Early Review: Grow Up
24 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in New Release Reviews Tags: british, british coming of age story, coming of age, drug use, england, fiction, holden caulfield, teen boys, teen drug use
Grow Up by Ben Brooks (pub date 4/24/12)
“Cults are so oppressive. Except for the Manson Family. They got to try lots of exciting things.”
Coming-of-age novels featuring teen boys have always been both interesting and controversial. They tend to be more forceful, more strongly worded, and can sometimes contain more questionable material than feminine coming-of-age stories. From Catcher in the Rye to Lord of the Flies to The Diary of Adrian Mole, these kind of novels have made lasting impressions in the world of literature and have given us memorable characters for generations.
Despite best efforts, however, the protagonist in Grow Up is no Holden Caulfield or Adrian Mole. British teen Jasper Wolf spends his free time getting high with friends (he often resorts to snorting fertilizer) and advancing his sexual prowess. When he isn’t partying, Jasper is writing erotic fiction or speculating on whether his stepfather murdered his ex wife. He also sees a therapist, but subverts his therapy by making up stories about himself and his past. The plot basically meanders until the end, when Jasper achieves a mild form of enlightenment about taking responsibility for his actions.
What frustrated me about this book was that Jasper would have been a more interesting character, and the book as a whole would have been more worthwhile, if the lessons learned at the end would have been more pronounced. The book lacks catharsis and resolution, making the story leading up to the ending pretty much pointless. The writing was actually pretty clever at times, and Jasper had a humorous streak to him, which made it rather disappointing that the plot lacked direction.
Teens may enjoy this book for the sex, drugs, and language, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But more serious readers will likely finish it and think “so what?” I’m not in any way opposed to books that contain crude material (Trainspotting is still one of my favorite novels), but for me there has to be a point to all that debauchery. So while the book caused a minor stir when it was published in England (though it failed to impress some British book critics), I’m not sure what American readers will make of it.
Did you read this book? Tell me what you thought!
Book Review: The Miseducation of Cameron Post
21 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in New Release Reviews Tags: christian fundamentalism, coming of age, conversion therapy, de-gaying camp, fiction, gay teens, lesbian, LGBT, montana
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth
“It was guys and girls who kissed–in our grade, on TV, in the movies, in the world; and that’s how it worked: guys and girls. Anything else was something weird.”
I first heard about this book after reading an interview with author Emily Danforth on Slate.com, and decided right away that I needed to read it. What I got was a beautifully written and inspiring coming-of-age story, set during the early 1990s against the backdrop of the socially conservative American midwest.
When we first meet Cameron, she is twelve years old and just lost both her parents to a car crash. What no one knows is that just hours before the crash, Cameron had been kissing her best friend Irene. Slowly she struggles to come to terms with her parents’ death, a part of her wondering what her parents would have thought if they had lived to find out that she had kissed a girl.
A few years later, Cameron is living in rural Montana with her religious aunt. She has had a few more experiences with girls, but is still questioning her orientation and therefore keeps her feelings to herself. Not ready to be ”out and proud,” she goes on a few dates with a boy from her school, but soon finds herself overwhelmed with feelings for her new friend Coley. Though at first Coley insists that she is not “that way,” she and Cameron quickly begin an intense (but still awkward) relationship. But things change drastically for Cameron when her aunt discovers her “sin” and sends her to Promise, a Christian boarding school whose agenda is curing teens of homosexuality.
What I loved most about this book was that even though the protagonist is a gay teen, this is still a relatable coming-of-age story. Cameron experiences all the same uncertainty, self-doubt, and peer pressure that any other teen experiences. She really isn’t so much a pioneer for gay rights as a teenager who just wants the freedom to be herself. And I think that’s something that anyone, gay or straight, can relate to. Cameron is still a wonderful character. Smart, funny, mischievous, and at times very poignant:
“At Word of Life I felt like a big, shiny, obvious goldfish, a goldfish well known to have homosexual tendencies, so basically a big, gay goldfish in a tank with eighteen other such goldfish, wheeled in and parked in a pew for two hours, much to the delight of the crowd.”
This book received some criticism for not portraying the teachers and counselors at Promise in a more negative way. However misguided their beliefs are, they are not the snarling, abusive beasts we expect them to be. But subtle as it is, the book is still very critical of conversion therapy. One chapter in particular is graphic enough to show how dangerous this therapy really is. The overall message is clear: you cannot pray the gay away.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a beautiful story. Danforth’s portrayal of the teenage experience is authentic, and Cameron’s story is one you won’t soon forget. I would recommend this book to anyone because it’s more than an LGBT story, it’s a human story.
Early Review: Flatscreen
17 Feb 2012 1 Comment
in New Release Reviews Tags: coming of age, failure to launch, fiction, loser, man-child, prolonged adolescence, stoner
Flatscreen by Adam Wilson (pub date 2/21/12)
I can usually relate to books with protagonists who find themselves disenchanted with the reality of their lives. It’s a common theme in today’s media, as the Y2K generation is now turning thirty and realizing that the so-called “American Dream” is a lot harder to achieve than they were told. The bitter disappointment of life can make for a very powerful story. Unfortunately, this book is neither powerful nor poignant.
Flatscreen tries to put a new spin on the typical “loveable loser finally turns his life around” story. Eli Schwartz is a twenty-year-old kid who never went to college and lives in his mother’s basement. He has no job, no propects, and no drivers license. He spends his time alienating anyone who tries to help him, doing drugs with his friends and stumbling into random sexual encounters. Eli’s comfortable existence is shaken when his mother decides to sell her house. Strangely enough, he becomes friendly with the buyer of his house, Seymour Kahn, who is basically an older and slightly more depraved version of Eli.
Despite my best efforts, I found this book grossly disappointing. What I thought was going to be a humorous insight into the “failure to launch” phenomenon was instead a meandering story told by an intensely unlikeable character. Eli is a spoiled rich kid who has yet to get over his parents’ divorce and refuses to take any responsibility for his life. His feeble attempts to redeem himself at the end of the book were not enough to make me like him or the story. Furthermore, I found the writing style distracting and rather annoying. Wilson’s constant use of sentence fragments and stream-of-consciousness style were often difficult to follow. It’s a style that works for Chuck Palahniuk because Chuck Palahniuk is brilliant. It doesn’t work in this book.
I was really looking forward to reading this book when I downloaded it from NetGalley. Maybe I should have been warned by the letter of praise from Wilson’s editor that was attached to the advance copy. Some may enjoy this book, but I found it unoriginal and overall pretty dull.
Book Review: Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea
20 Jan 2012 3 Comments
in New Release Reviews Tags: coming of age, fiction, mother daughter relationship, new england
Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea by Morgan Callan Rogers (pub date 1/19/12)
This is a book about the meaning of the mother-daughter relationship, and the devastation felt when that relationship is lost. Set in beautiful coastal Maine during the 1960s, Red Ruby Heart is both a coming-of-age story and a story about the strength of the human spirit.
Twelve-year-old Florine has lived a pretty sheltered life in her rural Maine town. She has two loving parents, a doting grandmother, and a spirited best friend. The most drama she experienced in her young life so far was when she and her friends got into trouble for accidentally starting a fire at a neighbor’s summer home. Then things in Florine’s life begin to go wrong when her mother goes on a weekend getaway with a friend and fails to return. Her mother’s absense begins to affect her family in different ways, and Florine experiences a storm of emotions. She rages against the mother whom she sees as having abandoned her, yet is still pained by her love for her.
Red Ruby Heart is both tragic and uplifting. It’s the story of a girl forced to grow up early, set in a time period when a generation of women were growing up and reclaiming their independence. We are sad to see Florine enter into womanhood without her mother’s guidance, but feel her happiness and pain as she struggles to reclaim her identity without defining herself by her relationship with her mother. Rogers manages to capture the wide range of feelings that teenage girls experience (the joy, the heartbreak, the uncertainty) and creates a dynamic character that readers can sympathize with. The book concludes with a bittersweet ending that is both fitting and memorable.
There are a lot of coming-of-age stories out there, but this is one of the good ones. Though it will likely be classified as “chick lit,” I think this is a story that men and women can equally enjoy.
