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http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/24139778

The obstacle course

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http://schema.org/description

  • "Husband or her children; Roy copes by running with his own gang, whose escapades sometimes border on the criminal. And this young man is eminently available when the girls come after him, which is often. But there is another side to Roy. He builds model ships and regularly hitchhikes to Annapolis to run the Naval Academy's grueling obstacle course. For Roy Poole's one ambition in life, his consuming dream, is to become a midshipman. One day, like a gift from heaven, Roy."
  • "Story in a full and rich original voice that marks him as a novelist with a limitless future."
  • "In a dazzling shift of direction from his New York Times-bestselling first thriller, Against the Wind, J.F. Freedman presents The Obstacle Course, a coming-of-age story that recounts the adventures of a colorful, profane, street-smart, and appealing fifteen-year-old boy growing up in 1957 on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Roy Poole has to be smart because he is almost always on his own. His father is a drinker, womanizer, and wife-beater. His mother can't cope with her."
  • "Particularly in an encounter with members of a black church, people that he, a Southerner in the fifties, has never known except as stereotypes, he begins the process of understanding that offers him a chance for his own redemption. This powerful and gritty coming-of-age novel will evoke memories of Holden Caulfield and Huck Finn. It also bears comparison to the novels of Pat Conroy. Best of all, The Obstacle Course confirms Freedman's talent for telling a compelling."
  • "After growing up in a hardscrabble Maryland town, a teenage boy will stop at nothing to pursue his dream It’s 1957, and fifteen-year-old Roy Poole has again been awakened by the nightly argument between his mother, his sister, and his hard-drinking father. Roy sneaks away after the old man passes out, and hitches a ride to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, to use its brutal obstacle course, which he can run better than most midshipmen. Whenever he’s navigating the ropes, gullies, and jumps, Roy finds that he’s able to leave his troubles behind. Roy’s dream is to join the Academy as a midshipman, but after years of bad grades and mishaps, Annapolis is a long shot. When a chance encounter with a retired admiral sets him on the path to a better life, Roy will face his greatest obstacle yet."
  • "Meets a retired admiral who also builds model ships. The admiral is immediately attracted to the youngster, and he becomes almost a second father to the boy. Admiral Wells arranges for Roy to be admitted to a military prep school that sends most of its graduates to the Naval Academy. And then, suddenly, Roy's innocence brings about an explosion in this exotic world he has entered. Embittered and lost, Roy strikes out blindly for parts unknown. And on that adventure,"

http://schema.org/genre

  • "Adventure fiction"@en
  • "Adventure stories"
  • "Courtroom drama"
  • "Mystery fiction"
  • "Electronic books"
  • "Fiction"
  • "Fiction"@en

http://schema.org/name

  • "The Obstacle Course"
  • "The obstacle course"@en
  • "The obstacle course"