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Answer For April
Jan Nickerson, il (cover) Lucille Wallace
1963, Funk & Wagnalls Company, Inc.
Although the others
had gone back into the house, April Anderson watched the car until it was out
of sight. She knew that Margo would insist that Jeff remove the Just Married sign
and the paper streamers before they left the country road and started along the
thruway. Her older sister had a large share of the Anderson dignity; Jeff,
being an advertising man, wouldn’t mind. If the other drivers honked at him, he
would give them a big grin, but Margo would be embarrassed. April thought that
she would be too, in a similar situation.
Sixteen-year-old April has just watched her older sister
Margo leave the family home for the last time.
Their mother is dead, their father is an aggressively helpless man, and housekeeper
Mrs. Berry isn’t enough to keep the home lights burning. April quickly learns
that Margo’s been doing a lot in the past few years, and that it all falls on
her now. Younger sisters Amy (14) and Pam (12) are basically hers now. Their 19yo brother Thayer Jr. is in Germany,
serving in the military, and doesn’t make an appearance.
Tall. Blonde. Suave. Hollister. April’s been semi-flirting with boy-next-door
Spencer, but is immediately intrigued to find a strange blonde boy on her front
doorstep. He’s Hollister Jones, come to
get tutoring in French from her impatient father (which is never quite
explained, given Thayer Armstrong’s obvious dislike of teaching and apparent
financial comfort), and triggers a girl-war between April and her long-time
best friend Norma.
The war is conducted largely by Norma, who reveals such
depths of malice which are all met with familiarity by April, so that you
wonder why our heroine was ever friends with her. Then again, April’s response to Norma’s
jealousy is to shrug; she’s oddly cold-blooded.
April’s real agonies are reserved for her family. Which is inevitable, given that her father
suffers from Fragile Father Syndrome (attacks many fictional papas whose wives
have been conveniently removed from this life by a tension-heightening author;
generally, FFS daddies are socially conscious, artistic, journalistic or
otherwise unimpeachably Better Than Thou. Daughters usually in thrall to them,
sons often avoid them.) Thayer, even regarded through April’s fond eyes, is an
asshole. An artist who loathes the
commercial work he does to pay the bills, he has a long history of vicious
arguments with son-in-law Jeff, an ad man, and reacts to modern music (apparently
jazz) as if someone had struck him very hard with a club. Which becomes more tempting, the longer he
goes on. His crowning moment is when it’s
suggested everyone take their own plate to the sink after dinner.
Father looked distressed.
The poor man. He spends his days in his backyard studio with
his Dachshund, Snodgrass, slaving over a hot palette, and here these evil women
want him to walk his own dirty dish to
the kitchen sink.
Modern music enters the plot through family friend and
independent career woman “Aunt” Irene, who invites April for a visit to Boston
and introduces her to various young friends.
One, a brilliant but moody musician named Tom, becomes infatuated with
April. You start to see Norma’s point.
“Every boy who comes
along. First Hollister, then Neil Burgess, and Tom Barlow, and, of course,
always good old Spencer. Why should you have them all?”
Sadly, this is about the extent of the clothing porn.
Saturday evening had
come. Temporarily renouncing all her responsibilities, April became a carefree
teen-ager preparing for a date. What a wonderful feeling! As she stepped into
her black suede pumps, she felt absolutely grown up.
A readable but not particularly lively book.
Random points
Amazing names – Thayer and Hollister and Spencer and
Snodgrass and Margo.
Virtually no physical description – clothes, house, etc.
Nada. You fill in all the blanks.
That Cover
The two younger Anderson girls throw a Halloween party,
true, but the cover is baffling. The
party covers a chapter and isn’t that big a plot, and the book itself goes from
the start of autumn through mid-winter.
Other books
Date With A Career (1958)
Destination: Success! (1959)
New Boy in Town (1960)
When The Heart is Ready (1961)
Circle of Love (1962)
Bright Promise (1965) historical
Double Rainbow (1966)
Peter Pembroke, Apprentice
Links
A review of Nickerson's book New Girl In Town at Forever Young Adult blog
