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The Starlite Drive-In
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Plot Summary of The Starlite Drive-In
"This is the story about a 12 year old girl, Callie Anne, her mother, who hasn't left the house in the last 5 years, her father, and who doesn't treat his family as kind as he should and Memphis, a bum who changes everything.

Memphis is mysterious, a drifter? A murderer? But he is sohandsome, Callie Anne dreams of a life with him all the time.
But instead of falling in love with her, he gives his love to her mother.

This love and tenderness make Teal, the mother, laugh again and what is special, leave the house again.

Since Memphis is there, they feel happy again, except her father, who is suspicious and angry.
"

Tanja Friess, Resident Scholar

"When Callie Anne comes back from a meeting in Chicago, she comes back to a murder mystery. Her Aunt Bliss tells her about bones that the police found at an old drive-in her father once ran. She is a key witness in this case because she grew up there. When she arrives on the scene a police officer asks her questions about some the evidence that they found with the body. When she looks at the evidence she notices an old box that her father once used for cash, and a lighter that looked like the one Charlie Memphis, a drifter her father hired, once used. When she leaves the crime scene she takes the liter with her. She pulls into a drive way and remembers the day that Charlie Memphis started working at the drive-in.

Callie Anne, 12, fell in love with the tall Stetson man. She wanted to marry him he was everything she wanted in a man. While her father, Claude Junior, was up working in the projection booth, she would follow Memphis around like a lost puppy. Later, she over hears her mother, Teal, and Memphis talking. She watches them through the window, slowly touching each others hands, and kissing. She grows with anger and envy. She was supposed to be with him not her mother. Callie Anne stops communicating with everyone like she used to. She would run off and lie to her mother and father about where she would be going.

After Claude Junior catches Memphis coming from his house one night he grows angrier with him. He gets into an argument that turns into a fight. Later that night Teal asks about Memphis, and Claude Junior says that he ran him off. No one ever sees or hears of Charlie Memphis again."

Alysha, Resident Scholar

Review Analysis of The Starlite Drive-In
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book? - upbeat
Time/era of story - 1960's-1970's
Romance/Romance Problems Yes
Crime & Police story Yes
Story of - catching a killer
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Lover is - a criminal (possibly)

Main Character
Gender - Female
Profession/status: - student
Age: - a kid - a teen
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
Ethnicity/Nationality - White (American)
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence

Main Adversary
Identity: - none - Female
Age: - 20's-30's
Profession/status: - homemaker
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a moderate amount
How sensitive is this character? - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 3 (some)
United States Yes
The US: - Midwest
Prairie? Yes
Small town? Yes

Style
Person - mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment - moderately detailed references to deaths
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - descript of kissing - touching of anatomy - descript. of female anat. (the big B's) - descript. of female anat. (the big V)
Lot of foul language? Yes
Unusual Style: - a lot of flashback and forwards
Amount of dialog - significantly more descript than dialog
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A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest J. Gaines
Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig
The Great Teen Fruit War, A 1960's Novel by Jay Dubya


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Marjorie Reynolds Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
Alysha  

SCHOLARS:
Tanja Friess  


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