Review of Be Frank With Me A Novel by Julia Claiborne Johnson

I received an ARC of Be Frank With Me about a week ago and have had little quality reading time available to me since then. The story caught hold of me, though, right from the beginning, and I have found myself thinking about Frank and Alice (the narrator) at odd times throughout the week, anxious and worried about them both and hoping desperately that all would be well. I fell asleep holding the book about three nights ago and was dreaming about Frank when my alarm went off early the next morning. I don't really see the comparisons to other literary figures that I've read in other comments. Instead I see tiny glimpses of my own children whom I love utterly and of many of the high school children I work with each day, so many of them striving valiantly not to get lost in a world they often find overwhelming. Frank was center stage, but Alice, Mr. Vargas, Xander, and of course, Mimi, were all so lovingly and heart wrenchingly well presented, and with an economy of words, the lives of a beautiful circle of souls was created. One favorite line when Alice had fallen running to Frank's side: "'For once, it's a good thing you were wearing shorts, Alice,' he said. 'Because if you'd had on long pants, they'd be torn all to pieces. That would have been bad. Pants don't heal the way skin does.'" Julia Clairborne Johnson stole more than a bit of my heart with this book.