Buy Robin and Ruby

Robin and Ruby

Book Hardcover More Info ISBN: 9780758232182 Catalog #: BH2999012	Usually ships in 5-10 days	$21.99 (8% off) List Price: ~~$23.99~~
Book Trade Paperback More Info ISBN: 9780758232199 Catalog #: BT2999013	Usually ships in 5-10 days	$13.49 (10% off) List Price: ~~$14.99~~

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Synopsis

In his award-winning bestseller The World of Normal Boys, The World of Normal Boys introduced readers to the richly compelling voice of teenager Robin MacKenzie. In Robin and Ruby, he revisits Robin and his younger sister, masterfully depicting the turbulence of the mid-1980s—and that fleeting time between youth and adulthood, when everything we will become can be shaped by one unforgettable weekend.

At twenty-years-old, Robin MacKenzie is waiting for his life to start. Waiting until his summer working at a Philly restaurant is over and he's back with his boyfriend Peter…until the spring semester when he’ll travel to London for an acting program…until the moment when the confidence he fakes starts to feel real.

Then, one hot June weekend, Robin gets dumped by his boyfriend and quickly hits the road with his best friend George to find his teenaged sister, Ruby, who’s vanished from a party at the Jersey Shore. For years, his friendship with George has been the most solid thing in Robin's life. But lately there are glimpses of another George, someone Robin barely knows and can no longer take for granted.

Ruby is on an adventure of her own, dressing in black, declaring herself an atheist, pulling away from the boyfriend she doesn't love—not the way she loves the bands whose fractured songs are the soundtrack to her life. Then a chance encounter puts Ruby in pursuit of a seductive but troubled boy who might be the key to her happiness, or a disaster waiting to happen.

As their paths converge, Robin and Ruby confront the sadness of their shared past and rebuild the bonds that still run deep. In prose that is lyrical, compulsively readable, and exquisitely honest, K.M. Soehnlein brilliantly captures a family redefining itself and explores those moments common to us all—when freedom bumps up against responsibility, when sex blurs the line between friendship and love, and when what you stand for becomes more important than who you were raised to be.

Review

"And in this moment her entire life realigns. What matters and what doesn’t. What is passion and what is just passing time. What everyone else has wanted for her, and what she wants for herself." Although this quote from K.M. Soehnlein's Robin and Ruby is referring to Ruby, the same can be said for Robin as both their lives completely change over one adventurous weekend. Robin’s boyfriend breaks up with him and immediately he finds a deeper relationship in his best friend George. Ruby’s interest in her current boyfriend fades, only to be reunited with a past love interest. A mysterious phone message from Ruby leads Robin and George on a road trip to find his missing sister. Once they track her down, we witness the moment each emerges from their child self into the adult they are to become as they realize they are alike in more ways than they had imagined. They each lose a love, gain a new one, and are forced to make life-changing choices while the former death of their brother and the divorce of their parents haunt their every thought.

Robin and Ruby face many obstacles, and while they sometimes run away from them, they eventually confront them head on and deal with the outcome. They look back on their past, trying to come to terms with what happened, and are able to find a bit of hope. Most important of all, though, they recognize that they will always have the support of each other. "So here it is again, that eternal resemblance, the way her life will always reflect his, not only on her face, but beneath that, too, in the knowledge that they share."

K.M. Soehnlein has captivated me with his descriptive narration of one of the most chaotic times in our lives. The truthfulness of his characters and the realistic experiences they endure show that he really understands what it is like during this emotional period. The similarities in story line and characterization of both Robin and Ruby strengthen their rediscovered connection they have buried within themselves. Robin and Ruby is a story of growing up, but it is also a story of love, whether it is between siblings or between lovers.

-- Jayson Bucy

It is so good to have K.M. Soehnlein back. I haven't had anything by him to read since The World of Normal Boys and I have been awaiting this sequel. We first met Robin Mackenzie as a teen in The World of Normal Boys and now we meet him a few years later when he is 20, a little older, a little wiser. Now it is the mid 1980's and Robin is torn between becoming an actor and having a series of relationships at a time in our history when there was little difference between sex and love. Along comes one bad weekend--his boyfriend walks and his sister, disappears. Robin takes off to look for her with his friend and roommate, George. George has been Robin's best friend for years and he was always the solid guy of the two. Lately, however something has happened to him and he has become outspoken and unpredictable and Robin feels he is not as trustworthy as he once was.

,p>Ruby is off doing her own thing. She decides now, after years of having been a good Catholic girl, that she is an atheist and has taken to wearing black and is ready to move on with her life without her boyfriend. She meets Chris, a friend from her past, and he directs her to venture out. When Robin and Ruby finally meet up they find themselves facing a world where they must learn to come to terms with the sadness of their past lives and move forward into being adults. The world they are thrust into, the world of the 80's, was one of racism and wild sex. Their freedoms meet adult responsibility and they realize that life is about standing for something.

Robin and Ruby are held together by a bond of love and family but they are also haunted by their pasts. They have yet to understand themselves or know who they are but then they face that weekend when everything changed and they begin a road that is fearful yet necessary. It is only when they reach the end of that road, do they know themselves better. We, on the other hand, tend to know them well since we have been following their characters. Soehnlein has created two unforgettable characters with parallel lives and loves. To confront each other they must also confront themselves and the world in which they live.

-- Amos Lassen

Product Format Information

Book Hardcover: $21.99

Availability: Usually ships in
5-10 days
ISBN: 9780758232182
Catalog #: BH2999012

Publisher : Kensington Books

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Book Trade Paperback: $13.49

Availability: Usually ships in
5-10 days
ISBN: 9780758232199
Catalog #: BT2999013

Publisher : Kensington Books

Keywords

Book, Coming of Age, Friendship, Gay Male, Gay/Lesbian

Genres

Books, Fiction/Literature

Customer Reviews

Great sequel shows young gay man and his sister coming of age in confusing 1980's

Bob Lind wrote on 02/19/2010:

In this highly-anticipated sequel to his acclaimed "The World of Normal Boys," Soehnlein revisits Robin McKenzie, now age 20, and his younger sister, Ruby. Although their dysfunctional family is less of an influence as they enter adulthood, the "baggage" of their childhood (and their parents' subsequent divorce) is still apparent in their lack of confidence and self-worth in dealing with difficult situations. Being dumped by his boyfriend, a former teacher of his, Robin turns for comfort to his longtime friend (and current roommate) George, and finds himself looking at him in a way he never considered before. Meanwhile, Ruby - who was always the "good girl" in high school, likely the seemingly trouble-seeking Robin - has become a moody, Goth-garbed young lady, who agonizes over how to break up with Calvin, a rather pompous and egotistical guy for whom she feels no love and little attraction. On a trip with him to the Jersey shore, she encounters Chris, an insecure boy she had dated in high school and - very uncharacteristically for her - takes off with him, causing Calvin and her brother to search for her among the nightclubs and partying young people in the area.

Although I had not read the original novel, I did greatly enjoy this well-written and introspective novel, which did a fantastic job of capturing the 1980's mindset (including attitudes about the developing AIDS epidemic) and pop culture, as well as the coming of age of two young people who never felt completely comfortable with themselves. The vividly-drawn supporting characters will remind you a bit of younger versions of the cast of MTV's "Jersey Shore," and the book made them far more empathetic. Skillfully done, much recommended, I give this book four sea salt-crusted stars out of four!

- Bob Lind, Echo Magazine