| Author: | Michael Cantwell | ISBN: | 9781491776186 |
| Publisher: | iUniverse | Publication: | October 16, 2015 |
| Imprint: | iUniverse | Language: | English |
| Author: | Michael Cantwell |
| ISBN: | 9781491776186 |
| Publisher: | iUniverse |
| Publication: | October 16, 2015 |
| Imprint: | iUniverse |
| Language: | English |
After moving from town to town, Philip Nason and his family finally settle in a working-class neighborhood in Detroit. Its the summer of 1937, shortly after Philip turns eleven. A lonely child, he inhabits a world of daydreams, filling notebooks with his cartoon fantasies. He discovers hes unable to compete in the rough-and-tumble games that are a boys rite of passage.
Then Philip meets Jeremiah Caseybigger, older, stronger, better at games than everyone else, but somehow isolated by his exceptional abilities. In Philip, Casey finds a fellow dreamer and artist. Together, they try to make an animated movie, send cartoons to syndicates, and finally produce a neighborhood newspaper. As they attempt to join the ranks of Al Capp and other famous cartoonists, their aspirations conflict with the upheavals of sexual awakening, the pressures of working-class life, and the coming of World War II. The dreams of Philip survive, but those of his older friend and hero do not.
My Friend Casey evokes a lost time and place and traces, along a darkening landscape, the path of what may have been the last surge of American optimism.
After moving from town to town, Philip Nason and his family finally settle in a working-class neighborhood in Detroit. Its the summer of 1937, shortly after Philip turns eleven. A lonely child, he inhabits a world of daydreams, filling notebooks with his cartoon fantasies. He discovers hes unable to compete in the rough-and-tumble games that are a boys rite of passage.
Then Philip meets Jeremiah Caseybigger, older, stronger, better at games than everyone else, but somehow isolated by his exceptional abilities. In Philip, Casey finds a fellow dreamer and artist. Together, they try to make an animated movie, send cartoons to syndicates, and finally produce a neighborhood newspaper. As they attempt to join the ranks of Al Capp and other famous cartoonists, their aspirations conflict with the upheavals of sexual awakening, the pressures of working-class life, and the coming of World War II. The dreams of Philip survive, but those of his older friend and hero do not.
My Friend Casey evokes a lost time and place and traces, along a darkening landscape, the path of what may have been the last surge of American optimism.
