AT THE TABLE OF WANT
Much scarred orphan, Truman Kramer, having joined the Peace Corps, is assigned to a small Malaysian community, serving an assemblage of all-but-forgotten handicapped children. Truman, never having kissed a girl, becomes involved with an unloved, married woman; a shopkeeper’s wife craving anything of her own.
As his service wanes, mired in earnestness and deceit, his lover’s husband discovers his wife’s affair. Torn with remorse, young Truman acts, plumbing the depths of love, and our need to attach ourselves to other human beings.
REVIEWS
At the Table of Want is a coming-of-age story that is so much more than one young man's journey into adulthood. Truman's experiences, thoughts, feelings, and struggles become the reader's own. We are more than merely ourselves; we belong to the world and those who live on it, making us who we are. I feel not only that I better know this "kid from New Jersey" at the end of this novel, but I better know myself. -- Laura Wurtzel, Allentown High School, Allentown, NJ
...By the end of the novel, I feel like I know Truman. I sympathize with his struggles. I understand his motivations. His scars, both physical and emotional, remind me of how we learn and what it means to be human. --Cheryl Chambliss, English Department, Allentown High School, U.F.R.S.D.