Some families get a reputation for being strange, and so it is with the Williamses of Seminary Street. The father, once an outspoken socialist, now keeps to his rocks glass. The mother has a reputation for scaring children. But the older son, named Berry-berry, is the most whispered-about of them all. A traveling vagabond, he's known for his cleft chin, loose morals, and streaks of violence.
Then there's sixteen-year-old Clinton, who spends his time filling notebooks with every conversation he can overhear, word for word. When Clinton escapes the confines of home to find his big brother, he hopes to make a connection more real than anything he's put down on paper. But finding Berry-berry in coastal Florida will set off a tragic series of events that will stay with Clinton, and his family, forever.
"At all times fresh and individual. . . The overall effect is one of striking, original talent."
New York Herald Tribune Book Review
"Herlihy's characters are very close to the people Flannery O'Connor creates. There's something terribly wrong with them and the fact that their essential problems are the same as everyone else's has two effects: it both intensifies the horror of their dilemmas and permits the reader not to take them too seriously. Herlihy's book is special."
