With a steady youthful voice, Datz gives an appropriately creepy and compelling edge to Gantos's strange, darkly comic novel of disturbing small-town goings-on. Upon her 16th birthday, narrator Ivy learns from her mother that one of the elderly identical twins either Adolph or Abner Rumbaugh, who run the local pharmacy is her biological father. She also learns that she may have inherited the Rumbaugh family curse: harboring freakishly obsessive love for one's mother. Will Ivy's future be determined by twisted DNA? Mystery, gossip, taxidermy (of the animal and human variety), horror, genetic experimentation and hints of incest are all themes that waft through this tale. Though the subject matter isn't for everyone, teens who take their humor black, and who may be discovering gothic literature or making forays into goth culture, are likely fans for this solidly produced recording. Ages 12-up. (June) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs
Narrated by Lisa Datz
Jack GantosUnabridged — 4 hours, 47 minutes
The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs
Narrated by Lisa Datz
Jack GantosUnabridged — 4 hours, 47 minutes
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Overview
So begins Jack Gantos' unnerving drama about three generations of family and friends in a small western Pennsylvania town, held together by the secrets of obsessional mother love-a love so blood-bound that, once revealed, it has no choice but to turn*against*its*keepers.
Editorial Reviews
Gr 8 Up-In this bizarre tale entrenched in genetics and human history, familial love is unabashedly and horrifically skewed, twisted, and swathed, reminiscent of the works of Poe, Shelley, and Hawthorne. Readers are introduced to the young woman narrator when she is seven, trapped in a small town and a victim of a family's dark legacy: a maternal obsession so extreme that it preys upon the minds of its maligned descendants, forcing them to pursue any means necessary to keep their mothers with them always. Ivy and her devout mother live across the street from a pair of reclusive, elderly twin brothers who run the pharmacy. Her mother used to work for the Rumbaughs, and, over the years, Ivy comes to understand her connection to the eccentric men, their deep bond with their now-deceased mother, and their fascination with the art of taxidermy, which they share with her. Soon Ivy finds herself engrossed in embalming squirrels, kittens, chickens, and whatever else she can get her hands on. They become her tools and totems to assuage her maternal-loss anxieties. Readers can only fumble and squirm through her distorted yet straightforwardly told horror story with a combination of shock, disbelief, and dread of what no doubt will come. Gantos has written an eerie, nearly perverse gothic tale of love and devotion gone completely and frighteningly haywire. This thought-provoking story about free will and the arguments of nature and nurture will definitely stick with readers, no matter how hard they try to forget it.-Hillias J. Martin, New York Public Library Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
What happens when you die? Do you molder in the grave, return zombie-like or completely healed, or go to heaven and recline on the clouds? Your return is of a different sort if you're the mother of 71-year-old emotionally stunted twin taxidermists suffering from the family curse of obsessive mother love. And young Ivy Spirco's unsettling discovery in the basement of the pharmacy impels her to ponder these issues of life and death and shakes her own obsessive "Mom and mini-Mom" relationship. Always adept at creating exuberant, larger-than-life characters, Gantos here creates two who are even larger than death, in a psychological horror story of the highest order. Akin to Frankenstein, Dracula and Poe's stories in theme, tone and voice, this offering explores such philosophical issues as nature versus nurture, free will and predetermination, mortality immortality and rebirth, in a totally engaging, intelligently written work guaranteed to either entrance or repel readers. Like Mrs. Rumbaugh's body, this will linger in one's darkest corners. A good match with M.T. Anderson's Feed (2002) and Nancy Farmer's The House of the Scorpion (2002). (Fiction. YA)
"A totally engaging, intelligently written work . . . this one will linger in one's darkest corners." --Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
"This offbeat novel, reflecting elements of Psycho and Faulkner's A Rose for Emily, draws readers into a macabre world where taboos are lifted and unconventional desires unleashed." --Publishers Weekly "A shocking, darkly comic tale." --Booklist, Boxed Review "Eerie. This thought-provoking story about free will and the arguments of nature and nurture will definitely stick with readers." --School Library Journal "Few other books offer such a combination of stylization verging on the comic and a true fascination with the Gothic's exploration of human minds." --Chicago Tribune "The wonderful and compelling strangeness will . . . draw many readers, especially fans of silver-screen or classic literary Gothic." --The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books "Compelling." --The Horn Book Magazine "You know where The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs by Jack Gantos is heading, even as you can't quite believe it. . . . Possibly the most oddball children's book ever written and certainly one of the cleverest." --The Telegraph (UK)When 16-year-old Ivy learns that her father is one of the two aged, identical Rumbaugh twins, the surprise is overshadowed by her obsessive love for her mother. But if the Rumbaugh curse plays true in Ivy’s veins, she may take her inherited knack for taxidermy too far. With skill, Lisa Datz brings the subtle, dark humor laced throughout the story to the surface. She also does an admirable job delivering various international accents and the Rumbaugh twins’ clipped way of communicating. Datz’s crowning achievement with this performance, however, is her projecting of a confidence and chilling intelligence in Ivy that leaves listeners believing in her dark destiny. J.M.S. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940169266474 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Random House |
| Publication date: | 05/23/2006 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
Read an Excerpt
The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs
By Gantos, Jack
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Copyright © 2006 Gantos, JackAll right reserved.
ISBN: 0374336903
From The Love Curse of
the Rumbaughs
Yes, it had been surprising to discover Mrs. Rumbaugh stuffed
like a hibernating bear, and although she was spooky, she only
really terrified me because she reminded me of my mother's
mortality, and in some penetrating way I must have been
marked with the knowledge that Ab and Dolph loved their
mother as much as I loved mine and that they were driven to
preserve her in whatever form they could. In an unspoken way
I accepted what they did, and why, and it seemed right - for
them and for me. I looked up at my mother and said, "Don't
worry. Someday I'll do the same to you, too."
She blanched, and before she realized she had said it she
uttered, "Oh, my God, you have the love curse of the -" Then
she held her hand over her mouth and stepped away, but it was
too late. I had heard her, and somehow I knew I was cursed
with loving my mother too much.
"What curse?" I asked innocently.
Continues...
Excerpted from The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs by Gantos, JackCopyright © 2006 by Gantos, Jack. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
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