Good Reads / Community Library Notes
Degrees of Difficulty
Julie E. Justicz
Review by Priscilla Comen
Degrees of Difficulty
Julie E. Justicz
Review by Priscilla Comen
Degree of Difficulty, by Julie E. Justicz, is the story of Ben, the difficult child and his family. Ben has seizures, drooling, and screaming that he has had since his birth. His father, Perry, must get him from the school where he has been expelled, the last in a series of schools he has attended. His mother, Caroline, is a faculty member at a prestigious college, Emory. She teaches Shakespeare to students who don’t care about him. Two other children, Hugo and Ivy, are home for the summer of 1991. Author Justicz does a fine job of showing the feelings of each of these characters. Caroline is overwhelmed by her job and her home life. She takes to red wine.
Ivy wants to take an advanced course to be ready for Yale in the fall. She avoids taking care of Ben, whereas Hugo, always the good boy, skips his diving program at which he excels, to care for Ben. Ivy has to come home when mom and dad go to another state to check out another home for Ben. She’s resentful and angry with Hugo and Ben. Both boys play all day in the pool their father built for them in their backyard. Ben has several seizures a day, makes a mess with his food, but Hugo deals with it with humor. Ivy locks Ben in his room and retreats to watch TV.
Hugo makes a racing car attached with ropes so Ben can careen down their hill. Ben loves it. When Perry goes to investigate a nun-run home for retarded persons, he is shocked to hear they will give Ben a try. He can come for a ninety day trial period. The day after Thanksgiving they all drive to the new home where Ben will be living. But it isn’t long before Ben is expelled for having pushed his roommate into the pool.
Later, Hugo wins a championship at diving, doing a great job with the difficult dives. Later, the family goes on a vacation to the mountains without Ben. Perry wonders if he was a good father. The author questions what a good father does. A phone call alerts them that Ben fell down the stairs and has bleeding in his brain. The doctor questions if the caretaker was responsible enough. When mom goes to a rehab center for her drinking problem, Hugo offers to take Ben to live with him in a small cottage. Hugo gets a job as a lifeguard at a pool nearby. Ben goes to a day care program. This works for several years.
One day, Ben has a seizure and dies in the bathtub while Hugo is reading the newspaper in another room. After the funeral, Hugo disappears for several years. Police find his wallet and watch by the side of the pool where he had worked. Why has Hugo disappeared? Does he ever return? How do Perry and Caroline deal with this second tragedy? Ivy has become a doctor. Where is she in her life? Find this interesting saga of a family dealing with crises on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.
Ivy wants to take an advanced course to be ready for Yale in the fall. She avoids taking care of Ben, whereas Hugo, always the good boy, skips his diving program at which he excels, to care for Ben. Ivy has to come home when mom and dad go to another state to check out another home for Ben. She’s resentful and angry with Hugo and Ben. Both boys play all day in the pool their father built for them in their backyard. Ben has several seizures a day, makes a mess with his food, but Hugo deals with it with humor. Ivy locks Ben in his room and retreats to watch TV.
Hugo makes a racing car attached with ropes so Ben can careen down their hill. Ben loves it. When Perry goes to investigate a nun-run home for retarded persons, he is shocked to hear they will give Ben a try. He can come for a ninety day trial period. The day after Thanksgiving they all drive to the new home where Ben will be living. But it isn’t long before Ben is expelled for having pushed his roommate into the pool.
Later, Hugo wins a championship at diving, doing a great job with the difficult dives. Later, the family goes on a vacation to the mountains without Ben. Perry wonders if he was a good father. The author questions what a good father does. A phone call alerts them that Ben fell down the stairs and has bleeding in his brain. The doctor questions if the caretaker was responsible enough. When mom goes to a rehab center for her drinking problem, Hugo offers to take Ben to live with him in a small cottage. Hugo gets a job as a lifeguard at a pool nearby. Ben goes to a day care program. This works for several years.
One day, Ben has a seizure and dies in the bathtub while Hugo is reading the newspaper in another room. After the funeral, Hugo disappears for several years. Police find his wallet and watch by the side of the pool where he had worked. Why has Hugo disappeared? Does he ever return? How do Perry and Caroline deal with this second tragedy? Ivy has become a doctor. Where is she in her life? Find this interesting saga of a family dealing with crises on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.