Alumni Books

Mina and Gwen, the girls she’s nanny- ing; Celestynka, a Polish housekeeper with a talent for accounting; and Aston, her handsome and mysterious neigh- bor who claims to dislike travel—only further confuse her as she 6 gures out the direction she wants to take. In colorful 7 ashbacks to Kika’s year abroad and quaint depictions of London and its cobbled streets, the author also o8 ers up some satisfy- ing armchair travel. Trilivas knows a thing or two about travel; she’s visited more than 30 countries and every continent except Antarctica, and i s a manager at a London-based travel marketing company. Trilivas’ writing sparkles most in Kika’s cheeky, tell-it-like-it-is observa- tions and in side-splitting depictions of her penchant for getting into com- promising scenarios (one scene 6 nds Kika in a sex shop while running er- rands for a nasty coworker). And though it is a fun, humorous read, Girls Who Travel also touches on the dueling metaphorical implications FICTION After trading in her swimsuit, South of travel itself—travel as escape, travel India’s beaches, and freedom for a as discovery—for growing up. Coming- Girls Who Travel “fatally boring winter coat,” New York’s of-age, that tidy, overused phrase, Nicole Trilivas (COM’05) crowded subways, and the 9-to-5 grind, might just be something that never Penguin Random House she still daydreams of the year of ad- stops.—9+*+ (+((,,- *%&%3+(’ 40.') ,550*( + venture and romance she shared with refreshing 6 ctional take on a Lochlon, a brooding Irish backpacker. T topic often covered in the pages After one daydream too many, she’s The Island of Worthy Boys of travel memoirs. Here it provides a 6 red from her job. Connie Hertzberg Mayo (Questrom’93) 6 tting setup for this novel, a welcome But Kika’s jobless woes don’t last too She Writes Press addition to the burgeoning long. An opportune phone - ):%( 40.') -,30&, :0*);.0*< so-called new adult genre, one call from a family friend Mayo takes readers back to late- that is as much about wan- lands her a nanny gig in I 19th-century Boston and the gritty derlust as it is about plain old London, and she soon streets of the city’s impoverished growing up. 6 nds herself back overseas West End. The story revolves around Wild-haired, bohemian, and once again closer to the deepening friendship between 23-year-old Kika Shores is the roguish Lochlon. For two young boys—orphaned, street- back in the States after a Kika, who muses, “I only wise Charles Wheeler, and the more year-long backpacking tour started to get a sense of reserved Aidan Sullivan. When we 6 rst and struggling to adjust to who I wanted to be when I meet them, both boys are struggling to working life. As a receptionist traveled alone,” the London survive a world of hunger and indi8 er- at, of all places, a corporate escapade represents a sec- ence, with danger and menace lurking travel management company, she is ond chance to 6 gure out her life. everywhere. The setting evokes the ful6 lling, she thinks, “the part you With equal parts humor and poignan- grinding poverty of Charles Dickens’ had to play when you were in your cy, Trilivas captures what it feels like to Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, and A early twenties and one teensy step be an aimless twentysomething. Kika Christmas Carol, where workhouses, away from 6 nancial destitution.” quickly discovers London might not jails, and life on the street o8 ered the That doesn’t mean she plays the hold all the answers. In fact, the cast of only means of recourse for children part well. characters she encounters there—like without parents.

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52-59_Bostonia_WS16.indd 58 1/28/16 12:39 PM The boys’ friendship, o% ered invaluable insight years and even sung by an astronaut which develops tentatively into life on the island as a on the International Space Station in and warily, takes on an Farm School student. 2013. O’Leary plumbs the harmonies urgency after an attempted The Island of Worthy Boys and chord changes that make the song robbery goes disastrously vividly recalls a chapter in work, the important role of a goofy little awry. Salvation appears in American history before synthesizer called the Stylophone, and the form of a kind-hearted the advent of the Progres- the song’s connections to “In the Year prostitute who o% ers to help sive Era and the creation 2525,” 2001: A Space Odyssey, “A Day in Charles and Aidan (who of a safety net to protect the Life,” and “Over the Rainbow.” agree to pose as brothers) children. It deftly explores “Born mournful, it’s become more escape Boston to a farm school on some thorny issues—forgiveness, so,” O’Leary writes of the song. “Bowie Thompson Island in Boston Harbor. compassion, resilience, the individual’s had felt something linked the Apollo The two assume false identities to responsibility to society. Sadly, it also astronauts (who thought they’d be protect their secret and avert attention serves as a reminder, at a time when the opening act of a new age of space from the authorities. income disparity continues to grow in exploration and turned out to be one- Happily, none of the characters— this country, that a child’s future is still hit wonders), the doomed astronauts adults or children—is reduced to stock too often determined by the circum- of science & ction, all of the lost boys & gures. Hertzberg Mayo portrays the stances of his birth.—()*+ )’,)-,./ of the imploding counterculture.” The boys who reside at the Boston Farm disappointing arc of his own career to School and their adult keepers with NONFICTION that point and a bad breakup were also originality and a keen eye for detail. on Bowie’s mind. Readers will & nd themselves rooting Rebel Rebel The author takes us song by song for Charles and Aidan as they begin Chris O’Leary (COM’94) through the extraordinary & ve years of to ' ourish and take their & rst steps Zero Books productivity that followed: “The Man toward building a new life for them- +/ 0),/ 123+ 4*54 6/ 7578 Who Sold the World,” “Changes,” “Life selves. Every victory, even the smallest, boomers are marching swiftly to on Mars?,” “Ziggy Stardust,” “Starman,” is hard-won, and loss and sadness are a O the grave: Ziggy Stardust and the “All the Young Dudes,” “The Jean Ge- constant presence. Thin White Duke are now the subjects nie,” “Diamond Dogs,” “Young Ameri- Just as their lives appear & nally of a reference book. Rebel Rebel catalogs cans,” “Fame,” and many more, as well secure, a chance return to the mainland every song David Bowie recorded up to as countless album tracks and covers. puts the boys’ happiness in jeopardy. January 1976 in all his personae, with Along the way, O’Leary also delves The story builds to a climactic court- details on the recording sessions, per- into the cocaine-fueled chameleon act room scene that threatens to rob the sonnel, release schedules, chart peaks, that helped sear Bowie into the popular two of their friendship and their future. and live performances. consciousness, from his alien starring It would be unfair to describe what hap- But it’s O’Leary’s essays on each song role in The Man Who Fell To Earth to pens next, but to the author’s credit, that make the book worthwhile for his largely false coming out. she steers clear of a pat ending. casual Bowie fans who don’t really care “From 1973 to 1977, Bowie ran an While clearly a historical novel, The who played rhythm guitar on an unre- inadvertent guerilla war against televi- Island of Worthy Boys was inspired leased 1972 remake of “John, I’m Only sion, particularly American television,” by a real-life school, the Boston Farm Dancing” (O’Leary: “Lou Reed?”). O’Leary writes. “If anything, he was School, which existed from 1833 to “It’s still strange to realize his & rst gracious, polite, happy to ' atter the 1975, and its real-life superintendent, single predates A Hard Day’s host. But his emaciated Charles Bradley, who served in that Night,” O’Leary writes in the coke-wraith appearance position from 1888 to 1922. introduction. “By keeping was disturbing merely as The author stumbled on the school’s to the ground and going a visual,” he writes, and existence while taking a cruise of the through Bowie’s records song Bowie came across as Boston Harbor Islands more than 25 by song, you can slowly get a “estranged, distracted, years ago. At the time, the boat’s cap- sense of the scale of Bowie’s standing at a remove from tain mentioned that a “reform school” achievement—a body of humanity. He seemed like had once existed on Thompson Island. work that holds up as well as an extraterrestrial sum- What Hertzberg Mayo discovered anything from his era.” moned by the cameras.” was that the real school, far from being Bowie died on January 10, O’Leary promises a sec- a reform school, was that “rare good 2016, two days after his 69th ond volume covering Bowie place” governed by a sense of fairness birthday and the release of his new from his fertile Berlin period to his and compassion. Boys were educated album Blackstar. & nal works. A regular biography will and later apprenticed so they could sup- O’Leary is good on the music, such be a better starting point for Bowie port themselves in a variety of careers. as the singular novelty “Space Oddity,” neophytes. But Rebel Rebel is worth- Hertzberg Mayo was put in touch with which launched Bowie’s success. Re- while for those who have already a man, Dave Haeger, who had attended corded in 1969 in advance of the moon learned to turn and face the strange the school from 1938 to 1943 and who landing, it was on and o% the charts for changes.—()/9 7,)6+

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