Leave it to Beaver
I don’t know how this happened but it has. Cid Wymann, the protagonist in my book Open Wounds, has been compared to Leave it To Beaver. He’s a “Jewish Leave it to Beaver,” the reviewer wrote. I don’t know what to think about that. The Beaver didn’t really get into fights, or try to kill anyone, or get beaten by his father, or have his mother die in child-birth, or learn how to duel with a sword. Can you imagine Beaver dealing with Lefty, Cid’s WWI mustard gassed, one-eyed, one-armed, one-legged, cousin from England? The pristine world of the 1950’s black and white, father reading the paper, mother cooking, house neat and suburban, just doesn’t seem to fit.
There were a number of nice things said by The Write Girl in her review not the least of which is a comparison to Return to Exile (the Hunter Chronicles #1) by EJ Patten. I loved that book. And she says, It’s one of her favorite books about a boy growing up. But I can’t get past the Beaver. On the other hand the Beaver’s last name is Cleaver. That sounds Cid-ish. Cleaver. No elegance like the word épée or even foil or sabre. More thuggish, Cleaver. More like Cid’s father or Scarps, one of Cid’s antagonists.
Say, no more about the Beave. Thanks to The Write Girl for reading and reviewing and adding her review to Goodreads.
Here’s the link to her review: The Write Girl
Lunievicz 
Really? No way. That does seem odd. I’ll have to read it, to see if she had some logic for that comparison.
February 27, 2012 at 9:40 pm
Um…
February 28, 2012 at 12:12 pm
No way! I read Open Wounds at least four times and there’s not a trace of The Beav in it. “Leave It to Beaver” was a typical 50’s TV sit-com where no kid had a problem bigger than forgetting his milk money. Cyd’s a real kid who lived a very tough life in a hardscrabble environment. Maybe the reviewer isn’t that familiar with the TV show to make such a comparison.
March 2, 2012 at 4:15 am