Bøger af Fredric Neuman

Detroit Tom was the biggest kid on his block, and probably the next block too, and strong, super-strong, maybe even stronger than that. He was really strong. But dumb. Detroit Tom ranked 98 on the dumb scale, which may not be good enough to become a criminal mastermind--which was Tom's ambition. But, then again, "Big Louie," Tom's role model was a top-flight criminal, when he wasn't in jail, and he reached pretty high-up on the dumb scale too. In these two adventures, Detroit Tom and the guys from his gang: "Ratsie" Ratowitz, who was good at plotting and conniving, "Speedy" Arnold, who has some sort of sleeping disorder and falls asleep during burglaries, and "Fat Bernie," whose favorite thing to steal is food, set out to commit the two heists of the century. Aided by "Smelly Beatrice," of course. In "Detroit Tom and the Famous Fruit Stand Robbery," Detroit Tom and his gang get by the moat and the armed guards in an attempt to steal the secret fruit formula. In "Detroit Tom and the Saint What's- His- Name Festival," Detroit Tom scales the model of the Eiffel Tower to foil a robbery being committed by "Even Bigger Louie" and his gang. And then the bugs come. Other characters, including "Horrendous, the Dog,""Charlie the Nose," and"Filet of Soul," disturb the otherwise idyllic and rainbow-colored setting of "bug city." There are earthquakes, and fires and people running around in different directions. The dead-pan narrative adds to the fun. At the center of these hilarious stories, however, is Detroit Tom and his mishaps and misadventures in his star-crossed attempts to become a master criminal when he only comes up to two and a half on the brain scale. " Detroit Tom and His Gang" is written for eight-year olds and up. And way up. It is a witty take-off on young adult novels and their account of the troubled aspirations of kids and their attempts to bond with each other. Still, because Tom is not as bad as he would like to be, the many morals of theses stories, all spelled out explicitly, include "Crime does not pay." or at least "Crime does not pay very much."

The wicked son of the Passover service asks what the service means to the other congregants. Because the question itself implies that he is not part of the group, he is told that had he been in Egypt during the exodus, the Lord would not have saved him. This book is about skepticism and the price the skeptic pays for questioning the views of others. "Yes, it's true. The heavens have opened up, the seas have parted. The world as we know it is gone forever." That is what the Coosa sisters tell Dr. John Aster, a psychiatrist. It is immediately evident to him that they are delusional, but he doesn't really understand--he questions them-- why they share the same delusion. He arranges for them to be hospitalized, separately, so that without the support of each other their delusion will fade. As a punishment, Oona Coosa, before leaving his office hands him a magical card that transports him to another world, Wendle. Wendle is a wonderful and wacky place where magic works, and where Dr. Aster finds that he has special magical powers, which, unfortunately, he cannot control. Nevertheless, his coming is accepted by everyone as fulfilling a prophecy. He is just in time to save the world, everyone believes. He is joined first by Pinzle, whose single magical ability is to conjure beer. He personal tragedy, he reveals, is that he was a foundling, found in a tree; and he is umbilicusless, that is, he has no belly button. When the Castle of Doom springs up magically in front of them, they encounter the proprietor, the Ebony Warlock and his assistant Aargh. Captive in the castle is Lila, a beautiful Princess of the Arrid Wastes, who takes one look at Dr. Aster and decides he is the man she has been destined for, who will save her and father her children and make fertile at last all the Arrid Wastes. The Ebony Warlock, and Lila, and Pinzle, too, all tell their stories and the story of their families, and the purpose each of them has divined for themselves and for Dr. Aster. Dr. Aster hears these stories, which seem to him nonsense, but he is drawn anyway into the conflicts which spring up around him one after the other, through which he is guided unreliably by Bernie the Spy. In order to forestall the opening of The Chasm, destined to swallow all of Wendle, Dr. Aster and his companions travel across Wendle in search of three wise men who will open the Portals of Power and fulfill the prophecy of Creepy Charlotte. Wherever they go are destruction and disaster precipitated in part by Dr. Aster's desperate attempts at magic. All of the people on Wendle are driven by their own fervently held beliefs, all of them contradictory. Dr. Aster is pummeled unmercifully along the way of learning the lesson which is the purpose of his coming to Wendle.

"Superpowers" is a very funny, but serious account of a responsible, perhaps too responsible, young man growing up abruptly over a period of a few weeks. Chipper's mother died on a Sunday. He was admitted to the hospital the following Tuesday with what the doctor described as a "life-threatening" asthma attack; and then, as Chipper remarks, "Things began to run downhill." When he wakes up in the hospital, Chipper encounters an apparition, named Hal. Hal, who turns out during his different appearances throughout the book to be moody, sarcastic, funny and cynical, is dressed farcically in strange hats and mismatched socks and a variety of costumes. He explains to Chipper that the world is in peril; and at such times he appears on earth to award a superpower to someone, in this case Chipper, so that person can save the world. It is not clear why Chipper is chosen. Neither, for that matter, is it clear why others throughout history were chosen to receive a superpower. Hal's account of their misadventures for the most part are a hilarious retelling of historical events and stories from mythology. It is, of course, critically important that Chipper picks the right superpower because the life he will lead eventually will be determined by that ability, just as the life everyone else leads is determined by that particular person's strength and weaknesses. Chipper's mother was a loving, but overprotective, woman who thought her son could do anything, any wonderful thing, but was unable to cross the street safely by himself.Without her overbearing guidance, Chipper has to suddenly decide for himself what to do next. Helping him to work out his future, and theirs, are his two best friends: Albert, an enthusiastic but credulous young man who feels doomed by the prospect of going into his father's dress business and by the existence of a younger sister, and John, "the smartest kid in the world," who has self-doubts, nevertheless, and is trying to come to terms with being homosexual. There are vivid and very funny accounts of a seance, a visit to a psychic, and, of course, a poker game. Barbara is Chipper's assertive girl friend who accompanies him to the Junior Prom, although he doesn't remember inviting her. When she is badly burned in an accident, as is Chipper, the two of them are brought to the hospital where Chipper in a benumbed state from pain medication disarms a terrorist who is threatening to blow up the hospital with a bomb. This comical scene takes place in the middle of a police stand-off with the terrorist. Another important character is Pannio, a street kid whose philosophy of enjoying life now represents a counterpoint to Chipper's struggle to decide his future. A still further contrast to Chipper's seriousness of purpose is his older brother's decision to become a hedge-fund manager. Then there is Super, the school superintendent, who is, indeed, super in one particular way, the ability to keep working and enjoying life despite enormous physical handicaps. Finally, there is Chipper's father, a sullen and embittered man whose resentment of his son may rise to dangerous levels. Before dying, Chipper's mother warned him to "watch out" for his father. And there is always in the background of "Superpowers" the tragedy of illness and death. Chipper, who is especially6 maginative and sensitive, tries to put his mother's death out of mind until a psychiatrist brings him back gently to dealing with her loss. But the book is at its heart a witty and optimistic celebration of growing up and of life itself. Growing up means separating from parents and developing one's own values. To some extent, it means challenging authority. It means coping with the uncertainties of sex; and it means, of course, deciding on a career and with it a way of living. In the case of Chipper it means learning how to fulfill his responsibility to other people. And then he gets his superpowe

"Come One, Come All" is a locked-room murder mystery, and a take-off on locked-room murder mysteries. It is a comic novel, but realistic. Abe Redden, the narrator, is a young psychiatrist who was widowed three years ago. He is, consequently, still depressed, yet retains an ironic sense of humor. He is skeptical, insubordinate and combative--yet kind. He is enlisted to help a beleaguered women's health center in New York City The center is besieged by two groups of rioters, one supporting gay rights and the other right to life. They quarrel with certain programs of the center and, of course, with each other. The book treats the opposing points of view of the protestors and the clinic staff sympathetically. Two murders take place, and Redden, himself, becomes a target of the murderer. Redden meets Tina Cantor, the newly appointed head of a treatment program for sexual disorders and presumed author of a lurid and wildly successful novel about a sex treatment program in the Midwest. They fall in love. There is a very funny seduction scene that continues off and on throughout most of the book. Adam Adamson is a psychiatric patient who claims to come from 150 years in the future and is, therefore, able to foretell some of Redden's future behavior. He is interviewed by the popular press and gives an hilarious account of life in the future. He claims to know something crucial about the murders taking place, but has forgotten just what. Many of the characters are psychiatrists, and so a subsidiary story line contrasts comically the psychoanalytic and the competing "organic" theories of sexual behavior. Cyril Kelly is in charge of the gynecological service at the Women's Center. Despite being a devout Catholic, he performs abortions. He is given to telling outlandish (but true) anecdotes of sexual misadventures. Lieutenant Edgar Brown is a physically imposing, but soft-spoken, Black police detective in charge of the two murder investigations. All the action takes place in the context of a political dispute between the Mayor of New York and the Borough President. The setting is New York City and, more specifically, the Psycho-medicine ward at Bellevue Hospital and the streets in front of the Women's Center. Since all the main characters are physicians, there is considerable discussion of medical conditions and medical mishap. Abe Redden, the protagonist of "Come One, Come All" appeared first in "The Seclusion Room and in "Maneuvers" He was described then by The New Republic as "an intriguing and totally sympathetic hero" and by the New York Times as "unusually well-drawn."