The Education of Nancy Adams

by Larry Baker

Living in her dead parents' house in 1996, Nancy Adams is about to go to work at the Florida high school from which she graduationed twenty years earlier. Her new boss was her teacher back in 1976, a man she adored. She was seventeen then. He was twenty-seven. He is married now, she is a childless widow. Her own education is about to begin again as she enters an adolescent world of hormones, rumors and teenage drama.

Genres: Fiction

415 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

A rapidly becoming obscure mid-list writer, whose first novel, FLAMINGO RISING, was a Hallmark movie and whose second, ATHENS/AMERICA, is now invisible and unattainable.
My new book, A GOOD MAN, is about drunk radio talk show hosts, food, politics, and the possible Second Coming. It also involves a threesome with Nancy Grace, Ann Coulter, and a fictional right-wing talk show host.
Book is dedicated to Harry Chapin and Flannery O'Connor, but you gotta read it to appreciate why."

Reviews

[Vicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Larry Baker's treatment of intertextuality hooked me. I loved Nancy Adams' time-bending doppelganger, alter-ego historian Henry Adams, whose treatise on the "finer points" of formal education presents a fascinating subplot. A very cool visual-verbal approach, too, is established via snapshots of a couple of Iowa High Schools--sans the students--inviting the reader to personally "inscribe" a scene at the onset of every chapter. The entire novel is playfully reminiscent of an Edward Hopper painting in its quiet sense of loneliness and longing...I read it in nearly a single sitting.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Halfway through this swift-moving yet deep-probing novel, the title character -- formerly a Merry Widow, now chastened & returned to Earth -- spars with her most troubling student. This is in Nancy Adams' hometown high school, where she's come back for a teaching post, in part because she needs the money and in part for , well... that's complicated. Reasons include her complicated feelings for the current principal, Russell Parsons; as a schoolgirl, Nancy was over the moon for the man, & these affections were reciprocated, in some fashion at least. Now, Parsons has tugged on those old heartstrings, as well as on her basic decency & more, & what he wants most is for Nancy to help rescue a terribly bright, terribly troubled student named Dana. Now, confronted with Dana, the former teacher's pet (sort of) wonders whether this girl has taken on the role, & yet Nancy knows quality when she sees it: "Dana! Stop taking yourself so lightly!" Teacher, hear thyself: Nancy Adams too has to rise to the challenge of her innate sensitivity & braininess: to grow into her new job & its ideals. This means also, perhaps especially, sussing out the shifting social dynamics of her Northern Florida town, formerly Jim Crow country but these days a place where the colleague Nancy relies on most is black. Larry Baker's novel perhaps risks glossing over the pain of that history, its pace & gab speedy & fun even when it comes to ingrained hatred & fear. Nevertheless, the story's always engaging, by & large a winner, especially in the sympathy it generates for all concerned. THE EDUCATION OF NANCY... winds up recalling its great forebear, ...HENRY..., first for its laughs & honest self-assessments, & then, more importantly, for its portrayal of a changing world.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of us consider ourselves experts on high school -- we've been there, after all. But how would that experience help or hurt us if we went back 20 years later, not as a student but as a teacher?

In Larry Baker's smart and entertaining new novel The Education of Nancy Adams (Ice Tea Books, paperback ARC), Nancy, valedictorian of the class of '77, returns to Kennedy High School as a first-year teacher 20 years after graduation. A widow with no children, she's as surprised as anyone to be living in her late parents' home on the St. Johns River in northeast Florida, but her favorite high school teacher, Russell Parsons, has lured her back. He's the popular principal at Kennedy now, married with two daughters, but Nancy is still emotionally drawn to him. Once school starts, however, she has more on her mind than rekindling her schoolgirl crush.

Baker, author of Flamingo Rising, a terrific coming-of-age novel, creates a colorful microcosm populated with familiar yet credible characters. Nancy, who narrates, has students who are high-flyers, misfits, bullies, rebels, nerds. The perplexing Dana may be the smartest of them all, but she's struggling to make up classes after having a baby. Nancy can't figure her out. But she's also contending with her fellow teachers: the veteran who helped integrate the faculty, the prissy by-the-book newcomer, the charismatic basketball coach, the guidance counselor who knows where all the bodies are buried. Over the course of a schoolyear, replete with surprises, Nancy learns from them all about what being a teacher really means.

from On a Clear Day I Can Read Forever http://patebooks.wordpress.com

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did not expect the twist and turns.

[Sara Langenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Characters very well crafted. A good read.

[Nick Stika · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Larry's stories, and this one was gripping from page one. I feel so blessed to have Larry Baker living in my hometown, and I hope he continues to write for years to come! I don't often give books 5 stars, but this one certainly earned it!

[Scott Benyacko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last night, I stayed up late to finish this novel. There was something about Baker's prose that kept me going. The female protagonist, Nancy Adams, was one of the more authentic narrative voices I've encountered in a while. There were some nice (and unexpected) plot twists, but the novel ended well for me. I'm glad the valedictorian story ended the way it did--there's something to be said for dark horses. The characters were real, the atmosphere of Fort Jackson even more so. Kudos to Larry Baker for another great novel.

[Terri M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a good read. I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it either. It seemed very much about the day-to-day life of teaching and the predictable politics that go along with it. (It reminded me of at least 2 reasons I decided not to become a teacher after completing my education degree.)

At the end, I felt like the author tried to do something with the whole Henry (I think that was his name) Adams thing, but I didn't get it and it made me feel stupid.

[Kenny Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great read from Larry Baker!