Haynes, David

Right by My Side

Marshall Field Finney was named after a department store and dropped like a hot potato when his mother suddenly packed up and left.  Now Marshall lives with his hard-drinking father in a crackerbox house and rides a yellow bus through beautiful St. Louis County to his mostly white suburban school.  Caught at a crossroads, Marshall is desperately searching for something to believe in.  At stake is only the rest of his life.

In this extraordinary novel, David Haynes tells the heartrending story of Marshall's journey through a broken world, where his father's new girlfriend, a poem by Yeats and a white teacher with big plans for her favorite students all seem to have the power to change him.  And as Marshall struggles to make sense of his life, the haunting letters begin to arrive from his runaway mother: "We are linked tighter than fine gold chains.  Who knows when we'll next be together--"

A tale of the ties that bind and the ties that fall away, Right by My Side is a cry from the heart, and a masterful novel of love and awakening by one of America's most gifted young writers.



Winner of the ALA's 1994 Best Book for Young Adults Award as well as the Minnesota Voices Project Award, Right by My Side is the heartrending story of 15-year-old Marshall Field Finney. When his mother suddenly takes off to find herself, Marshall is left with his hard-drinking father. Every day, he makes the long journey to his affluent, mostly white suburban high school. Caught at a crossroads, he is searching desperately for something he can hold on to. At stake is the rest of his life.



Just as Marchall begins to find a few signs that give him hope for his futures, he receives a series of haunting letters from his mother, who reminds him that they are "linked tighter than fine gold chains." A heartwarming tale of the ties that bind--and the ones that fall away--Right by My Side is a masterful novel of love and awakening by one of America's most gifted young writers. -->

The Full Matilda: A Novel

Matilda Housewright hails from a long line of venerable and well-respected African American retainers—her family has been in “service” for generations, serving Washington, D.C., politicos and other upper-crust families. The daughter of the indispensable majordomo Jacob Housewright, Matilda grew up in the house of a powerful D.C. senator and learned how to be a hostess extraordinaire—and has perfected the art of service. But after her father dies and she starts a catering business with her brother, Matilda begins to question who she is and what, exactly, she’s serving. Told in the voices of the men in her life, with connecting interludes from Matilda, the reader indeed gets The Full Matilda, a glorious glimpse inside the intriguing life of a captivating woman in the midst of change as she maneuvers through a web of secrets, expectations, and worn-out social mores.

Somebody Else's Mama (Harvest Book)

Catching Shadows: A Directory of Nineteenth-Century Texas Photographers

Heathens

novel, author of RIGHT BY MY SIDE

All American Dream Dolls (Harvest Book)

At the beginning of this madcap novel from David Haynes, named one of America's Best Young Novelists by Granta in 1996, Deneen Wilkerson is on vacation with her boyfriend, Calvin. While driving to Door County, Wis., Calvin announces that he thinks they ought to break up. Too stunned to protest, Deneen says nothing, and they continue on what was supposed to have been a romantic week away. Driving back to Minnesota, Deneen asks Calvin to drop her off at the airport, where she buys a ticket home to her mother in St. Louis. Once home she settles into a routine of watching TV and eating junk food. When her stepsister Ciara enters the All American Dream Dolls beauty pageant, Deneen is drawn from her basement lair to help Ciara and her tutor, a fey hairdresser named Hawkins. The novel is told in a first person voice that's a combination of Terry McMillan (with less profanity) and Groucho Marx.

Live at Five (Harvest Book)

Tango