by Eleanor Henderson
Harper Collins, $26.99, 388 pages
Ten Thousand Saints is story about Jude, a boy who is adopted by a couple of ex-hippies. Jude grows up with parents who openly use drugs in front of him and condone his drug use. Jude has a moral change of thought about drugs when one night his best friend dies of a drug overdose while right next to him. This change in Jude puts a different twist on his relationship with his parents and friends.
Author Eleanor Henderson captivates the reader with this story of young boys growing up in the early 1980’s in New York City. She describes true events that happened during this period in time so well that one wonders if it is based on a true story. The character development is superb in that this author has a way of “getting into the heads” of both teenage and parent perspectives. This reviewer had the chance to interview this author and discovered that this book was based on extensive research of the early 1980’s, New York City and her husband’s teen stories.
Reviewed by Ginger Williams