Taking Care of Cleo

Jewish identity, autism and bootlegging form the unlikely framework for this coming-of-age story set in a lakeside Michigan resort town during Prohibition. Rebecca Bearwald longs to escape the confines of smalltown life in Charlevoix, where her family are the only Jews, but her parents expect her to stay at home to help them run their small dry goods store and take care of Cleo, Rebecca's beautiful, autistic older sister. But the summer that Rebecca turns 18, she defies her parents, secretly applying for a scholarship at the University of Michigan. Meanwhile, Cleo, an apprentice boatwright, discovers and restores a damaged yacht filled with liquor, beached by a violent storm and a gunfight between rival gangs of bootleggers. Cleo hides the liquor, planning to sell it to local speakeasies to help Rebecca get money for university, actions that give the Purple Gang—actual Detroit Jewish bootleggers—the idea that Mr. Bearwald has elbowed in on the gangsters' territory. The dangers that ensue seem to awaken the passions of each Bearwald but never feel truly threatening. While the novel (after Remember This Time ) offers a sensitive portrayal of adolescent angst and strives to dispel negative stereotypes about autism, its farfetched plot makes its thematic resolutions feel forced. (Apr. 18)

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