Dreaming of Ricky

It is 1960, and 14-year-old well-behaved Mary Margaret Ryan has suddenly and unexpectedly become an orphan. Her mother's death-never discussed by the family or even touched upon in Mary Margaret's own thoughts-brings about a series of rapid changes. The family of her long departed father comes to live with her, and they are a quirky lot to say the least. There is Grandmother, whose moods can be predicted by whether she has completed her daily crossword puzzle and whose concerns reflect the fact that characters on her favorite soap operas are more real to her than her own family. Aunt Sunny is a night nurse, whose life is completely out of synch with the rest of the family simply because she spends her entire daytime sleeping. Uncle Frank has no apparent job but spends his whole day mysteriously "doing research" at local libraries. Cousin BJ seems to come from a completely different world than Mary Margaret's-she is sarcastic and openly belligerent to her parents. She seems to do well at whatever job she is in, but is inclined to change to a different job every few weeks. We follow Mary Margaret and her best friend Mary Ellen through their high school years. They encounter any number of hilarious situations and eccentric characters, including the nuns and friends at school, as well as family. In Dreaming of Ricky, Ann Brennan transports us to a very believable time and place: a Maryland suburb in the early 60's. Every detail in her story, including the way her characters think and speak, is meticulously crafted to reflect that unique time in American history. It is a time when the repressive beliefs of the 50's are just starting to give way to a more free-and potentially scary-world view. Mary Margaret is coming of age while her entire world is itself in tumultuous adolescence. Brennan's Maryland suburb wears a cheery and often foolish façade under which some terrible darkness keeps forcing its way to the surface. This is well reflected in Mary Margaret herself, the "good girl" who is eager to please and ever so sweet, but who cannot seem to contain those recurring nightmares of an unnamed horror just below her in the basement. Dreaming of Ricky shares much with the genre of an Irish novel. The tone here is a deft mixture of sweetness, despair, horror, and hilarity. This is both a dark and a comic novel that captures a genuine Irish sensibility. Anyone who has been or has known a good Irish Catholic girl will recognize Mary Margaret and will be helpless to keep her out of their heart.