Seventeen Against the Dealer ANNOTATION
Dicey struggles to make a go of a boatbuilding business while facing family concerns, romantic problems, and the uncertainties of a drifter who offers to help her in her work.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Dicey Tillerman has big dreams. She's started a boatbuilding business, and she's determined to prove she can succeed on her own. That's why at first she resists the offer of help from Cisco, the mysterious stranger who turns up one day at her shop.
But running a business doesn't leave much time for the people Dicey treasure -- her grandmother, her younger siblings, and her boyfriend, Jeff. And then the trust Dicey puts in Cisco turns out to be misplaces. Suddenly it seems as if Dicey could lose everything -- has she discovers too late what really matters to her?
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Dicey Tillerman, out of school and assuredly launching her own boat-building business, seems ready to face anything that comes her way. But the obstacles she faces so thoroughly immerse her in the work that she loses sight of other facets of her life and neglects her grandmother (who is ill), her boyfriend Jeff and the other Tillermans--Maybeth, James and Sammy--who are struggling with their own lives. Further, Dicey overlooks key details of running a business (having an insurance policy, understanding obligations to her potential clients) that seem minor at first, but effectively force her to close shop. She stacks the odds against herself, and must admit that she doesn't always have the answers. The last book in the Tillerman family cycle will work its way into readers' sensibilities like the roots of a long-nurtured plant that suddenly blooms; this novel is the sum of all those that have preceded it--just as quietly powerful, just as beautifully paced. That Dicey so believably paints herself into a corner and comes to terms with her own limitations in such a breathtakingly short period of time--over such ordinary events--makes this one of the season's truly accomplished novels. Ages 12-up. (Apr.)
School Library Journal
Gr 8-12 This final volume about the Tillerman family is a finely-crafted novel about goals and values and about nurturing relationships rather than taking them for granted. Dicey is now 21, and she once again exhibits the single-minded determination that served her so well in Homecoming (1981) and Dicey's Song (1982, both Atheneum). Here, however, it also works to her disadvantage, for at this point in her life, she is also filled with youthful arrogance, foolish independence, and naivety. She has saved enough money to start a boatyard business, and she is fiercely determined to make a go of it. She makes serious business errors and lets herself be duped by a con artist. Throughout, her blinders keep her working to the point of exhaustion and obsession, all the while missing what is happening in her family and to her relationship with her boyfriend, Jeff. Between New Year's Day and Valentine's Day, Dicey follows her spiritual quest, finally realizing that while achieving one's goals is important, so too are family, knowledge, and personal growth. As Dicey becomes more involved in her work, family members fade from the pages, and readers are as isolated from them as Diceyuntil an emergency brings her back to reality. Descriptions are vivid; writing is in turn leisurely and clipped; characters spring to life, all revealing their own strengths and weaknesses. Stunning performavealing their own strengths and weaknesses. Stunning performances from all of the Tillermans. Trev Jones, ``School Library Journal''
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