Synopsis
The latest from PUSH: a startling first novel about guy friendship, difficult choices, and life in the middle of nowhere.
This startling debut novel is about both the velocity and the inertia of being a teenage boy in America. It's about Gary, who drives around aimlessly with his best friend Wilson in a stolen car, looking for something to do but only finding trouble or boredom. It's about Gary's attempts to be a good boyfriend and a good son, even though his girlfriend is on to his issues and his dad has a tornado temper. It's about living in a town that you've known your whole life but doesn't know you at all. It's about looking for escape, and the price you sometimes have to pay to get free.
Reviews
Grade 8 Up-Gary, 15, lives in small-town Indiana. He struggles between fulfilling his sexual urges and not pressuring his girlfriend. He battles to do what is right versus letting his friend Wilson talk him into one illegal and dangerous stunt after another. He tries to keep quiet and fly under the radar at home, where he lives with a docile mother and a verbally abusive alcoholic father. He forms a curious bond with Mr. Roverson, who lost his job as a teacher when an affair with an 18-year-old student became public knowledge. Gary becomes naively involved in reuniting Roverson and Lindy, but the ramifications of his actions remain unclear at the end of the book, as does his understanding of the severity of the event. Unfortunately, Gary has no self-confidence-he allows himself to be talked into anything and he refuses to take control of any situation. He continually allows himself to be molded and manipulated in order to be accepted by others, and never comes to grips with his own shortcomings. Waltman does not create one fully likable character-everyone has an ulterior motive or glaring fatal flaw. For a book with a character also in denial, but with a more satisfying plot and better character development, try Alex Flinn's Breathing Underwater (HarperCollins, 2001).
Delia Fritz, Mercersburg Academy, PA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
In his first novel, Waltman captures the complicated world of 15-year-old Gary, who spends his summer in his hometown of Dearborn Springs, Ind., working at the Dairy Castle, hanging out with Lauryn, his prudish girlfriend, and taking joyrides with wild best friend, Wilson. The car belongs to an ex-teacher (he "got busted for sleeping with one of his students"), who leaves a spare set of keys in the glove box. Though not all the plotting is convincing, readers will empathize with narrator Gary, who feels as if "Sometimes it's like I don't have a will of my own," as he's pushed and pulled among his friends and abusive father. When the teacher, Mr. Roverson, catches on to the theft, he offers Gary and Wilson the use of the car in exchange for doing work around his house. While Wilson soon becomes bored with the situation, Gary bonds with Roverson, who offers him advice for dealing with Lauryn and listens to him talk about his dad (the teacher's own confession to the teen about his love for Lindy, his former student, stretches credibility). But when Gary agrees to help Roverson bring Lindy back to him, finally believing that he's making a choice of his own, he sets off an unfortunate chain of events. The prose becomes overwrought in places, but Waltman credibly builds the pressures facing Gary, not shying away from graphic language or violence as those pressures begin to boil over. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Gr. 8-12. Fifteen-year-old Gary and his best friend, Wilson,are trying to beat the summer doldrums in Dearborn Springs,Indiana. Wild, rebellious Wilson introduces Gary to drinking, smoking,and joyriding. The car they steal belongs to the town's bad guy, aformer teacher named Roverson, who many believe became sexuallyinvolved with one of his high-school students, Lindy. When Roversondiscovers who has been "borrowing" his car, he convinces Gary andWilson to work for him, then coerces Gary into helping him get Lindyback. Though Waltman's writing style is inconsistent, with strikinglygood passages noticeably interrupted by flat portrayals of adults, hedefinitely captures a certain male-teen essence. Gary and Wilson areintriguingly flawed, fully developed characters whose symbioticrelationship is entirely realistic, and the character-driven portraitof two young men dependent on each other in unspoken ways for unspokenneeds will intrigue many readers. Debbie Carton
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