Mad Boy

April 9, 2018
Arvin (Articles of War) uses one family’s bad luck as the linchpin of this irreverent journey around Maryland during the War of 1812. Ten-year-old Henry Phipps can still hear his very recently dead mother talking to him, urging him to bury her at sea with family around. Her dissolute, feckless husband, however, is in debtor’s prison, and her older son Franklin is to face a firing squad for deserting. Henry crams his mother’s corpse into a pickling barrel and sets out to make enough money looting battlefields to free his father, connecting with a varied crew of dislocated people as his scheme rapidly crumbles. Franklin, meanwhile, is alive and soon to be a father, having escaped the firing squad and a plot by the local magnate Suthers to get him killed for impregnating Suthers’s daughter, Mary. Though convinced he still needs to free his father, Henry agrees to help Mary and her newborn son escape her forced seclusion. Henry rushes toward a final ill-conceived plan involving duping Suthers, a kidnapping, and a buried treasure. The colorful characters make this account of the War of 1812 a rollicking page-turner.

Starred review from April 1, 2018
Across the battlefields of the War of 1812, a young boy races to carry out his mother's dying wish and rescue his father.When 10-year-old Henry Phipps' mother is killed in a bizarre accident, he strikes out over the Maryland countryside to give her a burial at sea and free his alcoholic father from the Baltimore prison where his unpaid gambling debts have landed him. Arvin (The Reconstructionist, 2012, etc.) neatly blends conventional narrative, including vivid accounts of the British attack on the "muddy, malarial village" that is Washington, D.C., in August 1814 and the bombardment of Baltimore's Fort McHenry that inspired Francis Scott Key to compose the "Star-Spangled Banner," with refreshing touches of magic realism, like the voice of Henry's deceased mother that guides him at key moments on his perilous journey. Henry is an engaging, resourceful hero of this picaresque tale, displaying endurance, ingenuity, and commendably mature generosity in his frequent encounters with soldiers, thieves, peddlers, and prostitutes, without ever losing passion for his twin goals. The story is seasoned with a well-drawn cast of supporting characters, including Henry's sturdy older brother, Franklin, who survives a mock execution for desertion from his militia unit; a British soldier named Morley, who switches sides to fight with the Americans though his loyalties lie only with himself; and Radnor, a former slave who sees his best chance for permanent liberation in a victory of the redcoat army that welcomes his service. Arvin heightens the drama with a subplot that has several characters engaged in a race to recover two stolen sacks stuffed with gold and silver coin. At less than 250 pages, the novel is a masterpiece of compression without sacrificing character development to the demands of the relentless action and adventure. Sandwiched between the nation-defining glamour of the Revolutionary War and the epic conflict of the Civil War, the War of 1812 hasn't garnered comparable attention in the world of fiction. Arvin's robust novel helps redress that imbalance.A wartime coming-of-age story filled with nonstop action and genuine pathos.

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May 15, 2018
Set in an infrequently mined period for historical fiction, the War of 1812, Arvin's latest novel draws on the genre's typical tropes, such as decidedly colorful characters, dialogue at once contemporary and reflective of speech patterns of the times, and intensely accurate background detail. But, at the same time, the author establishes distinctions that illuminate this particular conflict, which in effect tied up the loose ends of many unresolved issues between the still newly independent U.S. and its mother country. The basic premise is that 10-year-old Henry, from rural Maryland, seeks to honor his recently deceased mother's wish to be buried at sea, putting himself at great risk during combat in every direction. The picaresque narrative follows Henry's efforts to fulfill his mother's daunting request and is shaped by the magic-realism conceit that Henry is constantly being spoken to by his mother's demanding corpse, which he has stuffed into a barrel for transport purposes. Arvin's unusual tale brings warmth to the otherwise horrific drama of wartime.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)