JANE ABRAMSON
As gut-wrenching as the "sneaky pete" her hero guzzles down, S. E. Hinton's latest novel [Rumble Fish] won't sit well with book selectors who demand that children's fiction end hopefully, if not happily. No hard-nosed punk, young Rusty-James rapidly loses everything meaningful to him—his girl, his "rep" as number one tough guy, and, most important, his idolized older brother…. Stylistically superb (the purposely flat, colorless narrative exactly describes Rusty-James' turf of pool halls, porno movie houses, and seedy hang-outs), this packs a punch...
Source: Contemporary Literary Criticism, ©1984 Gale Cengage. All Rights Reserved. Full copyright.
(The entire page is 126 words.)
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