debby, the woman Apple married, who ultimately won him over by bearing two great-grandchildren. During Debby's long, terminal illness, Rocky, at age 103, ``bounced back into action . . . too busy to die,'' caring for the author's children and the household just three years before his own death. Film rights to Disney; Reader's Digest Condensed Book selection. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
One grumpy old man and his grandson--rated N for nostalgic and, finally, T for tragic. To readers who don't share Apple's (The Propheteers, 1987) affection, his grandfather Rocky (né Yerachmiel) might best be described by his own favorite epithet: ``son of a beetch.'' From his childhood in Grand Rapids, Mich., through his graduate school days in Ann Arbor, to his years as a husband, father, and college professor in Houston, Apple's beloved ``roommate'' was his ornery grandfather. Rocky has his touching, and humorous, points: The lifelong baker continues his art even after passing 100 years of age; an Orthodox Jew, he caringly ushers a young seeker into Judaism; he accompanies Max and his girlfriend, Debby, on a comical mission to recover Debby's shanghaied dog. But Rocky is also a master of emotional blackmail; confronted with Debby's moving into the Ann Arbor apartment, he says, ``If I wanted to live in a whorehouse, I could have stayed in Grand Rapids.'' Much of Apple's narrative is an ongoing cycle of battles and reconciliation, with Rocky locking himself in his bedroom or the basement (for instance, refusing to attend Max and Debby's wedding) and eventually relenting. His wedding cake comes ten years after the fact--too late not only for the event, but too late for Debby to enjoy at all, for by then her mind, and body, have been touched by multiple sclerosis. The final third of Apple's account relates the devastating effects of her illness on daughter Jessica and son Sam. Jessica buries herself in baseball statistics, and both shun their friends. (``I hate it when people ask me about Mom,'' Jessica says. ``I just tell them she fell off the Empire State Building.'') Apple himself tries to juggle devotion to his hospitalized wife with the complex needs of the children. In the end, it is Apple's affecting writing about his deepest loss that carries this book. Disney will be releasing it as a movie (starring Peter Falk as Rocky).
Library Journal Review
Apple ( The Propheteers , LJ 1/87) writes about his unique college experience: he roomed with his 96-year-old grandfather, Rocky. Disney plans to release a movie based on this memoir in the coming spring, starring Peter Falk. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
