A stunning portrayal of the break-up of a marriage and the collapse of a family; a powerful story of ordinary people in the tradition of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman Steven is fifteen; his family have recently moved to Salt Lake City, where they are living in a small rented house towards the bottom of a hillside dominated by the big silent houses of the wealthy Mormons. Steven is bullied by the Mormon kids and one day he is attacked by a gang who dislocate his shoulder. Steven's father, Billy, a small man with big dreams, insists on driving his son to the hospital to save on the cost of an ambulance. Arriving in Casualty, it emerges that Billy has fallen behind with the health insurance payments and the family is uninsured. Billy angrily seeks out the father of the boy who has attacked Steven, who immediately writes out a cheque to cover the medical expenses and much more. Billy blows all the money in a month, forcing his wife Mary to take a job in an old-people's home, a job she detests.
Months later, an old man dies in Mary's arms at work, while, on the same day, the children discover that their father has comprehensively failed the accountancy course on which the family has spent three thousand dollars they can ill afford. The next day Mary announces to the children that she is leaving their father for another man, a man who lives in precisely the kind of huge house with a swimming-pool that Billy has always promised his wife and children...Finally Mary has had enough, more than enough; the stage is set for the collapse of a Steven's family...
- ISBN10 0434010243
- ISBN13 9780434010240
- Publish Date 4 September 2003
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 10 August 2021
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Cornerstone
- Imprint William Heinemann Ltd
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 256
- Language English