This perceptive novel of the 1930's is a hilarious confrontation between youth and the Great Depression. "It's a helluva time to be seventeen, but it's the only one I've got," states Perry Dunnigin, the eager, engaging hero who sports an aspirin spirit while the rest of the nation moans with a monumental financial headache.
Son of the cashier of a small town bank in Michigan, Perry is first jolted over the threshold of maturity the "Day They Closed the Banks," when he proudly marches off with his dad to hold off angry depositors. Then, dauntless as a five-leaf clover, he sets off with his accordion to find summer employment as a musician and to locate love in Charlevoix the Beautiful, the pine-scented Michigan playground of Midwest millionaires.
How Perry discovers both -- and more -- makes Loveland one of the breeziest, most entertaining new books in recent years. With the unerring ability that made Where The Boys Are such and overwhelming success, Glendon Swarthout has peopled Loveland with an endearing cast of ex-debutante of nineteen with plans of her own on how to regain the money. College hero Speedy McGimsey, a free-wheeling, saddle-shoed troubadour with a voice like Russ Columbo. Multi-millionaire Logan Cooke, last of the playboys, whose mysterious death pushes Bonnie and Clyde right off the front pages. And Kissable Miller, sweetheart of Michigan State, whose marriage turns Charlevoix's elegant and decorous Bal Masque into a memorable rout.
Loveland is the cat's pajamas-- with all the fun-filled nostalgia of a rumble seat ride to the swinging strains of "Sweet Georgia Brown." Loosely based upon the author's adventures as a singer and accordion player in his own small college band from the University of Michigan during the 30's in some of the big hotels and vacation spots in Michigan, Loveland is the romance novel of his youth.
