The Absentee Parent Conundrum in Children's Lit

[BrownEyed]

Now this is synchronic since I read a YA book a few days back and it left me regretting. One of the reasons was that there was no background or acknowledgement of protagonist's folks. None. I posted a blog entry http://wp.me/pRsfv-9F on my blog explaining my glumness about the same.

I don't know if we can name authors and books that didn't quite "gel" with us, if you know what mean, here, on Bransforums (I am a first-timer), so am keeping it terse. I am absolutely bemused by the total lack of presence of a main character's parents. It just doesn't go with the story, and the whole thing becomes unbelievable. The last book I read was horrible, for the lack an apter word, but like I said, I am refraining from naming it here. A mention, or two, of the parents, at the least, is what I ask for.

-BrownEyed

[knight_tour]

My book is the opposite of all this. The teenage boys in the story have both of their parents and they are very loving and supportive. In fact the central conflict involves the fact that the father lost one son, so as the other sons grow toward adulthood he is conflicted between his strong desire to keep the remaining sons safe and his responsibility to allow them to gain the life experience they need to grow into strong men.

[hurdygurdy]

I am brought back to Colette's "The Ripening Seed". The parents/parent figures were there, but muffled to Vinca and Philippe, kind of like the Charlie Brown parent-muffle. Present, but to the characters themselves and what they were going through, minimally mentioned, because they were not needed. It worked and the story is a rich-textured tale of dawning independence.