Homecoming is a pleasant enough read about siblings, a young foursome of little, lost souls, attempting to make their way home. The writing is adept, and there are always new challenges for the children to hurdle. My predominant complaint with the novel, though, is the disparate set of ideas ensconced within the author's (Cynthia Voigt) narrative.
The story begins with a particularly grim opening for any adolescent - coping with abandonment – whereby a certain level of expectation is made. In order to adequately address these feelings of loneliness and desperation, there should be genuine moments of concern that the author creates. But I never felt, other than the beginning few chapters, that the author took her subject matter seriously. Rather than an emotional novel concentrating on neglected youths, we’re instead given a slightly gritty fairytale.
This contrast in ideas first shows up when (minor spoiler): Dicey escapes the mall security guard with relative ease; not terribly significant, but it sets an early precedent that snowballs into increasingly unlikely scenarios: the kids run low on money, hinting at starvation, but “teach a man to fish” and suddenly it’s not much of an issue anymore; all alone in a world that’s become increasingly difficult to trust others, but fortunately the children can “always depend on the kindness of strangers” (a.k.a. deus ex machine – on three separate occasions, mind you. Even (minor spoiler) a debilitating learning disability, one that is subtly hinted at throughout the course of the novel, is resolved flippantly.
What I found most peculiar of all, however, is Dicey’s continual rumination on the sea and “exploring.” The entirety of the story, the novel’s backbone, hinders on Dicey and her siblings’ “homecoming.” Yet every time the young girl is surrounded by four walls and a roof, she dreams of sailing away. This curious juxtaposition only furthers the novel’s ambiguity, a thematic coherence I’m not sure even Cynthia Voigt can decipher.
. Very very good book, I loved it. It was over-long and by the end he had started to lapse into some of the gimmicks that would be far too prevalent in his other books, but mostly great.
