If you have not seen Lawrence Levinson’s superb review of the fun coming of age novel by Theodore Jacobs, here are some quotes from that review. The book can be obtained on request from IPBooks.net: by Clicking Here.
The Year of Durocher is a moving, observant, funny—and fun—novel. But like all good, serious fiction, the entertainment is in the service of a larger aim.
Here that aim is to review the mind of the late adolescent on the cusp of adulthood opening up to the world and to himself. Jacobs is masterful at portraying adolescents busily contending with one another, their sexual desire fired by ramped up hormones, their aggression mobilized by pressing narcissistic issues, their triadic relationships fueled by the revival of Oedipal passions, while simultaneously busily renouncing their parents in the service of separating and gaining autonomy.
Jacobs’ most impressive achievement in the novel is illustrating how change and growth, and even the stirrings of wisdom, sen to require the turbulence that accompanies this time of life.
[Jacobs] has made lasting contributions to our profession and already would be in a Cooperstown for psychoanalysts if there were such a place, yet here in The Year of Durocher he is making a wonderful debut as a novelist.