A Year of Rhymes

Burt is 6th grader waking up to his sexuality at the same time his older brother is dying from leukemia. His brother works for their attorney father by serving subpoenas on people. Burt sometimes accompanies him. Bob falls in love with Marion Hirsch a kind of free spirit who cannot return his love. The novel follows a year using the title of a book of poems Burt receives as its theme. Aunt Ida reads the poems to Burt eveery day. Slowly Burt begins to put the memories together. When he realizes his brother is dying, he tries to hold on to sensations, descriptions, feelings. The novel ends suddenly. It is almost as if someone did not include a few more pages. This suddenness leaves the reader with a sense of unfinished business. This contrasts with the careful way Bernard Cooper had been approaching this final scene. Yet the novel is full of memories of the people and friends Burt lives with and the seemingly mundane events of their lives.

I hate when a book this good comes out in 1993 and I don't even hear about it until 1999!Mr. Cooper is a masterful writer. A Year of Rhymes is funny without being silly, poignant without being sappy, and generally well done: I feel I haven't read a book this good all year. Mr. Cooper joins superb technique with touching insight to his characters, and strokes of poetry lace the book.Great fun and substantial, too.