Bibliothek BHAK & BHAS Bludenz

M.E. Kerr

Dinkey Hocker Shoots Smack

Buchbesprechung von Heino Konzett

About the author

M.E. Kerr was born on May 27, 1927 as Marijane Agnes Meaker in Auburn, New York. Now she lives in East Hampton. She received a B.A. from the University of Missouri in 1949, after which she briefly worked as an assistant clerk for the publishing firm of D.P. Dutton. Her interest in freelance writing also began at this time. M.E. Kerr is the winner of numerous awards for young adult novels. In addition those books, M.E. Kerr has also written Me Me Me Me Me: Not a Novel; in which she reveals her own real-life escapades — from first kiss to first publication — and recalls many of the personalities from her life that later emerged as characters in her books.

The plot

Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack is about the lives of three friends: Dinky (Susan) Hocker, Natalie Line and Tacker Woolf. Dinky is a fat girl whose family in some ways neglects her. Her cousin Natalie comes from a family which has many problems. Natalie’s father has killed himself. Tucker and Natalie fall in love, but their families do not want a relationship. Dinky gets to know P. John Knight and they become very good friends. P. John is also fat and he does not want to hear his first name Perry because he dislikes his father. His mother is also dead. The parents of Dinky Hocker do not like P. John because he is a strange boy. The friends have many problems which they have to manage, and Tucker must take on much responsibility, more than another kid at that age. P. John goes away for a while and he does not eat so much any more. Also Dinky takes diet pills but when they see each other again, P. John is not fat any more, but Dinky is. And then Dinky goes away to Europe, because she does not want to live in her town any more. It is written on sidewalks, on curbstones, on walls: DINKY HOCKER SHOOTS SMACK!

At the end of the book the friends go to work and they don’t see each other for a long time. Tucker visits Dinky and they become friends again, also Natalie and P. John.

My opinion

I think this book is very well written, but not the type of book we enjoy reading. This book is surely good for teenagers who want to read about other teenagers, because it’s about many problems teenagers have. Problems with their family, problems with boy- or girlfriends and also the first kiss and relationship. That is very interesting for many teenagers. The fact is that the book is not a book we always read and at the beginning you will think that is a very, very bad and uninteresting book, but when you read more you’ll understand the writing of M.E. Kerr and so I would recommend this book because it is very interesting and because you’ll enjoy it, but don’t give it up after the first pages, because you must understand this kind of book. You can also learn a lot from this book.

Link

M.E. Kerr