Word: wakefields
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...American in the Vatican is a shy, Missouri-bred Cardinal with a Jewish name, who has risen fast in the church partly because he is an expert on Protestantism. Four years ago, William Wakefield Baum, now 53, became the second youngest Cardinal in U.S. history. When he took over his new job as Prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education last month, he became the third American ever to join the exclusive group of men who head major Vatican agencies. He also found himself in the middle of Pope John Paul II's controversial campaign...
...signposts be regarded as fads. Such a viewpoint belittles the cumulative impact of these Sixties trademarks. They exist now only in our memories, yet, at that time, all had a particular social purpose; none were merely inventions of an aberrant Madison Avenue mind. In his novel Home Free, Dan Wakefield reduces the symbols of the flower child era to cliches and stereotypes, and in so doing, he joins the ranks of those who wrongly dismiss the outgrowths of that period as psychedelic nonsense...
...more palatable. The author seems to feel that the attitudes and symbols of the late Sixties deserve some resounding criticism yet he doesn't deliver it in a credible manner. Rather than utilize the device of ribald humor to jibe at the mores and habits of the time, Wakefield has written a book lacking in wit and devoid of genuine style. As for evoking the mood of the period, his effort to throw in a bunch of song snippets, stereotypical characters, and references to Vietnam falls well short of the mark...
...hopelessly dull, for none of them is developed beyond the most elementary level. Each is introduced, described, and shown taking a path which either intersects or diverges from Gene's travels. No extra attention is given to making these people more memorable by depicting them in fuller detail. Wakefield's choice to eliminate dialogue is an unfortunate one, since some intelligent conversation between these characters might have salvaged the novel, even marginally...
Home Free's plot is aimless. The lack of focus--if intentional--may be an attempt to symbolize Gene's restless drifting, but again, it could have been handled more deftly. Wakefield is continuously showing him moving, from one university to another, one lover to the next, one town to the next. Everything moves but the plot--which is relentlessly stagnant. Everybody has a threshold of boredom. Home Free surpasses even the highest tolerance for sluggishness in fiction...