Finny: A Novel [Paperback]

Justin Kramon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 13, 2010

Justin Kramon’s debut novel, Finny, is a sweeping, enchanting voyage, an insightful story about a young woman’s complicated path to adulthood.
 
We meet Finny Short as an observant, defiant fourteen-year-old who can’t make sense of her family’s unusual habits: Her mother offers guidance appropriate for a forty-year-old socialite; her father quotes Nietzsche over pancakes. Finny figures she’s stuck with this lonely lot until she meets Earl Henckel, a boy who comes from an even stranger place than she does. Unhappy with Finny’s budding romance with Earl, her parents ship her off to Thorndon boarding school. But mischief follows Finny as she befriends New York heiress Judith Turngate, a girl whose charm belies a disquieting reckless streak.

Finny’s relationships with Earl and Judith open her up to dizzying possibilities of love and loss and propel her into a remarkable adventure spanning twenty years and two continents. Justin Kramon has given us a wickedly funny odyssey with a moving and original love story at its core. Finny introduces us to an unforgettable heroine, a charmingly intricate world, and an uncommonly entertaining and gifted young novelist.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his impressive debut, Kramon takes on a number of familiar coming-of-age plots--smalltown fish-out-of-water adolescence, frustrated first love, boarding school friendships, big city escapes--and pulls it all off with flair and humor. A 14-year-old misfit in her Maryland hometown, Finny Short is sent to boarding school by her conservative parents soon after acting on a crush on mysterious boy-next-door Earl. At posh Thorndon, she finds an unlikely best friend in Judith, a beautiful heiress who thinks nothing of catching a ride in Peter Jennings's car; together, Earl and Judith prove unexpectedly influential throughout Finny's teenage years, as well as her passage through college. Kramon is at his best sending up Finny's innocence by means of an endearing, Dickensian coterie of side characters like androgynous dorm matron Poplan and Earl's father, a narcoleptic pianist who falls asleep in the middle of performances. Combining snappy dialogue, frank attention to sex, and convincingly detailed characters--eccentric and sympathetic, but not sentimental--Kramon is clearly a find.
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From Booklist

She was christened Delphine, but—strong-minded in this and other things as well—she chose to call herself Finny, and this is the story of some 20 or so formative years of her life, from age 14 to (roughly) 34. That not all of these years are presented consecutively—Kramon skips over high school and a cluster of years in Finny’s twenties and early thirties—lends a not unattractive episodic and even wistful air to this first novel of emotional development, disappointment, and, perhaps, fulfillment. A clutch of eccentric characters evidences Kramon’s fondness for Dickens, and the frequent allusions to Finny’s future (of the years later she would realize sort) salute Dickens’ sentimentality, as well. For the reader, this invites both a parallel nostalgia for that future and an air of the inevitable to Finny’s sometimes unhappy experiences. This mood impacts Kramon’s characters, too, whose actions sometimes seem more imposed than organic. Not a perfect book, therefore, but one that is suffused with tenderness and the promise of good things for the author’s future. --Michael Cart

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks (July 13, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812980239
• ISBN-13: 978-0812980233
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.8 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #363,404 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Justin Kramon is the author of the novel Finny (Random House 2010). A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he has published stories in Glimmer Train, Story Quarterly, Boulevard, Fence, TriQuarterly, and others. He has received honors from the Michener-Copernicus Society of America, Best American Short Stories, the Hawthornden International Writers' Fellowship, and the Bogliasco Foundation. He teaches at Gotham Writers' Workshop in New York City and at the Iowa Young Writers' Studio.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quirky, Heartwarming, Funny, Thoughtful, July 13, 2010

By 

Jennifer Donovan "5minutesforbooks" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Finny: A Novel (Paperback)

Finny is a dramatic character-driven novel that follows Delphine "Finny" Short's life from early childhood well into adulthood. It's sort of a coming-of-age novel, not ending with young adulthood, but continuing through each phase of Finny's life. Calling it a dramatic novel doesn't really do it justice, because it's funny as well. It's another of those books that had me laughing out loud making people around me look over to see what I was reading. And I wanted to tell them. In fact, I wanted to do more than that. I wanted to read them the scene that made me laugh, and how completely delightful I found this book. And I usually did.

Not only did I want to talk to others around me about this book, but I found myself shouting at the characters at least in my mind, like some people (ahem) might do as they watch reality TV: "Don't do it!" or "Tell him!" or "What are you thinking??"

This is one of those novels that has a timeless feel. Though it has a contemporary setting, I still found myself surprised when a reference to something contemporary, such as Jenga, crept into the story.

It's sad to see a book end when you've come to love the characters, the storytelling, and the writing so much, but the final chapter was so satisfying. All of the characters were brought back together, so I felt like I could properly say goodbye. It reminded me of the series finale of a TV show, where you really want to see everyone one last time, and the writers indulge you.

This is a wonderful debut novel, and I know that I will definitely keep an eye out for what Justin Kramon writes next.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very funny and charming, July 22, 2010

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B. Osinski (Arlington, VA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Finny: A Novel (Paperback)

The (believable) story of a girl that is amusing and cute. Finny is told over three sections of tweens, college and late 20s/early 30s with rather fast interlude chapters to explain what occurred inbetween. Each section has its moments that resulted in me actually laughing out loud in public. The book's transition to later life was gradual and flawless as the jokes seemed to taper off later in Finny's life and the tone became more serious. I felt like I was becoming wiser along with Finny. Overall it was a well-written story of love, loss, and... well, living.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heartwarming and well written, July 19, 2010

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S. Allen (Columbus, OH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Finny: A Novel (Paperback)

I really liked this book, it was quirky and unusual and the things I thought might happen didn't. If you don't read it for any other reason, do so for the sometimes beautiful metaphors. I'll choose a line in the book to sum it all up: "The story was about something sad, though [he] hadn't been afraid to make it funny."