Leaving Maggie Hope

by Anthony S. Abbott

For 11-year-old David Lear, there is nobody quite like his mother. She can be so caring, so warm and funny, but there are times when her drinking sweeps her away and her affection gives way to verbal abuse and sometimes even violence. As her moods grow darker and more intense, David tries several times to run away from home, before he is finally sent away to boarding school. At the beginning, it's an odd and unfamiliar place, an exclusive prep school in the New England hills, where the rules seem oppressive and hard for a boy to understand. David struggles to adjust and to find friends who will accept him despite the vestiges of an old physical handicap that still haunt him. With elegant prose and a deep and personal understanding of the story, award-winning poet Anthony S. Abbott offers us his debut novel, a coming-of-age odyssey that novelist Jill McCorkle calls "a beautiful story, a story of hope." As David slowly finds his footing at school, he must also contend with the legacy of his family. He sets out alone on a summertime journey in search of a father he hasn't seen in many years, a stepmother who loathes him, and a mysterious benefactress who pays for his schooling. Yet the most powerful and problematic character he must deal with is his mother, Maggie Hope, whose life has long since slipped from its moorings. For David, the question is whether something similar will happen to him or whether he will manage, as he becomes a young man, to overcome his family's history of tragedy and find the strength to make his way in the world.

Genres: Fiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2003

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a contrast to The Catcher in the Rye, which I just taught this fall for the first time in 15 years, I enjoyed Leaving Maggie Hope more than I thought I might. A bias in this is the fact that LMH is set at the Lowell School, a thinly-veiled stand in for Fay School, which the author attended and where I now teach. Imagine reading about a fictional place whose social norms, way of life, and traditions are the basis for your current reality. That's better than reading a non-fiction article and more fun than an ordinary novel. (Visit www.fayschool.org to see the real Lowell School.)

The main character, David Lear, grows at Lowell from a 5th grader to an 8th grader, suffering separation from his family and ultimately the loss of his mother along the way. With "determination, courage, hope, and love" he stumbles his way into adolescence, teenage years that he seems better equipped to bear by the novel's end.

Astute readers of Catcher and Shakespeare will appreciate the allusions from this professor of English.

[Cindy Brookshire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love reading North Carolina authors, especially those who are inductees in the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame and/or have received the highest awards for literature in the state - why not start by mining the mother lode? This novel was so real, it felt autobiographical. I wondered all the more when I Googled the main character's boarding school motto, Poteris Modo Velis to find out what it meant in English - You Can If You Will - and found a boarding school with that motto in New England. I am so glad a woman in my church book club recommended this one. A dynamic coming of age story for a boy in WWII times.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a compelling coming-of-age story about David Lear, whose only anchor is his dysfunctional family is his sister, Elizabeth. His mother, Maggie Hope, is an alcoholic, his father lives across the country with his new family and his stepfather is a violent alcoholic. What is unique about David's story is that he is sent to a boarding school where fear soon transitions into a sense of belonging in a place where order and structure reign. He thrives in this atmosphere and comes to realize he has a place in this world. In a life previously filled with chaos, David works diligently to achieve his goals.

[Boofybaby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I had a really soft spot for this book because I loved the teacher who taught me this book like over a decade ago. Rereading it again made me realize this book kind of misses the mark - it’s a bit stilted, overly formal, and bland. I think the plot drags a bit as well.

But as someone who went to this school, it’s crazy to realize how deep many of these traditions held up. They’ve been the same since the author went there, the same when I went there circa 2012, and still the same now in 2026. I think it’s a great book for English class, but perhaps not the best to read for leisure.

[Candy Wood]

The back cover proclaims that this is a novel, with the conventional disclaimer inside that resemblances to real persons are coincidental. The main character, David, is not the narrator, but the perspective is entirely his, so that readers see everything through his eyes and his limited understanding. The title’s Maggie Hope is his mother, an alcoholic whose emotional demands he escapes when he is sent to boarding school. School presents social challenges more than academic ones for him. David is no Holden Caulfield--he studies, does his best at sports, and makes friends without being tempted to smoke, drink, or curse. So it works as a YA novel, ending with the school’s closing ceremonies and with David’s resolve to apply what he has learned about love and friendship in the secondary school he will attend next. And it works better as the memoir Tony Abbott has apparently acknowledged it is.

[Debbie Maskus · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a coming-of-age novel about a boy living in New York with his sister and alcoholic mother. A kindly godmother furnishes the tuition money for David to go a a private school to escape the dire living conditions. Maggie Hope is David's mother. The story encounters all the obstacles that David (a boy with a club foot)completes in his quest of leaving his mother. But it is his mother, who instills in him that life must have hope, courage, determination, and love. A gentle telling of David's struggles in life.

[Carl Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a novel but Tony Abbott admits it is a memoir. Tony is a retired English professor at Davidson College. The story is similar to The Glass Castle but Abbott's writing does not measure up to Jeannette Wall's. More like it was written by an English professor.

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this story and think it would make a great movie. Tony Abbott was my husband's English professor in college and I used to stay at his house when I visited on the weekends.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. The young David Lear is in boarding school and this book eloquently and subtly carries us through this tween's reckoning with loneliness and accomplishment.

[Sophie · Rating 2 out of 5]

it is an OKAY read... i had to read it for school but if they would have given me a choice I wouldnt have read it!... of course it has a good message and it is OKAY

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honest, true. Read it in one sitting, gratefully.

[Jessica Deberry · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED this book. Very quick read and written by a Davidson College professor!

[Te'Asia Welch]

it wasn't that interesting because in the mom in the beginning was trying to get the little boy not to tell on her

[Sarah bullock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet coming of age book set at a prep school in the 40s.