THE MYSTERIOUS EDGE OF THE HEROIC WORLD; E. L. Konigsburg; Young Adult fiction;256 pages.
Ms. Konigsburg is grinding so many axes in this new novel for young adults you would think sparks would fly, but it is actually a relatively low-key but many-layered narrative. Art, loyalty, eccentricity, friendship, and intolerance are Ms. Konigsburg's familiar subjects in this narrative where Amadeo constructs an unlikely friendship with William and they help Mrs. Zender clean out her house in preparation for her move to a "home." Through a series of desperately improbable coincidences, Amadeo's grandmother butts heads with the quirky Mrs. Zender over a long-ago and terrible injustice. Ms. Konigsburg's prose is, as always, densely textured and finely-tuned, her characters carefully well-wrought and engaging, but I can't imagine very many teens who will be willing to claw their way through the briar patch of personalities and coincidences to reach the point where we learn that it is wicked to judge and persecute people because they are fat or Jewish, or gay, or Southern, or in any other way not exactly like you and me, a good point made with a heavy hand.
LW
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