Necking with Louise

These tenderly wrought recollections of growing up in rural Canada during the 1960's may be received just as warmly by baby-boomers as the target audience. Seven self-contained chapters crystallize some milestone events between October 1964 and September 1965--joyous beginnings and poignant endings--marking Eric Anderson's transition from childhood to adulthood. The narrative is unadorned yet evocative: ""The cold scissored away at my clothes, poked with steely blades through zippers and down my collar"" begins the chapter about Eric's action-packed season-end hockey game. Other chapters show different sides of tough yet sensitive Eric, as a lover who feels the sting of rejection as sharply as the first flutters of romance, as a member of the work force who learns some bittersweet lessons at his first job, and as a loyal son springing from a long line of stoic farmers. Book, a radio and TV journalist, recaptures all of the angst, doubt, excitement and ennui that go along with rites of passage. Writing with hindsight and keen perception, he extracts humor and truth--and a few life lessons--from a thoroughly likable adolescent's day-to-day trials. Ages 14-up. (Aug.)