The Night of the Comet

June 24, 2013
Bishop's resonant follow-up to his 2010 mother-daughter themed debut, Letter to My Daughter, is set in 1973 in a Louisiana town eagerly anticipating a celestial event. Alan Broussard, Jr., a newly 14-year-old bookworm who considers himself to have "no obvious talents, no great looks, no exceptional humor or intellect or passions," is excited about entering high school, though his father is the school's resident science teacher and, therefore, a source of embarrassment. Alan Sr. becomes incrementally obsessed with the impending arrival of the "comet of the century" Kohoutek, but his son is more interested in spying on "angelic" Gabriella, the beautiful girl across the canal, with his new telescope. Bishop's characterizations of young Alan's mother, father, and sister Megan are endearing and their relentless coddling of their maturing son is wincingly accurate as Christmas Eve, the projected date for the comet's sighting, approaches. Meanwhile, the boy's infatuation for Gabriella ebbs and flows and ultimately both father and son come to crushing realizations. More thematically developed than Bishop's first novel, this book explores the complexities of a father-son relationship through science, astronomy, and the growing pains of adolescence. Agent: Marly Rusoff, Marly Rusoff Literary Agency.

July 1, 2013
Filled with the kind of wistful longing that characterizes the coming-of-age novel, this latest from the talented Bishop brings stardust and domestic disillusionment to the bayous of Louisiana. In 1973, when Junior Broussard blows out the 14 candles on his birthday cake, his wish takes the form of one word--Gabriella. Instead of her magical appearance, he receives a telescope from his father, the high school's geeky science teacher, an amateur astronomer and author of the newspaper's weekly Groovy Science column. His father has become obsessed with the sighting of the comet Kohoutek; the new telescope will provide a father-son bonding opportunity. Junior could care less and soon points his telescope across the bayou to Gabriella's mansion. As his father is involved with Kohoutek, Junior becomes fixated on the wealthy Martellos across the water. Their life is like a television show--they dress better, look better, seem happier--and he watches them like an anthropologist and a lover and wonders what will become of himself, raised in a house of small dreams and missed opportunities. His mother, Lydia, befriends Mrs. Martello, and the two hatch a plan to throw a charity ball with a comet theme. Lydia is also bewitched by the Martellos (especially husband Frank) and begins to feel she deserves so much more than science teacher Alan Broussard can offer. Their meeting years ago--the beautiful pharmacy counter girl and the new science teacher--is a story Junior begs from his parents, as if the re-telling will provide some magic to keep them together. His father becomes dangerously unhinged, his mother runs away, harboring fantasies of a life with Frank Martello, and the comet will soon appear. Junior is sure it will bring both disaster and magic to their lives. Coming-of-age novels examine youthful revelations about the world--filled with cynicism and wonder and rearranged expectations--and the quality hinges on the honesty of the voice, the truth of the observations, the handling of innocence lost; Bishop succeeds on all these fronts. A fine story of everyday sadness and otherworldly joys.

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July 1, 2013
In the summer of 1973, the summer that Comet Kohoutek is due to arrive, 14-year-old Alan Broussard is head over heels in love with his classmate Gabriella, who may or may not return his affection. As for Alan's science-teacher father and namesake, he is equally smitten . . . with the comet! It is virtually all he can talk about in his classroom and in the community. But no oneat firsttakes the twitchy, nerdy teacher seriously. However, as the comet, which clearly is meant to be more than a comet, comes closer, he begins to rise in stature. Yet while comets and the human heart may promise hope and possibility, they are capricious things. Will both the teacher and his lovesick son be disappointed? Bishop has written a quiet, occasionally bittersweet novel about the differences between desire and disappointment, expectations and reality. Though the son's story is predictable, the tender heart of the novel is the father's, which is more original and, ultimately, more engaging.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)