Outline:

Conrad who is also called «Con» has been in a mental hospital for about six months, because he tried to kill himself. After his residence at the hospital, he returned home to his family.
Con’s coach at the swimming practice was mean to him. He joked about that Con has been on a mental hospital and what they did to him. So he quit the swimming practice.
Con visited his shrink doctor Berger very often. Con did not feel better mentally. He was depressed and wanted to be a part of his family. With his shrink he could talk for hours about everything. They got a good relationship.
His friend Karen, who was at the mental hospital with Con, killed herself. This bothered Con a lot. His problems seemed to have sailed away when he met Jeannine, who later became Con’s girlfriend. His problems is not what they used to be. He got much stronger. But his mother has not changed. She is the same cold person that she always have been, since Con’s brother, Buck died in an accident. She feel not enough love for Con as she did for Buck. His father Cal is more understanding and take good care of Con.

One night Cal thinks about the family situation. He cries and Beth sees that Cal is upset. They sort things out. Finally Beth went to Houston. Cal and Con got more attached to each other and live happy for maybe the rest of their lives…

Why did the author write this novel?

The author «Judith Guest» has maybe experienced this by her self. So that might have helped her to write this novel with a quite good story. Perhaps she wrote the story to throw light on a problem that we don’t talk about. In many homes there are parents who love one of their child more than they love their other children. This issue might be in your own family. We follow the situation after Buck’s death. How the family go true a change. The theme must be why I can’t be accepted for who I am.

Judgment:

This novel focuses on something that we don’t talk about. It is something we keep to ourselves. Because you know it’s wrong but you can’t help it. It was quite difficult to read it with no breaks. I didn’t knew the meaning of a lot of words from the book. So my glossary list should be big, but a lot of these words could I see the meaning of when I read some more pages. My opinion of this book is that I will remember it, because it was a good issue.