Abelove, Joan 1945-

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* Indicates that a listing has been compiled from secondary sources believed to be reliable, but has not been personally verified for this edition by the author sketched.

ABELOVE, Joan 1945-

PERSONAL: Born 1945; daughter of a businessman; married Steve Hoffman, 1987; children: Andrew. Education: Barnard College, B.A., 1966; City University of New York, Ph.D. (anthropology), 1978.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Ginger Knowlton, Curtis Brown, Ltd., Ten Astor Place, New York, NY 10003. E-mail—[email protected]

CAREER: Taught emotionally disturbed boys in a state hospital; part-time teacher of anthropology at colleges in the New York, NY, area 1978-84; technical writer, 1984—.

MEMBER: Author's Guild, SCBWI.

AWARDS, HONORS: Go and Come Back chosen as one of one of Globe and Mail columnist Susan Perren's ten best juvenile books of 1998; Notable Children's Books and Best Books for Young Adults selections, both American Library Association, Best Books commendations, Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal, Editor's Choice designation, Booklist, Blue Ribbon Book designation, Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Fanfare selection, Horn Book, Book of Distinction, Riverbank Review, Pick of the Lists, American Booksellers Association, Editors' Choice, Kliatt, Booklinks' Lasting Connections, Pick of the Lists selection, American Booksellers Association, and Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, all 1999, all for Go and Come Back; Best Books for Young Adults selection, American Library Association, Best Book of the Year commendation, Publishers Weekly, and Books for the Teenage designation, New York Public Library, all 2000, all for Saying It Out Loud.

WRITINGS:

Go and Come Back, DK Ink (New York, NY), 1998.

Saying It Out Loud, DK Ink (New York, NY), 1999.

Contributor of story, "Sproing!," to Lost and Found, edited by M. Jerry Weiss, Forge (New York, NY), 2000; also contributor to In My Grandmother's House, edited by Bonnie Christensen, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A novel.

SIDELIGHTS: Joan Abelove spent two years in the Amazon jungle of Peru in the 1970s doing her doctoral research in cultural anthropology. She drew on this experience in writing her young adult novel Go and Come Back. The narrator is a teenaged girl, Alicia, a member of the fictional Isabo tribe in the fictional village of Poincushmana. The Isabos have no word that equals goodbye. Their word used in parting is catanhue, which translated means "go and come back." Joanna and Margarita, two American graduate students, come to the village to study and take notes on the culture of the Isabos. The Isabos consider the two women stingy, because they refuse to share their possessions. Isabo cultural dictates that food and supplies be divided equally by all, and the villagers consider stealing from those who will not share a lesser sin than not sharing. The white women are criticized for not washing their hair when bathing. The villagers refer to them as "old white ladies," even though they are in their twenties. "The situation provides countless opportunities for misunderstandings by the observer and the observed, most of them a source of humor for the reader and tension for the participants," wrote a Horn Book reviewer. "By juxtaposing these two radically different cultures, Abelove provides humorous yet respectful insight into both."

Alicia is promised to her sister's husband, and she is trying to avoid the marriage. She adopts a sickly abandoned baby, but is unable to save its life. Alicia becomes closer to Joanna and Margarita, whose attitudes are changed as they begin to understand and accept their differences. A reviewer wrote in Kirkus Reviews that through the narrator's eyes, "readers will watch the outsiders' adjustments to the rhythms and customs they are studying, as they shed much of their physical and cultural baggage." Alicia also gains new perspectives, especially when the women take her for a plane ride and she sees her village from high above. Pam Gosner wrote in School Library Journal that the anecdotal information "never overwhelms the narrative," and called Go and Come Back a "compelling novel." "There is not enough plot to the novel, but by its end the reader has nonetheless become attached to the characters and their relationships," wrote Jen Nessel in the New York Times Book Review. "We are left with a lot to think about in our own culture—why we think the things we think and do the things we do." "Full of life and packed with characters that by turns irritate and enlighten, Go and Come Back is a startling, vibrant read," concluded a Booklist reviewer. "Abelove seamlessly constructs a culture that may feel more real to readers than their own," wrote a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Since writing Go and Come Back, Abelove has been asked to visit schools and libraries, where she gives a presentation that includes slides of her trip to the Amazon, showing pictures of the actual people whom she has woven into her story.

Abelove's next book, Saying It Out Loud, was inspired by the author's memories of her mother's death from a brain tumor, when Abelove was sixteen. Humorous and serious by turns, the novel finds sixteen-year-old Mindy attempting to navigate her changing, conflicted relationship with her mother, all the while anticipating her mother's impending death. Her father, a rigid, bigoted, and unemotional man, provides her with neither guidance nor comfort during the final months of her mother's life. "Her isolation is palpable," commented a reviewer for Horn Book. Feeling shut out of her father's attempts to say good-bye to his wife, Mindy goes to the hospital on her own to make her peace with a mother who is unable to communicate with the outside world. This visit so unnerves her that she never returns.

At the outset of the novel, Mindy's father dominates her life. His influence is not pleasant, but when he withdraws into his own grief, the girl feels a void. She fills this emptiness by seeking solace in friendships—with her best friend Gail, Gail's happy-go-lucky little brother Andrew, a caring neighbor, and a schoolmate named Bobby who shows a growing interest in her. Mindy's own recollections of experiences with her mother allow her to express her sadness, guilt, and sometimes even anger. While many of the book's events are unusually sad, such as those that relate to the worsening condition of Mindy's mother as her tumor progresses, others reflect the typical experiences of teens growing up in the 1960s.

Saying It Out Loud received praise from critics for its realistic depiction of adolescent emotion. A Publishers Weekly writer rated it "a stirring, psychologically truthful novel." Deborah Stevenson, a contributor to Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, noted the novel's "particularly authentic . . . depiction of strain laying bare a family's secrets." Describing Abelove's second novel as "a quiet book," Voice of Youth Advocates reviewer Judy Sasges added that "Mindy copes with death and spiritual questions, and challenges authority with strength and maturity." "[Mindy's] isolation is palpable," wrote Horn Book critic Nancy Vasilakis. And a writer for Booklist, Susan Dove Lempke, stated that Abelove writes this "melancholy but ultimately hopeful story with delicacy of word and feeling and creates three powerful, memorable characters in the members of the family." Taken with Go and Come Back, Saying It Out Loud proves the author's ability to write "books that are not only very complex but also vibrant and infused with tenderness."

To create the character of Mindy, Abelove drew on many specific memories of her own adolescence. "The books Mindy talks about are some of my favorite books as a kid," she said in an interview with Authors and Artists for Young Adults. She also "had first hand experience being raised by a father who adamantly did not want his daughter to marry anyone who wasn't Jewish."

In addition to writing her novels, Abelove has worked as a technical writer since the 1980s. "I work every day, 9 to 5, writing technically," she explained. "Writing fiction is entirely dissimilar," she added. "The skills barely overlap." While technical writing requires reviewing and distilling factual information, fiction is a creative act, the first step of which is finding the right voice. "Once I find the voice of the storyteller, the story tells itself," Abelove once explained. Commenting on making the transition between technical writing and creating fiction, Abelove implied that the two disciplines nourish each other. She commented to Jennifer M. Brown in Publishers Weekly, "When you write, there's always something back there.... There's always this little idea scooper going on."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Abelove, Joan, Go and Come Back, DK Ink (New York, NY), 1998.

Authors and Artists for Young Adults, Volume 36, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2000.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 1, 1998, Ilene Cooper, review of Go and Come Back, p. 1129; November 15, 1998, review of Go and Come Back, p. 585; January 1, 1999, review of Go and Come Back, p. 782; September 1, 1999, review of Saying It Out Loud, p. 126.

Book Report, January-February, 1999, Sherry Hoy, review of Go and Come Back, p. 58.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, October, 1999, Deborah Stevenson, review of Saying It Out Loud, pp. 44-45; June 1, 2000, review of Go and Come Back, p. 1875.

English Journal, November, 1999, Chris Crowe, review of Go and Come Back, p. 150.

Horn Book, May-June, 1998, Nancy Vasilakis, review of Go and Come Back, pp. 337-338; September-October, 1999, Nancy Vasilakis, review of Saying It Out Loud, p. 605.

Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 1998, p. 108.

Kliatt, September, 1999. p. 4.

Magpies, July, 1999, p. 36.

New York Times Book Review, Jen Nessel, June 21, 1998, review of Go and Come Back.

Publishers Weekly, February 2, 1998, p. 91; June 29, 1998, Jennifer M. Brown, "Joan Abelove," p. 26; August 9, 1999, review of Saying It Out Loud, p. 353; November 1, 1999, review of Saying It Out Loud, p. 57; June 5, 2000, review of Go and Come Back, p. 96; July 9, 2001, p. 70.

School Library Journal, March, 1998, Pam Gosner, review of Go and Come Back, p. 208; September, 1999, Barbara Auerbach, review of Saying It Out Loud, p. 218.

Voice of Youth Advocates, October, 1999, Judy Sasges, review of Saying It out Loud, p. 254.