The One Who Came Back

Best friends Eddie and Alex take their usual trip up to the mountains to escape the pressures of family and school, but this time Eddie disappears, and Alex finds himself caught up in the adult world of suspicion, guilt, and grief.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-8-- Alex and Eddie spend their weekends in the canyons and mountains near their small New Mexico town, but on this particular day they decide to skip classes for some added excitement. When it is time to leave, Eddie hides, betting Alex that he can't find him. Unable to do so, Alex decides that Eddie has left without him, and goes home. When it is obvious that the boy is really missing, the police get involved, but they don't seem to believe Alex's story. In one last desperate effort to find his friend, Alex again goes alone to the mountains, falls during his search, and discovers Eddie's body. His fall, unlike Alex's, was fatal. This is a compelling enough story, but it moves slowly. Nearly all of the adults are hopelessly obtuse. The school counselor is a disgusting character, and Alex's mother is incapable of assuming parental responsibility. The police and social worker are mostly condescending. Alex is pretty much on his own throughout the ordeal. He is a quiet, reticent kid with a strong sense of loyalty toward family and friends. In light of this trait, his subdued sense of grief and loss seems understated. The story is mildly suspenseful, and there are some interesting minor characters who appear late in the book. Readers will identify with Alex's difficulties, but those seeking a page-turner will not find it here. --Bruce Anne Shook, Mendenhall Middle School, Greensboro, NCCopyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

When Alex reports that his friend Eddie is missing on a mountain near Albuquerque, even the police pay little attention. Following 12 happy years with his grandparents, Alex (15) has recently moved into a trailer with his mother, a cocktail waitress with dreams of being a dancer. After Eddie, best friend and neighbor, is struck by his stepfather Paco, the boys skip school to pan for gold. Impulsively, Eddie hides; threatening weather forces Alex to leave without him, hoping to find him at home. When Eddie doesn't return, Alex seeks help, only to be suspected of helping Eddie run away or even killing him. Because Eddie is Mexican, Alex also meets outright prejudice among the adults he needs to depend on, including a school counselor and his own mother. Frustrated and troubled, Alex is encouraged by feisty Candelario, disabled by a bone disease, and by an unexpected new ally, Gwen. Finally, the grieving Alex takes a gun Eddie stole from Paco and returns to the mountain to hold a private service for Eddie and perhaps end his own life; consoled by a poem Gwen has offered (``Nothing Gold Can Stay'') and inspired by the life-affirming (though doomed) Candelario, he throws away the gun--and finally discovers Eddie's body under a rock slide. Skillfully integrating important issues into a narrative propelled by dramatic incidents, Mazzio sketches several believable characters but focuses on Alex, a lonely boy forced to make tough decisions. Well-crafted suspense. (Fiction. 10-14) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Joann Mazzio is also the author of The One Who Came Back and a Robert and Charlotte Barron Fellow of the American Antiquarian Society. She lives in Silver City, New Mexico.

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