Home School-Charles Webb

Home School
Charles Webb
St. Martin’s, Dec 2007, $22.95
ISBN: 9780312376307

In Hastings, New York Ben and Elaine Braddock home teach their two sons only to have the Westchester County School Board and local principal Ralph Claymore inform them that Matt and Jason must return to school. Claymore insists he has received anonymous complaints from parents, but refuses to name anyone. They consider relocating to Vermont where their friends Garth and Goya Lewis home school their two kids, but besides being too rustic for them, Elaine has a problem with nine years old Aaron still being nursed by his mom.

A family discussion resolves nothing so a desperate Ben calls California for help. He tells Elaine he called her mom Nan who will be staying at the nearby Ardsley Motel to help them. Ben also buys tape recorders. The four Braddocks attend the annual high schools faculty baseball game when Nan arrives. She talks with Claymore and they leave together. Not long afterward Nan gives a tape to Ben. He takes it to married Ralph who realizes his sexual tryst with Nan has been recorded. The kids remain home schooled. Now the problem is to send Nan to the other coast so Ben asks the Lewis family to stay with them. However the problems evolve into sending Nan back to California and the Lewis quartet to Vermont or have Elaine, Matt and Jason move elsewhere.

This tale tells what happened to Ben and Elaine a decade after he rescued her from a bad marriage (see The Graduate). The support cast including their sons, her over the top mom, and their other eccentric guests bring out the best and worst in Ben and Elaine while each of Ben’s solutions to problems leads to bigger problems. The amusing story line is fun but thin. Still fans of the movie and book The Graduate will enjoy HOME SCHOOL as the lead couple’s personalities especially idealistic Ben remains true.

Harriet Klausner