A Girl Could Stand Up

A Girl Could Stand Up

by Leslie Marshall (Author)

Synopsis

When six-year-old Elray reaches up to touch the moon in the Tunnel of Love, she narrowly escapes a freak electric current that claims the lives of both her parents. Suddenly orphaned, she is left stunned and mute, until two loving but undomesticated uncles step in. One is her cross-dressing Uncle Ajax, who insists on being addressed as 'Aunt'; the other is Uncle Harwood, a macho photographer, full of swagger and fond of a drink. When the deceptively sweet Irish lawyer Rena moves in to mount a lucrative lawsuit against the fairground, the eccentric household becomes the very model of family life reinvented.Outwardly full of adventure and thrill-seeking energy, Elray stores her grief deep inside. With young Raoul she meets her match. In pursuit of invincibility, they perform reckless acts of bravery and dangerous rituals, and begin to unearth the essential truths about courage, strength and the transforming power of love.In a book bursting with exuberance, Leslie Marshall lures us into a world of imagination and lawlessness, a place in which none of the usual rules apply, until it is time to fall in love. In the unique character of Elray Mayhew she has surely created one of literature's most unforgettable heroines.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 384
Publisher: Doubleday
Published: 01 Jan 2004

ISBN 10: 0385607121
ISBN 13: 9780385607124
Book Overview: A passionate, eccentric coming- of- age novel about how a young girl copes in an eccentric family after the accidental death of her parents at a funfair.

Media Reviews
A great big potpourri of a novel, which, at 374 pages, never drags. On Elray's sixth birthday, in the Tunnel of Love, her parents are electrocuted in a freak accident. Following their death she is looked after by Uncle Ajax (a cross-dresser who is called Aunt) and Uncle Harwood, a photographer fond of a drink. Into their lives comes Rena, an Irish lawyer who starts to do battle with the amusement park's lawyers. Then there is the boy Raoul, with whom Elray has real adventures. The court case is real mayhem and the whole thing is nutty as a fruitcake, but I guarantee you will laugh at this zany offering. It is a true delight.
Author Bio
LESLIE MARSHALL is a freelance journalist and has written for The Washington Post, Real Simple and InStyle Magazine, where she is still contributing editor. She grew up in Washington D. C. and now lives in New York. This is her first novel.