Customer Reviews

The Book Of Ralph

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Several years ago I came across McNally's short-story collection Troublemakers, and enjoyed it immensely. Three of the stories from that collection (The Vomitorium, Smoke, The Grand Illusion) reappear here in slightly different form as chapters, and almost every other chapter has appeared in various lit journals or alternative media. Indeed the book is really an anthology of related stories about one character which share a tone that mixes humor, pathos, and keen observation. Those looking for a strong narrative framework may be disappointed, but this free-form approach allows McNally to create a series of extremely strong stories that form a very compelling coming of age story.

The book is about Hank, a 13-year-old kid growing up in southwest Chicago in the late '70s, and develops his friendship with Ralph, who is two years older. Hank is a prototypical lower-middle class white kid, average grades, unremarkable looks, dead center in the pecking order, and nothing to distinguish himself except being friends with Ralph. Ralph, on the other hand, is known throughout the junior high and neighborhood as someone to avoid at all costs. Without firm parental authority at home, he's turned into a bit of a bully and small-time juvenile delinquent, but is also wildly imaginative, and constantly dreaming up bizarre schemes to raise money and extract revenge on the world. Their friendship is unlikely, and Hank ascribes it to an innate politeness. From their first encounter, Hank has always been too polite to reject Ralph, and so he becomes a kind of default sidekick. This creates a tension that runs throughout the first section: will Hank ever be able to break free of Ralph, or will he get caught up in and dragged down by the effects of the older boy's wildness?

The book's style is very direct and full of satirical and deadpan humor. Hank and Ralph are vivid fictional versions of instantly recognizable types that will be familiar to anyone who's spent their early teen years in America. Beyond Hank and Ralph, most of the supporting characters are equally vivid. Hank's father is a factory worker at the 3M plant who's always drinking and thinking about how the world is trying to screw him over. Hank's sister Kelly is a sardonic mystery who can't wait to grow up and move on to her real life. Ralph's 20ish cousin Norm and his best-friend Kenny are the quintessential Midwestern metalhead hoodlums who hang out with younger kids and inexplicably involve them in their own bizarre schemes.

The first thirteen chapters (over half the book), are set in that late '70s period, and are only connected in time and place, with little if any linkage between stories. Topics include a scheme to sell a trunk full of stolen Tootsie Rolls, Hank's kleptomaniac grandmother, a creepy ex-hippie record store owner, Hank's father's attempt to win a neighborhood Christmas decoration contest using salvaged junk, a trip to the shopping center, a trip to the drive-in, a trip across town to spy on an alleged fellatrix, a day dressed up as Big Bird to promote a new auto dealership, dressing up for Halloween as Gene Simmons, trailing a nerdy collector of Star Wars cards to bite his ear off, falling in love with CB radio, and other random encounters with life. Although set in the past and ripe with period details about clothing, pop culture (Styx, Kiss, etc), and cars, this isn't particularly a nostalgia-driven story. Rather, it shares a deft sense of discovery tinged with loss of innocence, in the vein of books like Tom Perrota's "Bad Haircut" and Chris Fuhrman's "The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys." At the end of the first section, the relationship between the two boys comes to its natural conclusion, and the curtain is drawn.

The book then flashes back to a brief interlude in 1975, where Hank encounters Ralph for the first time. What at first seems like an odd choice (why wouldn't this come first?), the story would lack meaning without the reader knowing the friendship that would later develop between the two boys. A final 75 pages picks up the story of Hank and Ralph in 2001, when they bump into each other on the street. This reacquaintence comes at a particularly low point for Hank, and he is rapidly drawn back into Ralph's world ó which hasn't changed much. Living at home and subsisting on income derived from selling fake "Made in Occupied Japan" items on eBay, and a job cleaning up crime scenes, Ralph is same as he ever was. Soon, Hank is living a strange life as sidekick again, and is slowly trying to rebuild his life. This section is rather more madcap and improbable than the rest of the book, but it makes a hilarious and kind of sweet sense as McNally ends things on just the right note. Full of compassion and sharp-eyed wit, this work confirms the promise of McNally's first collection and leaves one anxious for more.

This is a fantastic read--a real page-turner. Congratulations to John McNally for being a gifted storyteller and for putting this collection together in an interesting and creative manner. He has presented a true time capsule complete with scenery, music, language and costume.

Ralph is the boy we all knew--an attention hound dressed in a flannel shirt, who spent a lot of time in the school hallways on his way to the dean's office. Hank, however, who tells his stories from the gray, "who am I" world of suburban Chicago in the 70s, is the boy who faded into the woodwork. He's the boy who was up for anything to make his world a little more exciting and often didn't have a choice when it came to dealing with his eccentric father and, of course, Ralph. Each character, including Hank's sister Kelly and even the lady next door, Mrs. Rybecki, who suffers from Tourette's syndrome, are keenly developed and highly entertaining.

When we meet Hank in the future, he's like the guy at your 25th class reunion who everyone wants to know. Even though he's down on his luck and must resort to a life in Ralph's domain, he's interesting, good looking sensitive and . . . funny. Somehow you just know that everything is A-OK with Hank.

I loved this book.

Michele Cozzens is the author of It's Not Your Mother's Bridge Club.

John McNally, author of the collection Troublemakers and the editor of numerous anthologies, makes his novelistic debut with this gently satiric story about the odd relationship between the narrator Hank and the school bad boy. Much of the novel unfolds in Chicago during the seventies as Hank navigates the awkwardness of junior high. He becomes the reluctant sidekick of Ralph, the oldest boy in the fifth grade (Ralph was left back twice) and the one who dreams up harebrained schemes, most of which could end up with both boys in police custody. Ralph's older and probably criminal cousins, Kenny and Norm, steer the boys in dubious directions. Despite their shared adventures, Hank and Ralph seem destined to go their separate ways in adulthood, with Ralph the kind of kid that ends up a felon and Hank likely to live quietly in the suburbs. Each has a different vision of the future, with Hank's gleaming paper towel tube city contrasting sharply with Ralph's meticulous rendition no different from the present. The final quarter of the novel reveals the truth as McNally leaps ahead into 2001.

McNally employs an anecdotal method of storytelling, with individual scenes coming together more like a collage than a traditional novel, and the technique lends a memory box feel to the bulk of the work. References to the seventies abound, and readers having lived through the times will laugh at McNally's ironic eye. The non-linear sequences can be confusing, as it's not always clear when certain events occurred in context with the rest, but McNally's lucid style draws the reader along with authority.

The Book of Ralph is an entertaining and adept book that should appeal to a general readership. I recommend this as a complement to Ward Just's An Unfinished Season, a very different novel about growing up in Chicago.

You beat me to it. I never thought anyone would ever talk about Burbank, or Ford City or Peacock Alley, or Bird's Paradise, or Our neighborhood, and I promise I'll be the second one to do so, but I saw your book last night, and I love it!!!!!
I love my neighborhood, even though you are 10 years older than me, I know everything you talk about, I live here still.
John, thanks for bringing the true South Side out: the one no one ever talks about.
Jim,
Burbank, IL

I first discovered John McNally's talents through reading "The Troublemakers"--and it is still one of my favorite short story compilations. John McNally has taken two of my favorite characters from Troublemakers and continued their story through several well-written short stories. The cool thing about this book is that, while each story is a completely sepparate work, together they form a sort-of novel. As a bridge from Literary Short Fiction to Literary Novels, this book is fantastic. Though the stories are at times quirky and somewhat hard to believe, John McNally's writing style and artful integration of these elements makes them believable and highly readable. I find myself wanting to read the stories again (in fact, some of these were originally published in Troublemakers)--a rarity for me. This is a must-read.

'The Book of Ralph' fulfills a major fiction goal for me ? taking me to a place I haven't been. That place is the southwest side of Chicago in the late 70s. John McNally renders Chicago in full details and his narrator, Hank, is a great guide. McNally also paces the book in a wonderful way by inserting smaller sections that take me by surprise.

McNally's writing is wonderful. He is succinct without falling into the minimalism trap, and he avoids unnecessary detail. The story, place and characters drive this book. The author stays out of the way even though I laughed out loud several times (a tough trick to do without resorting to one-liners). When Hank becomes obsessed with a CB radio, McNally left me hurting from laughing so much.

Hank gives us the story without wiping Vaseline on the lens of memory. This is not a sentimental story about the nostalgia of the late 70s. And McNally finishes the book with a wonderful closer of where Ralph and Hank are today. He finishes the story without being too tidy.

This is a fine book. I highly recommend his collection, 'Troublemakers,' as well.

You know a book is successful when you find yourself having a hard time putting it down. That's exactly how successful John McNally's "The Book of Ralph" is. Once I started reading it, I was hooked. I knew there was no turning back, and to be honest, I liked that. It's only a matter of time before these very pages began to turn themselves without any consent from me.

"The Book of Ralph" is a collection of stories that revolve around two characters, Hank and Ralph. Hank is a smart and good kid--a straight shooter. Ralph is a delinquent with a criminal record. Even though the two couldn't be bigger opposites of each other, the two are friends. They get thrown into some of the craziest, most humorous, and disturbing situations while trying to survive the eighth grade. With a buddy like Ralph, you just never know where you'll end up.

While these are a collection of stories, "The Book of Ralph" reads very much like a novel. The stories are in perfect order and flow very much like the chapters you'd find in a regular novel. The book is separated in three sections: The Present (the majority of the book), The Past, and The Future (which is all one big story that is much darker and more unpredictable than any of the other stories). And even though all of these stories tie into one another, each one is a living and breathing organism that can stand on its own.

What really impressed me about this book was how clever and funny the writing is. It's very straight to the point and never drags on. You never feel bored and you never know what's going to happen next. The characters are very animated, but at the same time have a very human quality to them that makes them real. Every character is worth getting to know and they make the stories that much better. McNally knows exactly how to execute each of these stories in an entertaining and fascinating way.

The best stories, in my opinion, occur in the beginning (which is in the "Present" section). Reading about Hank dressing up as Gene Simmons on Halloween and Ralph becoming a thug for hire with a list that shows the cost of certain inflictions of pain he can make happen is only a taste of some of the crazy and unforgettable moments that will stay in your head. While I really enjoyed the last portion of the book (the "Future" section), the tone was much different from the rest of the book, leaning more towards the darker route. I had a hard time trying to remember that they were in fact grown-ups at that point, as I was so used to getting to know them as kids. Still, it is all a very enjoyable read altogether and I don't think a wasted moment ever happened in this book.

"The Book of Ralph" is a fantastic read that really kept my attention the entire time. I couldn't wait to finish it and I was sad to see the journey end. It's definitely something I will be rereading again. If you're looking for fiction that is funny, sad, sometimes disturbing, and darkly outrageous, then this is something you should consider picking up. John McNally has created very memorable tales about childhood woes and obstacles, and so much more. -Michael Crane

THE BOOK OF RALPH is a remarkable book. One of a kind. It is a true novita (stories assembled to work in concert as a novel, but each story may still be appraised and enjoyed on its own) that is technically sophisticated and still wickedly funny. The author's mastery of the craft of fiction-writing is apparent in every sentence -- from the dialogue to the placement and execution of narration to every well-observed and rendered detail -- and he uses it all to make us see, hear, feel. And laugh. This is a rare combination. Someone else here compares him to Richard Yates under the influence of the Simpsons; I'd also point to Yates as an influential figure, but rather then using his talents to make us cry over life's disasters and disappointments, McNally makes us laugh. He belongs in the same company as Mark Twain and Stuart Dybek, Andre Dubus and Richard Russo. TROUBLEMAKERS showed that John McNally was a writer to watch; THE BOOK OF RALPH is proof that he is a writer not to miss. Cancel your evening plans. Get the book and dig Ralph.

Although those who came into adolescence during the mid to late 1970's can not help being hopelessly entertained by the vivid descriptions of this period of time, as depicted by John McNally in his novel "The Book of Ralph", it would be a crime to write it off as nothing more than humorous nostalgia. John McNally creates characters and life experiences that cause us laugh while at the same time ache???we are able to relate to or perhaps for the very first time, come to understand our own missed opportunities and reasons for the stunted potential of those we grew up with. The two main characters and unlikely best friends, Hank and Ralph, grow up in very different life situations???Hank coming from a typical suburban home, and Ralph coming from the other side of the tracks, his two barely older cousins acting as delinquent pseudo-parents. Ralph operates as an independent survivor, constantly teetering on the edge of petty criminality which he justifies using the language of a seasoned, street-wise, idiosyncratic philosopher. Years after Ralph and Hank end their friendship, the split orchestrated by Hank???s fear that Ralph???s unorthodox schemes would eventually land him in jail, we are not at all surprised that the two are reunited, and Ralph becomes Hank???s liberator, releasing him from a career and fianc?? that on the surface appears to be what every good suburban boy desires. When Hank re-enters Ralph???s life, he once again becomes entangled in or perhaps more accurately willing swaddles himself in Ralph???s world of unconventionality. Despite the absurdity of Ralph???s seemingly stunted-in-adolescence life, we appreciate and even condone Hank leaving a career as a CPA to enter Ralph???s field of work as one who cleans up after gruesome death scenes. In some ways we long to be in Hank???s blood-stained shoes, if it means we would have the attention of Ralph. Ralph represents every misunderstood, completely unique, and totally could-not-care-less-what-the-world-thinks-of-me kid that grew up in areas of our hometowns that our parents told us never to venture too far into. Through John McNally???s wholly enthralling story telling, we come to understand the quirky, charismatic magnetism of Ralph, and in doing so, we acknowledge that the Ralphs we grew up with had the same unexplainable pull on us. McNally draws us into the world of Ralph, and in doing so we find ourselves longing to run into the Ralphs of our youth, hoping they have not changed and further yearning for them to release us, if only temporarily, from lives that sometimes border on the mundane.

You may not have met Ralph and Hank but you already know them. If you survived suburban junior high, then you know Ralph, the pyromaniac whose interest in optics extends only to trying to set his next door neighbor on fire with a magnifying lens, whose love of history begins and ends with a 19th-century pricelist for injuries inflicted by a New York gang. And if you?re holding a book, then you know Hank too?you are Hank, the kid equally drawn and repulsed by Ralph, afraid of what he might do, afraid to miss it. McNally is a master of such in-betweens. He evokes the seventies?complete with references to KISS, Mr. Snuffleupagus, Stars Wars, and Evel Knievel?without ever playing to nostalgia or kitsch. Instead, he explores the simmering tension between Hank?s parents, a Halloween night with Ralph?s criminal cousin, or Ralph and Hank?s chance reaquaintance years later with an unsettling mix of menace and belly laughs. Like a bully who lurks in bathroom stalls, McNally knows to dangle you over the toilet before plunging you in but has enough sense to pull you back before you drown. Sound a little harrowing? Well, it is?but it?s also funny as hell, and McNally knows how to balance the hair-raising with the hysterical better than any other young writer at work today.