An Elegy for Amelia Johnson

by Andrew Rostan, Dave Valeza, Kate Kasenow (Illustrator)

Overview

In her 30 years on earth, Amelia Johnson has touched many lives with her compassion, intelligence, and spirit. Now, at the end of a year-long battle with cancer, she asks her two closest friends to take her final messages to the people who have touched her life the most. Henry Barrons is a cocky, Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker whose demeanor hides deep insecurities. Jillian Webb is an acclaimed magazine writer with an inability to make long-term commitments. They set out across the country to fulfill Amelia's dying wish...and end up learning more about her — and themselves — than they ever imagined.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781932386837
Publisher:	Archaia
Publication date:	03/15/2011
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Andrew J. Rostan was born in Youngstown, Ohio, went to college in Boston and a small town in the Netherlands, and wrote the vast majority of An Elegy For Amelia Johnson in Los Angeles, where he lived from 2007 to 2009. He concurrently produced several unpublished and very, very bad projects, which he was able to do thanks to five victories on Jeopardy! After receiving a moment of clarity at a monastery which later burned to the ground, Rostan moved to Chicago and earned his master’s degree in the Humanities, therefore qualifying him for any job on the market. Today, Rostan still lives in Chicago where, when not working on his next books, he is applying for doctoral programs, teaching, working for an insurance company in what will always be the Sears Tower, and cooking near-gourmet meals.

Editorial Reviews

Henry is an Oscar-winning filmmaker whose latest project hasn't impressed his producer; Jillian, a journalist with a career floundering on the shoals of work not up to her breathtaking first effort. Neither has ever managed an extended love relationship, but both have remained long-term friends with Amelia, now dying of cancer. Amelia is a golden girl poet whose perceptive if sometimes flighty charisma touches everyone around her. Searching for an artistic way to communicate at the end, she decides that her parting message to her loved ones should be a film scripted by Jillian and made by Henry. This is, of course, a romance, and as usual rocks emerge on the path to mutual bliss, fortunately keeping the story from dissolving into saccharine stereotypes. Jillian and Henry fight. They encounter unpleasant surprises when interviewing others in Amelia's past for the film. And they confront each other with their own and Amelia's shortcomings. VERDICT As human drama with a bittersweet taste, Elegy will appeal to teens and adults who appreciate relationship plots with imperfectly happy endings and can be recommended for anyone interested in grief work. With attractive black-and-white art.—M.C.

Library Journal