[A Solitary Blue] is the story of Jeff Greene, the guitar-playing high school boy Dicey Tillerman meets in Dicey's Song (1982)—but the connection isn't made until near the end. The story begins, matter-of-factly but with Kramer vs. Kramer pathos, when Jeff at seven finds his mother Melody's note explaining that she loves him but had to leave him to help the world's less fortunate and "make things better." Jeff is left with his stiff, expressionless father…. The summer Jeff turns 12, his mother invites him to stay with her at her grandmother's house in Charleston; and though he doesn't see much of her he is overcome with love—cherishing her memory through the year, writing monthly unanswered letters, and buying a cheap used guitar because she had played one…. The next summer Jeff returns to Charleston, but sees even less of his mother—she is off on long trips with her dreadful boyfriend—and goes home dangerously withdrawn. The healing process begins several months later with a move from Baltimore to a Chesapeake Bay cabin he and his father choose together. Jeff does well at his new school, makes some friends, meets Dicey, and hangs out with the Tillermans—and he and his father, still reserved, become closer and easier with each other…. Later Jeff resolves his mixed heritage by deciding to go into ecology: "No, not saving the world or getting back to the good old prehistoric days, not that," he tells his father. "But responsible management of it, somehow … with computers too…." This doubly simplistic resolution is disappointing, and Voigt's lack of sympathy for Melody's postulated type is a problem from the start. However, Jeff's own feelings at every stage are compellingly real and affecting; the growing closeness between him and his father is moving and subtly developed; and his own emotional development and growing character (that old-fashioned term is the only word for it) brings out Voigt at her best, as well. (pp. J178-J179)
A review of "A Solitary Blue," in Kirkus Reviews, Vol. LI, Nos. 13-17, September 1, 1983, pp. J178-J179.
This is a free excerpt of 342 words. There are 346 words (approx.
1 page at 300 words per page) in the full critical essay.
Read the rest of this Criticism with our Voigt, Cynthia 1942–: Critical Essay by Kirkus Reviews Access Pass.
