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The Town Crazy: A Novel
The Town Crazy: A Novel
The Town Crazy: A Novel
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The Town Crazy: A Novel

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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Compelling, bittersweet novel with memorable characters set in the 1960s in rural Pennsylvania, written by the legendary singer/songwriter/performer/author and founding member of the singing group The Roches

The Town Crazy, set in the sleepy town of Hanzloo, Pennsylvania, a suburban Catholic community in 1961, is a novel of passion, absurdity, innocence, and sorrow.

A single father moves into town with his young son, which arouses suspicion from the husbands and the interest of the wives, but at the same time one of the wives seems to be losing her mind, and no one knows what to do.

A contemporary, often humorous take on a bygone era, The Town Crazy also delves into the terror and cruelty of childhood, the dangerous loneliness of failing marriages, sexual repression and desire, and the intersection of art and religion, all culminating in a tragedy for which everyone in the town bears some responsibility.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 1, 2020
ISBN9781948721233
The Town Crazy: A Novel

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Rating: 4.133333333333334 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    An easy read with a story that goes nowhere. Anticlimactic and underwhelming.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Town Crazy is set in Hanzloo, Pennsylvania, a suburban Catholic community in Pennsylvania in 1961, when a single father moves to town with his son Felix. The dads are suspicious, most of the moms are smitten, and Lil O'Brien, one of the town moms, seems to be losing her mind. Felix befriends his classmate, Lil's daughter Alice, but when the town busybody jumps to a conclusion of misbehavior, tragedy follows. Meanwhile, Lil's bottled-up secret is leading to greater emotional collapse. This character-driven, captivating story will keep you engaged from cover to cover.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It is 1961 in the Catholic community of Hanzloo in Pennsylvania. All the moms are enjoying their last days of freedom before school starts. All except one, Alice's mom Lil, who is having some kind of breakdown. She is a matter of discussion or gossip, if you will. Clarissa is the lead gossiper and the one that the other mother's try to emulate. Always put together, her twin girls always dressed to the T, her house immaculate. You know the type, mean girl personified.Things will go from fairly timid, to outright tragic as we get a closer look at the inside of these people. We know how looks can be deceiving. I related to this story in unexpected ways. The atmosphere of the early sixties was spot on, and those who have gone to Catholic school or raised catholic, will identify. Sister Annunciate is the Mother Superior, and it was the same named sister who was the Superior of the Catholic School I attended. This one was much nicer. There was also a Father Aloysius, which was the name of the school I attended. Love these book coincidences.The story is well told, a story filled with hypocrisy, innocence and sorrow. Life had such a different feel then. It is also a novel of parents, mothers and their children. The terror and bullying of childhood, the blindness of parents towards their own children, and passions for something that goes unfulfilled. Secrets and sin. Guilt and depression. Quite interesting to get a peek back at this bygone time, when things seemed simpler but often wasn't.ARC from Gibson House Press and Library thing.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Such a bittersweet and beautiful book! An excellent depiction of what can happen in a small town when opinion is swayed by a crazy, jealous, and insecure person. Alice O'Brien and Felix Spoon are innocent pawns of not only the "town crazy," but also, in my opinion, their parents. I didn't expect the kindness and generosity of Sister A, but also had no way of anticipating the surprise twist towards the end. Or, I guess I should say twists. Suzzy Roche's book, The Town Crazy, doesn't offer a "and they lived happily ever after" ending, but it does offer what I think is a realistic one and the book is very, very good.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I liked this novel a lot - just a bit over 260 pages but a great view of a small suburb in Pennsylvania in the early 60's. (I've been watching Mad Men and although the locations are different, the women's lives do have similarities.) This story centers around several families. There's Lil O'Brien who suffers from severe depression and her struggling husband Jim and daughter Alice. There's loud, busybody Clarisse McCarthy with a creepy set of twins and her circle of gossipy housewives. There's handsome, mysterious Luke Spoon and his son Felix. I particularly enjoyed the nuns in the town's Catholic school - their annual All Saints Day party was quite something. This novel is gently humorous but it especially depicts loneliness and grief in very moving terms.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    1961 Pennsylvania small town where pretty much everybody is unhappy -- and there doesn't seem to be hope that will change for anyone.,Roche's debut, [The Saints], was entertaining, funny bits thrown in here and there. None of that in [The Town Crazy]. But the children are wonderfully complete characters and the reason for reading this book. One gets caught up in their sad lives and will turn the pages to find out how they will or won't survive.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    First things first: I LOVED THIS little book, absolutely LOVED it! Explaining just why ain't so easy. I'm still kinda digesting it, and also telling my wife, "You have GOT to read this book! You will LOVE it!"I've long been a fan of the Roches' music, so was naturally intrigued when I heard about this book, and now I may have a favorite new author in Suzzy Roche. Her writing style is direct, straightforward, and deceptively simple, but make no mistake, THE TOWN CRAZY sneaks up on ya and packs one hellu of an emotional punch. Set in Hanzloo, a small, insular, mostly Catholic Pennsylvania town in the early sixties, the story centers around three young families and a one-eyed nun. The title character, Lil O'Brien, sedated beyond caring for her precocious daughter, Alice, harbors a dark secret. And so does that nun, by the way. And there's Lil's voluptuous blonde neighbor, Clarisse, a controlling mother of "perfect" twins - NOT. (Think The Bad Seed.) And then there's Luke Spoon the handsome young artist, new in town, the seemingly single father of Felix, who tries to form an alliance with the neglected Alice.That's all I'm saying about the story, except that it is so damn GOOD. I thought several of possible influences - Blake, Cheever, O'Hara, Metallious, E.B. White, and more. Or maybe it's all pure Suzzy Roche. And she is very good! My very highest recommendation.- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER

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The Town Crazy - Suzzy Roche

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