Title: Presenting Harry Mazer
First published: 1996
Description: Harry Mazer was born in 1925 to Polish-Jewish immigrants; he was raised in the "co-op" projects of the Bronx, was captured by the Luftwaffe during World War II, has been married for nearly half a century to the award-winning writer Norma Fox Mazer, is a father, and has experience as a teacher, a welder, and a political activist.

The author of numerous books for young people - including The War on Villa Street, The Island Keeper, The Girl of His Dreams, and the husband-and-wife collaborations The Solid Gold Kid, Heartbeat, and Bright Days, Stupid Nights - Mazer is known for his pioneering achievements in representing the male viewpoint in young adult literature.

In Presenting Harry Mazer, Arthea J. S. Reed posits that the impression of authenticity so striking in Harry Mazer's characters is a product of the writer's inner world: a rich territory of the imagination that sometimes conflicts sharply with tradition.

Exploration of this inner world - through interviews with Mazer, surveys of the criticism, appraisals of the published works, and research into unpublished primary material - forms the core of Reed's study, the first biocritical approach to Mazer's life and works. A superbly limned biographical overview reveals to readers the significant people and events that have shaped Mazer's fiction, tracing parallels between several of his characters and Mazer's own parents, his wife, and the writer himself. Thematically arranged chapters offer probing readings of the novels, treating such topics as separation, connection, and identity, as well as the Mazers' own life together and their professional partnership.

Throughout, Reed articulates the motifs dominating Mazer's fiction, among them his fascination with ostensibly unlikable characters; his portraits of troubled father-son relationships; and his vision of the melding of inner world and outer reality that enables a young person to grow, assume responsibilities, care about others, and thereby more fully enter adulthood.

For teachers, librarians, and students from middle school through the graduate level, Presenting Harry Mazer represents a vital new resource in young adult literature. It includes a foreword, preface, and chronology; notes and references; a selected bibliography; and an index.
Subjects: American Young adult fiction, Books and reading, Criticism and interpretation, History, History and criticism, Young adult fiction, American, Youth, Mazer, Harry -- Criticism and interpretation.
Places: United States
People: Harry Mazer
Time periods: 20th century
LC classification: PS3563.A9816 Z84 1996