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So Long at the Fair
The summer fairgrounds provide a temporary refuge for eighteen-year-old Joel as he struggles to deal with his memories of Ashley, the friend he loved and expected to have as a part of his life always.
208 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 1988
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 9, 2012
Bizarre and incomplete - This is the story of a teen boy and teen girl who come from rich families. The girl kills herself, leaving Joel to try to put his life back together. While his parents are gone for a while he spends the week at the fair, pretending he's a bum.
July 23, 2025
First published in 1988, this story takes place the summer after senior year for a rich white kid.
He misses Ashley and doesn't know what to do with himself while his parents are out of town. So he hangs out at the fair, washes dishes, and helps a guy with his showing his pigs. He meets a singer who calls herself Kentucky Rose, and you think the story is going to be about them, but he hardly ever talks to her. At first think Ashley must have been his girlfriend and that she broke up with him, but the story alludes to something worse.
Then suddenly we are taken back in time to junior and senior year with Joel and Ashley, who are not a couple, but are best friends who have grown up together, in their world of privilege and equestrian medals. Ashley is the kind of girl who is searching for meaning and purpose, who worries about pollution and saving the whales, the trees. This feels very 70s/80s niche activism like Ashley is an outsider because she cares. We discover Ashley's tragic story November of senior year. Then we return to Joel at the present-day fair for two pages as he is still so angry and lost without her, the end. Huh.
I can't say this is an enjoyable read, as the protagonist is aimless, sad, and angry and remains so for the entirety of the book. But I have to give an Avon Flare novel a try when I see one. I do like that Hadley Irwin in the pen name of a pair of English professors. And I love the ads in the back for Bruce and Carole Hart et al.
He misses Ashley and doesn't know what to do with himself while his parents are out of town. So he hangs out at the fair, washes dishes, and helps a guy with his showing his pigs. He meets a singer who calls herself Kentucky Rose, and you think the story is going to be about them, but he hardly ever talks to her. At first think Ashley must have been his girlfriend and that she broke up with him, but the story alludes to something worse.
Then suddenly we are taken back in time to junior and senior year with Joel and Ashley, who are not a couple, but are best friends who have grown up together, in their world of privilege and equestrian medals. Ashley is the kind of girl who is searching for meaning and purpose, who worries about pollution and saving the whales, the trees. This feels very 70s/80s niche activism like Ashley is an outsider because she cares. We discover Ashley's tragic story November of senior year. Then we return to Joel at the present-day fair for two pages as he is still so angry and lost without her, the end. Huh.
I can't say this is an enjoyable read, as the protagonist is aimless, sad, and angry and remains so for the entirety of the book. But I have to give an Avon Flare novel a try when I see one. I do like that Hadley Irwin in the pen name of a pair of English professors. And I love the ads in the back for Bruce and Carole Hart et al.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews