Cleo

by Jean Brody

Book Overview

As a teenager, Cleo hits the road, armed only with $20 in egg money, her dead father's trumpet, and a copy of "My Journey to Lhasa". A bookseller's favorite, "Cleo" is about a bookish woman's wanderlust and epic search for "home".

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312117612
• ISBN13: 9780312117610
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 361 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

An itchy brain

Cleo is born in 1912 in Oklahoma. At age fifteen she craves to go not just beyond the garden gate, but all the way to Lhasa. She leaves home with the egg money, her trumpet and a heart full of lust. "The way to contain the itch in the privates," Cleo says, "is to cultivate the itch in the brain." It's a circuitous trip to Lhasa, that looks as though it may last a lifetime. Cleo's sense of humor keeps her moving on. She falls once in love, once in lust, bears two children, and survives tragedy. Back in Oklahoma she begins to recover, then moves on to Los Angeles to find even more trouble, which for Cleo has become synonomous with passion. In the end, she finds that life never loses its power to astonish. Once you make the journey with Cleo, things look different when you get back home.

I dearly loved this book.

In "Cleo," Jean Brody creates wonderfully specific characters and writes with both depth and a wise, hard-headed humor. In a way, it's a book about loving books, as the title character's life is forever changed by a rural Oklahoma librarian who feeds her love of literature and opens her up to the wider world. But Brody doesn't stint on story, and I found myself eagerly returning to the book for three nights running to discover just where the next turn in Cleo's life would take her.

Thumbs up for Cleo!

If John Wayne had True Grit, then Jean Brody's Cleo has True Spunk! This little gal takes us on an adventure through her growth as a runaway adolescent to a mature woman, scarred, but not beaten, by life's journey. When we meet Cleo she is on her way to Lhasa. Thank goodness for the reader she never gets there or we would have been deprived of some wonderful literary moments. If you are tired of reading cookie cutter novels, give Cleo a chance - she'll steal your heart and leave you asking for more! Me? I'd love to read more about the grandmother. How about it Ms. Brody?

Cleopatra with a trumpet on the road to Lhasa!

One of the best books I have ever read. Picked it at random from my local library and loved it so much I wrote the author to tell her just how much I enjoyed it. This is the story of a girl from a remote town in Okalahoma (is there any other kind?) who runs away and comes back full circle to find herself. Born in a typically dsyfuntional family, drunken, womanizing father, religious spouting bitter Mother (who puts scripture quotes in the kids' school lunch muffins!) a younger brother and two sisters. Best of all, a Grandmother with Creek blood who lives, loves, smokes and will keep you in chuckles and honest reflection througout the book. This would be a marvelous movie. The story is told in a way just like life happens, if you could stop to write it down during the day. A truly enchanting, heartwarming and funny book. I could not put it down.

A treasure!

Jean Brody's characterers are wonderful and certainly capture the reader's heart. This book made me cry a bit and chuckle alot. Cleo is a star - and everyone should be lucky enough to have a grandmother like Mam. Make yourself a cup of tea and read this book in front of the fireplace