The Starlite Drive-In: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Coming of age tale in Indiana with a mystery twist
Review: "The Starlite Drive-In" by Marjorie Reynolds is a coming-of-age tale about a young girl on the cusp of adolescence who learns a lot about life during a long, hot summer in Indiana.
The book opens with the adult Callie Anne Dicksen being summoned to a place where she had spent much of her childhood. The Starlite Drive-In is being torn down by developers when a body and some objects are found. Callie Anne stops by to identify the remains, and is drawn back to the summer of her youth when she changed from a girl to a teenager on her way to becoming a young woman.
Her father is employed to manage the drive-in and spends each night above the concessions stand changing the reels. Her family lives near the grounds in a small house, and her mother, Teal, has not set foot outside for five years. Due to a leg injury, Callie Anne's father is limited in the physical activity he can perform. Into their lives comes a handsome drifter named Charlie Memphis, hired by the theater owner to perform maintenance at the site. Memphis charms mother and daughter, and also proves useful in thwarting a would-be robbery at the theater.
As the summer progresses, Callie Anne realizes that Memphis is less interested in her than her mother, which she at first finds distressing, then confusing as relations with her father deteriorate. Claude Dicksen treats his wife like dirt, while Charlie Memphis treats her like a man ought to treat a woman, and in the long summer evenings while Claude works the reels, an affair develops while Callie Anne eavesdrops from the sidelines.
There are also several subplots; one involving a war veteran named Billy who comes around mooching for food and asking Ms. Dicksen to dance. The other involves Callie Anne's blossoming romance with a boy closer to her own age, Virgil, who runs the ticket booth for Callie Anne's father.

While the book moves in a leisurely summer way, each scene features tension and interesting developments, and the pace and atmosphere really drew me in to the story so that I felt I was there looking over Callie Anne's shoulder. The characters were well-drawn and three-dimensional. There were times you want to be angry with Callie Anne, but you can't help but feel for her with all of the changes going on around her. Her father, Claude, as the antagonist of the piece, has issues but the reader is able to find some sympathy despite his being fairly unlikeable. Charlie Memphis is a dark hero with a mysterious past, and the full truth of some of his history is never clearly divulged. Teal Dicksen, Callie Anne's mother, undergoes the most dynamic transformation, and it's a joy to witness her release from her confinement.
"The Starlite Drive-In" is a moving drama that I could imagine being made into a Hallmark Hall of Fame type film.

Rating:
Summary: What a wonderful surprise?
Review: April:19:04

Last Tuesday night at the Library must have been my lucky day as I had decided not to look at the "newly arrived books" and instead perused amongst the shelves. In my hunt for good reading- I found a gem.

Another book by the same Author is now on my reading list.

Rating:
Summary: The Starlite Drive-in
Review: I am a twenty-four year old husband, and father, and I've just recently began to really enjoy reading. Although most of the books that I've read have been either action adventures, or romantic adventures, I must say that I now understand why my wife so enjoys love stories. When I first picked up the book to read, I really didn't know what to expect, but within only a few pages I was allready falling in love with Callie Anne. As I read farther into the book, I found my eyes reading every word, while my mind went on a wonderful adventure in rural Indiana. This book brought back memories of my childhood growing up out in the country, and of my young loves. Sometimes I find myself not loving my Wife the way that she needs to be loved, and reading this book really helped me to understand how beautiful she is and that life is too short to take her for granted. Callie Anne also reminds me of how I imagine my little girl to be when she grows up some more. Marjorie Reynolds is a wonderful Author, And I'm looking forward to reading more of her books.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting read
Review: I found this to be a very interesting read. I found myself really caring about the characters and what happened to them in the story. In a few places my attention started wandering and I had to make myself concentrate but soon enough the story pulled me back in and i was turning the pages quickly.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfulling Surprising
Review: I read this book on a recent vacation and I couldn't put it down! Even though you could see what was coming, you couldn't stop turning those pages. You can really feel the emotions of the characters and get involved in their lives.

Rating:
Summary: A nice, moving tale
Review: Marjorie Reynolds has quite a lot going on in this tale: a father who is trapped at the drive-in by a wife who is terrorized by the idea of leaving home, a drifter who comes in and sweeps both the wife (Teal) and the daughter (Callie Anne, the 12-year-old narrator) off their feet, a World War II veteran who's lost his mind, a 15-year-old ticket-taker named Virgil who becomes a love interest for Callie Anne, even an injured turtle who serves as a metaphor for the feelings of entrapment and freedom each of the main characters must face. At the heart is the romance between the drifter, Charlie Memphis, and Teal, and how it touches the lives of everyone around them.

Claude, the husband, is a jerk, and he didn't get what was coming to him. That made me mad. Also, I didn't like the "wrap-up" method used in the final chapter to summarize the 36 years between the time the main story ends and when the bones on the drive-in property were found. Too fast for my taste. Still, this is a wonderful book, a delightful and true-feeling coming of age story.

Rating:
Summary: Captivating
Review: This is by far, one of the best books that I have ever read. From the moment the first chapter turns the clock back to the summer of 1956, I lived out the remainder of the story through Callie Ann's eyes. Marjorie Reynolds paints a clear and vivid picture of the little white house where Callie Ann lives, and the drive in across the grass that stays open all summer. As I absorbed chapter after chapter, all of my senses shifted into overdrive. It was easy to picture the brightly printed shirtwaister dresses that Callie Ann's mother wears, the hot gravel that lines the parking lot and the dreamy romantic entanglements that play themselves out on the big screen as well as below it. This book puts the reader in touch with the all of the wonderful elements of summer while focusing on the heartache of being twelve years old and not really knowing who to turn to when things get rough. I was even able to put faces on the characters, and would love to see this story made into a movie one day. A beautiful first novel!

Rating:
Summary: The book cover is the first lure; keep going
Review: This is one of the most captivating book covers I have seen in a long time! It did what it is intended to do - attract the reader to be so intrigued that a purchase is inevitable.

In fact, the cover neatly suggests the story. In the back ground is an obvious 1950's era Elvis on a drive-in screen. The drive-in, especially, beckons those born of that time to recall the inevitable memories. Popcorn, kids in pajamas bouncing around in the car until hopefully, they fall asleep after the introductory cartoon. Or, if the teenage years are provoked, those intense front or back seat loves are remembered. Not to mention, each one of "us" remembers someone at some time, yanking the speaker away from the post in a forgetful moment accompanied by lots of profanity by the perpetrator and owner, if caught. It is clear though, that you do not have to be from that time period to be caught by the book cover. It attracts all ages.

But, as I said, the cover preludes the story. There, in front of the screen, is a 1950's home implying the connection between buisness and home. There, in the doorway, with the light illuminating behind a lovely mother figure, is a woman, partially leaning out of the home to a (probably) warm, summer evening as she supervises an adolescent girl sitting on the stoop. What is furthur obvious, is the grip she has on the door jam, and the reluctance in her posture to leave the security of the home, yet obvious in her body language the temptation to step out into the night.

And so, before you even open the book and read the first page, this lovely, surprisingly fresh and original, sophisticated love and mystery story begins.