Home
  • Home
  • Latest Issue
  • Past Issues
  • Authors & Artists
  • Articles
  • Reviews
  • News
  • Forums
  • Search

Mac

  • View
  • Rearrange

Digital version – browse, print or download

Can't see the preview?
Click here!

How to print the digital edition of Books for Keeps: click on this PDF file link - click on the printer icon in the top right of the screen to print.

BfK Newsletter

Receive the latest news & reviews direct to your inbox!

BfK No. 56 - May 1989

Cover Story
The illustration on our cover is taken from Rise, Shine! by Fiona French, published in April by Methuen (0 416 08122 3, £5.95).

We are grateful to Methuen for help in using this illustration.

  • PDFPDF
  • Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version
  • Send to friendSend to friend

Mac

John MacLean
(Pan Books)
978-0330304894, RRP £2.50, Paperback
14+ Secondary/Adult
Buy "Mac (Horizons)" on Amazon

Mac seeks to explore the appalling trauma of sexual assault - a teenage boy, the Mac of the title, is assaulted by his doctor. His inability to articulate what has happened makes him suppress the anger and guilt he feels as a result and begins to destroy his school career, his relationships with his family and with Jenny, his girlfriend. Some characters - Mac's first counsellor, for example - are unacceptably stereotyped, a ploy by the author to accentuate the quality of the main protagonists. This is a largely unnecessary manoeuvre as many of the characters - particularly Mac and Jenny - convince the reader on their own merits. Some of MacLean's writing contains heavyhanded symbolism - Mac and Jenny walk into 'the first morning sun' after their reconciliation - but this is by and large an acceptably written book, if rather overwhelmingly American. Offer this selectively - there is a smattering of four-letter words - to third and fourth-year pupils.

Reviewer: 
Val Randall
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Help/FAQ
  • My Account