Lake Barcroft

by Jeffrey Marcus Oshins Narrated by Dana Dae

Overview

In a 60s suburb of Washington, D.C., Beck Lyons, the sixteen-year-old daughter of the U.S. Senate Majority Leader, is pregnant. To protect the family reputation Beck's grandmother, a proud Virginia Episcopalian sends Beck to a Catholic school for unwed mothers. Beck returns to her former life always to hide the secret. She marries Randall, her teenage lover, unable to tell him what she'd done until she becomes convinced their teen-aged daughter has started to follow his popular band. Afraid of the possibility of incest Beck struggles to live with the lie.

"Oshins' tale is an emotionally sensitive one that delicately captures the volatile combination of angst and lust that characterizes adolescence." Kirkus Review

"[A] heart-wrenching novel of love, politics, and changing times." BookLife

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Oshins' tale is an emotionally sensitive one that delicately captures the volatile combination of angst and lust that characterizes adolescence."

Kirkus Reviews

"[A] heart-wrenching novel of love, politics, and changing times."

BookLife

Kirkus Reviews

2021-07-22
In this novel, a teenage girl’s unplanned pregnancy forces her into a life of dark secrets.

Rebecca “Beck” Penelope Lyons lives in Lake Barcroft, Virginia, the daughter of powerful United States Sen. and Majority Leader Richard Lyons, often peculiarly referred to within the family as “The Leader.” Shy and unsure of herself, Beck is haunted by an inconsolable guilt—when she was 6 years old, her brother, Colin, and her mother drowned, an accident for which she holds herself responsible. She becomes close to Randall Malloy, Colin’s best friend, and since the age of 8, she’s been deeply in love with him. While he resists a relationship with her, he promises to marry her one day when they’re both older and wiser. When they finally give in to their desire for each other, Beck becomes pregnant, and her grandmother Panda sends her away to a Roman Catholic school in New York City in order to bury the disgraced girl’s indiscretion and protect her father. Beck is saddled with a terrible secret she conceals from Randall and an ardent wish to see the child she is being compelled to give up. Oshins’ tale is an emotionally sensitive one that delicately captures the volatile combination of angst and lust that characterizes adolescence. In addition, the author presents a sympathetic protagonist. But in this second edition of his novel, he leans toward sentimentality, a proclivity sometimes expressed in histrionic prose: Beck “lay face down on her bed in the meager shelter of her room and pressed her face into arms. Her sadness drained all hope. Her life was falling apart, leaving her exposed and vulnerable. She didn’t deserve this. She wasn’t bad. Who would speak for her? Who knew her for who she was? She barely knew herself.” Furthermore, readers will find the story’s pace a bit slow at times.

An intriguing but uneven family tale.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176607918
Publisher:	Deep Six Publishing
Publication date:	11/04/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

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