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NewSocialWorker
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March 27, 2005
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Reviewer's Comments:
Summary:
a series of hurdles
Hartinger, Brent. (2004). The Last Chance Texaco. HarperCollins, New York. 225 pages, $15.99.
Reviewed for THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER by Margarete C. Schnauck
“The door was locked and I sure as hell didn’t have the key,” asserts Lucy Pitt, a 15-year-old, 8-year veteran of the system, standing on the doorstep of her 7th state-assigned placement. Hartinger, author of The Geography Club, has undertaken an ambitious task in The Last Chance Texaco, writing from the perspective of a 15-year-old girl who finds herself orphaned after her parents’ untimely death and the ordeal of her daily life, which includes challenges at school, in her living situation, coping with adolescence, and with forming interpersonal relationships.
The novel attempts to expose the reader to the challenges faced by children living in out of home placements, their struggles to adapt to changing living and educational settings, and the negative impact their nomadic lifestyle has on forming and maintaining relationships.
The introduction to Lucy’s new residence is as obstreperous as the introduction to her new high school. During the first week, she engages in a fistfight with a popular male classmate, and as a result, finds herself on trash detail for the next month. She begins to form a friendship with her victim, who is also serving time for the altercation.
As the story unfolds, Lucy faces a series of hurdles on the homefront that are potential threats to her placement, as the other residents work to preserve their positions of authority in the home.
As the story continues, a mystery arises that requires a solution to evade the closing of Kindle Home. Lucy and her new friend embark on a potentially dangerous mission to solve the mystery and save her placement. Leon, one of the counselors and an ex-resident, quickly emerges as an outspoken advocate for Lucy. “You’re not going there, a highly restrictive placement, not if I can help it.” The pace at which the relationship develops is rather unrealistically rapid. As social service professionals know, relationships between staff and residents take a long time, especially a relationship between a male staff member and a teen-aged girl in her 7th placement.
I would recommend this book for an audience interested in an introductory look at what an adolescent might encounter as a citizen of a state social welfare system. Character definition is shallow, which could be the author’s intent as a metaphor for The System and its relationship often to clients. However, it does impede the reader in terms of being interested in learning more about what will become of Lucy. The lack of character development prohibits the reader from feeling connected to Lucy or invested in a particular potential outcome.
Professionals with experience in state or nonprofit agencies might find the story missing many important elements. Individuals who make their careers in the field of social work and the children with whom they work are remarkable people with very interesting stories. Some more detail and description about the staff and their stories would add another opportunity for the reader to be more emotionally connected to the story. The ending, which is too preciously packaged, arrives in a disconcertingly abrupt manner. The reader does get an introduction to what living in a group home milieu is like. Mealtime descriptions are engaging and nonfictional.
Reviewed by Margarete C. Schnauck, LCSW, Families and Children Together, Westbrook, Maine.
This review appeared in the Spring 2004 issue of THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER magazine.
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