A bleak book with a sympathetic protagonist.
A debut novel about the trials and tribulations of a gifted, sensitive boy growing up in the bleak, unforgiving environment of the Virginia Mountains.
Samuel, or “Sammy,” is a very kind, sensitive boy growing up near Oreville, Virginia, in the middle of the 20th century. His family is poor, and a slew of troubled characters affect his life, including his cruel, hateful grandfather Luke and his alcoholic, racist uncle Earl. Despite the family’s difficult circumstances, Sammy is a sympathetic, understanding child who’s better able to recognize peoples’ feelings and desires than most adults in his world. Holmes’ novel chronicles the story of Sammy growing up and explores his quest to win affection and attention from people who are supposed to love him—particularly his dad, Red, who’s especially put off by the odd, artistic little boy. It also relates the story of the boy’s eventual bonding with his maternal and paternal grandmothers, who recognize that there’s “something more than special about him, way, way more than special” and help him see that he has his own worth, as well as a future. By the end of the book, Sammy is finally able to physically escape Virginia and attend art school in New York City, but the author leaves readers questioning whether he can ever really transcend the terrible, haunting trauma of his past. Ultimately, Holmes creates a very likable character in Sammy, who’s tender and compassionate to everyone in the world around him. He also crafts vivid, lifelike villains who are easy to hate but also recognizable as humans with flaws. However, despite the plethora of well-developed characters, the book suffers from being overwhelmingly depressing. In the end, the story simply feels like a catalog of terrible things that happen to a kind, young man throughout his life, rather than one with logical twists and turns, which makes for a disheartening read.
A bleak book with a sympathetic protagonist.Pub Date: May 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4809-1872-6
Page Count: 292
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Co.
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Aspiring filmmaker/first-novelist Chbosky adds an upbeat ending to a tale of teenaged angst—the right combination of realism and uplift to allow it on high school reading lists, though some might object to the sexuality, drinking, and dope-smoking. More sophisticated readers might object to the rip-off of Salinger, though Chbosky pays homage by having his protagonist read Catcher in the Rye. Like Holden, Charlie oozes sincerity, rails against celebrity phoniness, and feels an extraliterary bond with his favorite writers (Harper Lee, Fitzgerald, Kerouac, Ayn Rand, etc.). But Charlie’s no rich kid: the third child in a middle-class family, he attends public school in western Pennsylvania, has an older brother who plays football at Penn State, and an older sister who worries about boys a lot. An epistolary novel addressed to an anonymous “friend,” Charlie’s letters cover his first year in high school, a time haunted by the recent suicide of his best friend. Always quick to shed tears, Charlie also feels guilty about the death of his Aunt Helen, a troubled woman who lived with Charlie’s family at the time of her fatal car wreck. Though he begins as a friendless observer, Charlie is soon pals with seniors Patrick and Sam (for Samantha), stepsiblings who include Charlie in their circle, where he smokes pot for the first time, drops acid, and falls madly in love with the inaccessible Sam. His first relationship ends miserably because Charlie remains compulsively honest, though he proves a loyal friend (to Patrick when he’s gay-bashed) and brother (when his sister needs an abortion). Depressed when all his friends prepare for college, Charlie has a catatonic breakdown, which resolves itself neatly and reveals a long-repressed truth about Aunt Helen. A plain-written narrative suggesting that passivity, and thinking too much, lead to confusion and anxiety. Perhaps the folks at (co-publisher) MTV see the synergy here with Daria or any number of videos by the sensitive singer-songwriters they feature.
Pub Date: Feb. 4, 1999
ISBN: 0-671-02734-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: MTV Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes...
In a riveting novel from Myers (At Her Majesty’s Request, 1999, etc.), a teenager who dreams of being a filmmaker writes the story of his trial for felony murder in the form of a movie script, with journal entries after each day’s action.
Steve is accused of being an accomplice in the robbery and murder of a drug store owner. As he goes through his trial, returning each night to a prison where most nights he can hear other inmates being beaten and raped, he reviews the events leading to this point in his life. Although Steve is eventually acquitted, Myers leaves it up to readers to decide for themselves on his protagonist’s guilt or innocence.
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes written entirely in dialogue alternate with thoughtful, introspective journal entries that offer a sense of Steve’s terror and confusion, and that deftly demonstrate Myers’s point: the road from innocence to trouble is comprised of small, almost invisible steps, each involving an experience in which a “positive moral decision” was not made. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 31, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-028077-8
Page Count: 280
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
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