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Jun 24, 2017sigridmac rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
Great story about a boy growing up in Newark, New Jersey, who goes off to college in 1951. Leaves behind a fractious relationship with his father, whom he once loved and worked together closely with, before the father became suffocating and crazed with the idea that something would happen to his precious son. The father worries that something will go wrong at any moment and fails to see the larger picture that the most worrisome villain in the story is the – spoiler alert – Korean War. Marcus strikes up a relationship with a girl by the name of Olivia once he gets to college in Ohio, but on their first date Olivia performs – major spoiler – a particular sexual act that shocks our virginal naïve Marcus. I know this is supposed to be 1951, but this scene never rang true for me. Marcus was so freaked out by something that was not albeit common place but certainly must have occurred from time to time. He concludes that she must have emotional problems, and he has other reasons to believe that this is the case. Some terrific debating/arguments with the Dean, a substitute father figure, and once again a real shocker for us to look back at what college life was like 65 years ago when girls had curfews and schools actually mandated church attendance. Well worth watching but the relationship dynamics just did not resonate with me. Fantastic ending.