Midnight Hour Encores by Bruce Brooks
"Midnight Hour Encores" by Bruce Brooks follows the journey of Sibilance T. Spooner, a 16-year-old musical prodigy and self-identifying young woman, as she navigates her complex relationship with her unconventional father, Taxi, and her estranged mother, Connie. Sibilance is poised to attend Juilliard and has secretly arranged an audition at the prestigious Phrygian Institute, hoping to study under a renowned cellist. The narrative unfolds during a cross-country trip to San Francisco, where Taxi attempts to share insights from the 1960s and the counterculture that shaped his life, while Sibilance primarily focuses on her music.
Upon meeting her mother, Sibilance discovers a woman who has transformed from a counterculture artist into a successful businesswoman, which leads to deeper conversations and a newfound understanding of her mother's choices. The trip is not only a physical journey but also an emotional exploration of family, identity, and personal aspirations. The climax of the story arrives during Sibilance's audition, where she makes a pivotal decision that emphasizes her independence and personal agency. "Midnight Hour Encores" is recognized as an important work in young adult literature, praised for its complex characters and its exploration of themes relevant to adolescent life.
Subject Terms
Midnight Hour Encores by Bruce Brooks
First published: 1986
Subjects: Coming-of-age, family, and social issues
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Social realism
Time of work: The late 1980’s
Recommended Ages: 13-18
Locale: A cross-country trip from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco
Principal Characters:
Sibilance “Sib” T. Spooner , the sixteen-year-old musical prodigy who narrates the novelCabot “Taxi” Spooner , Sib’s father, a product of the 1960’s who now edits an environmental newsletterConnie , Sib’s mother, a hippie who turned over responsibility for Sib to Taxi when Sib was only a babyDzyga , a Soviet musical prodigy whose cello music Sibilance knows only from recordings that she has tracked down over the years
Form and Content
Sixteen-year-old Sibilance T. Spooner, the narrator of Midnight Hour Encores, considers herself a self-made young woman, even having chosen her own name. A musical prodigy whose talent and hard work has made her one of the world’s greatest cellists, she has spent most of her life with Taxi, her unconventional father who publishes an environmental newsletter from their Washington, D.C., home. Although Taxi has always told Sibilance that he will take her to see her mother in San Francisco whenever she wants to go, Sib has never shown much interest in the woman she last saw on January 1, 1970, when she was twenty hours old.
At sixteen, having tested out of her senior year of high school and ready to attend the Juilliard School of Music in the fall, Sib finally tells Taxi that she wants to see her mother. Sib’s real reason for wanting to go to San Francisco, however, involves an audition at the Phrygian Institute, a prestigious music school, that she has secretly arranged for herself. If she is successful in the audition, she hopes to study under Professor Dzyga, a brilliant cellist who has defected from the Soviet Union and whose music Sib knows only from a few recordings that she has painstakingly hunted down.
Taxi uses their cross-country trip in an old, green Volkswagen bus to try to teach Sibilance about the 1960’s, the hippie lifestyle, and her mother. Sib, however, is sarcastic during the planning phase for the trip, rejects Taxi’s “Age of Aquarius” history lessons, and at first devotes most of their travel time to practicing her cello. Even so, the trip provides time for discussion and reflection that gives Sib a greater understanding of her father and why her mother may have given her up.
Prior to arriving in San Francisco, Sibilance expects Connie, her mother, to be wrapped up still in various counterculture beliefs and to be continuing her efforts to become a great macrame artist. Instead, she learns that her mother is now a rich and respected businesswoman who earns her living as an architectural broker. While in San Francisco, Sib and her mother shop together, ride around in her mother’s expensive car, and share some intimate conversations during which Sib gains an understanding of her mother. She learns that her mother turned over responsibility for rearing her to Taxi because she recognized that he was better prepared to be a parent than she was. Connie used the freedom that she gained to take control of her life, get off drugs, and study real estate.
Mother and daughter are reconciled, with Connie finally asking Sib to live with her once she is accepted by the Phrygian Institute. By the time that Sib has her audition at the Institute, Taxi is preparing to return to Washington, D.C., and Sib seems prepared to stay with her mother, which makes the ending of the novel somewhat surprising. After a stunning audition, Sib reveals her decision to rejoin Taxi by playing “The Love and Peace Shuffle,” the song that she and Taxi wrote during the trip, as her encore. Sib makes her choice “without fear of losing anything,” not according to what others feel about her but according to what she herself feels.
Critical Context
Bruce Brooks’s first novel, The Moves Make the Man (1984), was named a Newbery Honor Book for its portrayal of two sensitive young adults coping with racial prejudice and troubled families. Jerome Foxworthy, Brooks’s narrator, became the prototype for the protagonists that have become a hallmark of his fiction: teenagers who are wise beyond their years. Midnight Hour Encores, an American Library Association (ALA) Best Book for Young Adults, continued Brooks’s string of award-winning books that have established him as one of the major figures in young adult literature. Although music rather than sports provides the focus of the book, Sibilance Spooner, like Jerome Foxworthy, is a multifaceted character who offers layers of complexity for class discussion. Since the publication of Midnight Hour Encores, Brooks has published the Newbery Honor Book What Hearts (1992), which deals with divorce and a child’s efforts to fit into a new family, and his other books have appeared numerous times on the ALA Best Books for Young Adults lists. His multidimensional characters, keen ear for the adolescent voice, and use of challenging themes have earned him a large audience of young adult readers. In addition, Brooks has gained a reputation for eloquent and stylish writing that has garnered praise from critics, readers, and other professional writers.