Make no mistake, Henry’s is a hard-luck story ... We’re told on the first page of Mad Boy that Henry Phipps, the boy of the title, is 10 years old and that he’s running because he thinks his brother, Franklin, has been executed as a deserter from the U.S. Army in Bladensburg, Maryland, in 1814. From that moment forward, he never stops moving and, like Ulysses, his goal seems to move from him as he flees toward it ... a page-turner that stands up to scrutiny ... paints the picture of an America that is not conducive to reasoned consideration ... a novel that will make the reader wonder, “Who is mad in a world at war?”
You have to love a book that starts like this: A cow falls through the roof of a house, landing on Mother. She dies, but her voice lives on. This book has it all...gripping battlefield scenes and descriptions of poverty and greed, along with bags of purloined gold coins and the bombardment of Fort McHenry, while somebody is writing a poem that will become the national anthem. Despite its sparseness, “Mad Boy” is a complicated tale filled with a cast of a dozen characters. Mad Boy is a finely honed literary achievement...and as clever as it is memorable.
One would need to search for other authors...that incorporate historical recreations of war – the terror and the tragedy – and yet retain the human element of family and relationships that Nick blends. Nick Arvin is an author of significance and importance in our literary scene. Digest him slowly.
Poor Henry Phipps is a young boy whose mother is accidentally killed when the roof of their hovel falls in upon her. He also learns that his older brother, Franklin, has been reportedly executed by firing squad for attempting to desert from the American army in Maryland. His father has been in debtor’s prison in Baltimore, so Henry is all alone. Henry hears his mother’s voice telling him to take her to his father and bury her near the sea near Baltimore. Henry stuffs his mother in a barrel of pickled brine, loads her onto a small cart, and heads for Baltimore to free his father, check on his brother’s body and bury his mother. The author mixes in historical facts concerning...war...with his fictional characters trying to survive ... become absorbed.
Across the battlefields of the War of 1812, a young boy races to carry out his mother’s dying wish and rescue his father. Henry is an engaging, resourceful hero of this picaresque tale, displaying endurance, ingenuity, and commendably mature generosity in his frequent encounters with soldiers, thieves, peddlers, and prostitutes, without ever losing passion for his twin goals. A wartime coming-of-age story filled with nonstop action and genuine pathos.
Arvin uses one family’s bad luck as the linchpin of this irreverent journey around Maryland during the War of 1812 ... Henry crams his (recently deceased) mother’s corpse into a pickling barrel and sets out to make enough money looting battlefields to free his father, connecting with a varied crew of dislocated people as his scheme rapidly crumbles. Henry rushes toward a final ill-conceived plan involving duping characters, a kidnapping, and a buried treasure. The colorful characters make this account of the War of 1812 a rollicking page-turner.
