Plum & Jaggers

Barnes & Noble Guide to New Fiction

When the McWilliams children lose their parents in a fiery train wreck, Sam, the eldest of four, is driven to protect his younger siblings - even if it means breaking the law. Despite mixed ratings, readers chimed in with comments, including, "warmly written" "captivating, engrossing, and emotional." One even "finished it at 2 a.m."

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Four young children are orphaned in 1974, when a terrorist bomb explodes on the Milan-Rome express train, in this touching novel about how families cope with violence and loss. The explosion occurs just after the elder McWilliamses leave their kids briefly to get lunch in the cafe car, which is the part of the train that's blown to bits. Dazed and frightened, Charlotte, Oliver and infant Julia cling to Sam, who, at age seven, is the oldest of the siblings. An Italian family cares for them until they're picked up by their kind but conservative grandfather, who--with their agoraphobic grandmother--raises them in Grand Rapids, Mich. Though they love their new charges, the grandparents are distraught by the children's compulsive, secretive behavior, especially that of Sam, who, obsessed by his perceived responsibility to protect his family, becomes a loner with a bad reputation. After Sam is mistakenly blamed for the beating of a younger, handicapped boy, the family moves to Washington, D.C., where Sam shoplifts items to build a bomb shelter and is placed in a juvenile detention center. There, he conceives the idea for Plum & Jaggers, a comedy troupe eventually composed of his brother and sisters, whose bizarre scenarios transform with dark humor the tragedies of random violence and the ironies of modern life. An accomplished author of adult (The Visiting Physician) and children's (The Formerly Great Alexander Family) fiction, Shreve reveals the orphans' creativity and self-destructiveness with balanced honesty, evoking her familiar themes of distrust and haunting memories. Best at sketches detailing individual quirks of the McWilliamses as they grow up, Shreve focuses more intensely throughout on the most disturbed, unstable and unusual character of Sam and leaves the other three siblings a bit sketchier. But through Sam's dark ebullience, Shreve traces the complexity of the family, including the spirits of the dead parents, offering a compassionate portrait of a courageous, troubled and resilient foursome. Author tour. (June) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

KLIATT

A terrorist bomb explodes in the lunch car of a train between Milan and Rome. Among the dead are the parents of four children who survive the crash and are cared for by a local family until their grandfather comes from America to retrieve them. This is the story of the MacWilliams children from the moment of the explosion until 25 years later. With the support of loving grandparents, the children are held tightly together by their brilliant and terrorism-obsessed older brother, Sam. They grow up to spin the emotional fallout of the bombing and the death of their parents into a successful live TV comedy show. Their theatrical productions slowly heal them, providing a kind of closure and freeing them to start on their individual futures. In the final leg of their odyssey, they retrace their journey by train from Milan. They stop in the Italian village where they were spared years before and continue on, finally arriving in Rome. Category: Paperback Fiction. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2000, St. Martin's, Picador, 228p., $13.00. Ages 16 to adult. Reviewer: Karen Stebbins; Freelance Writer, Concord, MA SOURCE: KLIATT, March 2002 (Vol. 36, No. 2)

Library Journal

Plum & Jaggers, a successful late-night NBC comedy, stars four siblings--Sam, Oliver, Charlotte, and Julia--who perpetually sit at a dining table set for six and wait for their parents to arrive while a pipe bomb menaces from under the table. The show evolved out of the real-life death of the parents, who were blown to bits by a terrorist bomb on a train to Rome as they went to get lunch for the family. Back home, Sam becomes obsessed with terrorist bombings around the world and eventually corresponds with Rebecca Frankel, the wife of a bombing victim. Rebecca follows Sam's career and anonymously attends many performances of Plum & Jaggers (originally an Off-Off-Broadway play) but only meets him when the show gets stale and Sam suffers a life crisis. On her advice, he visits the scene of the tragedy to put it to rest. Shreve (The Visiting Physician) writes eloquently, painting a story of tragedy, obsession, love, and loss with a broad brush. The text is readable, and the characters are sympathetic and realistically shaped by their early trauma. Recommended.--Joanna M. Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Coll. of Continuing Education Lib., Watch Hill Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

School Library Journal

YA-Four youngsters are orphaned on a train to Rome when the dining car blows up, and readers follow their lives over the next 20 years. Their ability to develop as individuals is stunted by the death of their parents and their lives are haunted by them. Sam, the oldest, assumes the role of parent and guardian. He skips his own childhood as the other three remain childlike in their obedience to him. In order to cope with his responsibilities, he writes plays. Sam's writing frustrates the adult authorities because he does it instead of his schoolwork. However, the plays ultimately provide a means of supporting the siblings. They form a comedy troupe, first performing in local clubs and eventually having their own TV series about three children who gather around a table in each episode and wait for their parents to return. Sam calls it Plum & Jaggers, based on his parents' pet names for one another; it airs at midnight and has a cult following. The plot of this tender and terrifying book addresses the universal fear of every child-abandonment. The outside world for the McWilliams children is filled with scary things but Sam provides safety within their tightly knit family unit. In the end, the young people again ride the Espresso and continue on to Rome with the hope that this trip will free them at last from their prison of grief and allow them to get on with their lives.-Sheila Barry, Chantilly Regional Library, VA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Kirkus Reviews

Prolific novelist Shreve (The Visiting Physician, 1996, etc.) works here from a highly original premise: a family of orphaned children develops a hit television show to comically display their grief. James and Lucy McWilliams were happy vagabonds in the 1960s and early '70s, toting their children around the globe doing good works until killed by a bomb on a train. Raised by their grandparents in the States, Sam and his three younger siblings have a fairly happy childhood. Terrorism-obsessed Sam serves as their unofficial protector, keeping a close eye on all their activities and creating a strangely insular bond among them. When Sam is sent to a correctional home (for stealing tools to build a bomb shelter), he begins writing plays. Eventually he creates Plum & Jaggers, a series of skits about four children at a dining table—with a bomb underneath it—whose parents never show up. Giving his characters the names of people who died in terrorist attacks, and taking his title from nicknames his parents gave one another, Sam finds the skits a menacing form of catharsis. The Plum & Jaggers Comedy Troupe, starring the four McWilliams children, is a resounding success. The troupe moves from small venues to Broadway to a slot on NBC, but in their success lies a great wound: though adults, they have always lived together, have few outside relationships, and only dream of a life away from Sam's growing tyranny. His paranoia seems justified, however, when someone begins stalking them, and the siblings' fears are reflected in the increasingly dark episodes they produce while waiting for the inevitable bomb (i.e., Sam) to explode. An odd, touching family drama.