Paul Zindel has been a trendsetter in young-adult fiction since 1968. Significantly, his latest book ["The Undertaker's Gone Bananas"] features a teen-age girl who's obsessed with death, a boy who's obsessed with practical jokes and an undertaker who's a homicidal maniac. Significantly, too, Mr. Zindel turns these elements into a zany farce…. The most striking feature of Mr. Zindel's story is the setting—a white elephant luxury-apartment complex on the Palisades Cliffs. The tenants, mostly refugees from other urban nightmares, are surrounded by unrented and perhaps unrentable apartments, and Mr. Zindel's hero [Bobby Perkins], who can't get anyone to believe that he has witnessed a murder on his neighbor's terrace, is the most isolated of all. This book is like a screenplay waiting to happen. The imagery is terrific, but, I confess, I'm not sure what the images mean. Do today's young people really feel so bereft and abandoned? Or are we witnessing the death wish of a genre? I don't think we could, or should want to, go back to the days when the author of a young-adult novel could seriously be charged with "nihilism" for writing a story with a depressing ending. On the other hand, we do seem to have run out of taboos to shatter. (p. 88)
Joyce Milton, "Sweet 16 No More," in The New York Times Book Review (© 1978 by The New York Times Company; reprinted by permission), December 10, 1978, pp. 87-8.∗
This is a free excerpt of 239 words. There are 243 words (approx.
1 page at 300 words per page) in the full critical essay.
Read the rest of this Criticism with our Zindel, Paul 1936–: Critical Essay by Joyce Milton Access Pass.
