Better Than Running at Night

August 5, 2002
Set at a prestigious (fictional) art school, this first novel revolves around a talented college freshman wrestling with her first relationship. Ellie, the narrator, is first met while dirty-dancing with the Devil, in a scenario quickly revealed as a costume party; a "sneering Elvis" joins them to set up a threesome ("Soon we were all making out"). This provocative opener only partially prefigures Frank's themes. Nate, the student dressed as the Devil, and Ellie make love a week or so later; shortly afterward, Ellie learns that Nate has an "open relationship" with a longtime girlfriend, plus a reputation for womanizing. Meanwhile, she acclimates to student life and deals with her parents, former hippies who openly discuss their youthful drug-taking and who have no idea which of Ellie's mother's many partners was Ellie's biological father. Frank proves most successful in characterizing Ellie as a painter—the discussion of art is unusually specific, knowledgeable and convincing. The author also skillfully depicts the zeitgeist among the students, most of whom lionize the showy performance artists (among them a teacher who leads his class in taunting Ellie for her "old fart" pursuit of representational art). But Frank fumbles in linking Ellie's family dynamics to her attempts to come to terms with Nate. The parents are much less developed than the other characters, and this aspect of the story never quite jells. On balance, however, the many truthful moments and the strong portrayal of the heroine will likely compel readers' attention. Ages 14-up.

January 1, 2003
Gr 9 Up-Ellie's first year at art school starts with her first party, complete with a three-way dance and kiss with a costumed Devil and Elvis. She finds herself having sex for the first time with Nate, the Devil, a week after the event. As they continue on together, Ellie soon discovers that he has an "open relationship" with an old girlfriend, as well as a number of suspect encounters with other female students. She balances this questionable relationship, her classes, and a strange background in which her parents, former hippies who named her Ladybug, try to convince her to smoke pot to relax and are not sure of the identity of her biological father. The book shines when Ellie is discovering and devoting herself to art, making her seem even more serious when compared to the silly and showy professor and performance artists who are adored by her fellow students. Readers will enjoy the presentation of a strong female who puts finding herself and moving ahead with her talent ahead of maintaining a false pretense to her boyfriend or to the professor who is unwilling to acknowledge the dedication and improvement she has shown.-Betsy Fraser, Calgary Public Library, Canada

Copyright 2003 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 1, 2002
Gr. 10-12. With honesty, wit, and a wild first-person narrative, this first novel breaks boundaries in YA fiction with a story about college freshman Ellie Yelinsky and her search for art, love, sex, and meaning. On the night Ellie loses her virginity with fellow art student Nate, she enjoys the touching, but when he pushes inside her, she can't wait for it to be over. She thinks she could love Nate--but not while he has all those other girlfriends. He is too much like her ex-hippie mom, who slept around so much that Ellie, to her deep sorrow, will never know the identity of her biological father. Frank makes Ellie's intellectual quest just as exciting as her love life. She learns a lot from her wildly eccentric, gifted art teacher, who yells about discipline, work, and subtlety. The laughter and the truth here are in the details, especially when Frank skewers the pretentiousness of the art scene ("I place headphones on a tomato and play Bach," one student declaims). Great monologue material for readers' theater, this is clearly for older high-schoolers and college students, who will recognize the wry self-parody and the insider's raw wicked take on coming-of-age.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)