The Playhouse

by Terry Lee

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1413726569
• ISBN13: 9781413726565
• Release Date: July 2004
• Publisher: Publish America
• Length: 220 Pages
• Weight: 0.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.3" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Intriguing Title is just the Beginning

The Playhouse is a page-turning, twisting, adventurous novel about two brothers and their family's experiences from the 1940s to the present. The book's underlying themes of defending oneself, family and country are stirred up with clues and secrets revealed through creative characters such as hoboes, Nazi spies, naval officers and the U.S. President. Within the first 15 pages, we are introduced to Mark & Craig, soon after their father's death. Looking through his person items brings up their memories of being in 5th and 6th grade and that summer's activities. They innocently go home for lunch, hear their mother's screams and catch a hobo raping her. The boys use a croquet mallet to overcome the hobo and eventually drag his lifeless body to the playhouse for later disposal. Before removing the body, they tenderly see to their mother's condition, averting their eyes from her torn clothing exposing body parts and bring her a decent cover. Her husband, Ray, is prone to angry rages, so it's best if the three keep this horrible event a secret - the first of many secrets that are revealed in this book. After the household is asleep, the boys fight off their fears of animal sounds, the dark woods and their father's rage to bury the body. From then on, they attempt to avoid the playhouse and the grave to avoid the memories. But, throughout the book, friends, hoboes and circumstances bring them back to the spooky Playhouse a few more times. Ray Mosier's excellent service as a Navy Captain leads him to key roles in WWII and secret meetings and missions ordered by the President of the United States. What he doesn't know is that his new Navy buddy, Ab, is a Nazi spy, and using him to gain intelligence. Explosive, descriptive battleship scenes result in both of them being wounded - one through acts of heroism - and they end up saving each other's lives. Captain Mosier doesn't display the angry outbursts that his wife and boys fear, another questioning detail that Lee neatly resolves. Each of the book's seven parts contains a mini-introduction guiding the reader through the story's timeline. For example, the beginning is present day and the oldest brother Mark asks, "Do you remember that summer when ... ?" allowing us to go back in time to learn about their adventures, challenges and triumphs. One chapter refers to their father's WWII service in the Navy and is introduced by the discovery of his Medal of Honor. Frequently, books going back and forth in time are confusing, but Lee does an excellent job of keeping the reader in time, if you will pardon the pun. Early in The Playhouse, I noted an `interesting thought,' about Ray Mosier's outlook as Ab introduces him to the nightlife. "Yet he was having no inner conflict for he had entered a different world where Vicky, [his wife] and the kids didn't exist, except as an abstraction. His marriage - he perceived - was safe at home." After finishing the book, I realized that Terry Lee inserted this new tidbi