Customer Reviews

I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

A funny and smart portrait of both Evil Geniusdom and life in middle school. A fun read with a sharp eye, and with genuine insight into growing up, and how hard it is for parents and children to understand each other. I read it in one weekend and would recommend it to anyone -- adult or child.

There aren't many books for middle schoolers out there that sport blurbs from folks like Jon Stewart and Judd Apatow. There is, in fact, only one. Which means that we're talking about a book written for kids that is hoping to reach those out there who enjoy watching The Daily Show on DVR and Superbad on DVD. Probably boys. Adolescent, definitely. And no wonder, since the author (Josh Lieb) actually is a head writer on The Daily Show and everything. But since I (A) like boy books and (B) was a huge fan of the similarly plotted "Evil Genius" by Catherine Jinks I figured I had a chance at liking this one. And I did. Quite a bit. The book is the ultimate wish fulfillment fantasy of any child more intelligent than their cruel classmates. Lieb does a masterful job at tapping into the humor and hatred that seethes beneath the surface of every seventh grade boy. The ending leaves something to be desired, but on the whole the book is a hoot and for a certain kind of kid it's hugely entertaining.

If you encountered Oliver Watson in school you'd probably think he was the biggest dumbest dork on the planet. All his fellow classmates feel that way, and his parents don't think he's all that bright either. Get to know him a little better, however, and you'd better hope he's taken a shine to you. Oliver isn't just a genius. He's a supergenius, multi-billionaire, using his current state as a middle school "slow" chubby kid as the perfect front. And, as he himself says of his current childlike state, "time will cure this unfortunate condition". With half the hemisphere in the palm of his hand, you would think that nothing would get to Oliver. Yet the thorn in his side, the father he despises ("Daddy") gives him the impetus to do something he'd never think he'd want to do: run for class president. Oliver can crush his enemies without a second thought. So why is it that running for class president is so difficult? And what is it that Oliver really wants? Photographs, notes, illustrations, and other ephemera spot the text.

Oliver reads like an escapee from "Children Of The Atom". He's what every smart kid stuck in middle school wishes they could be. Playing classmates for the fools they are. A secret arsenal of weapons at your disposal. Adults cowering before you. What's not to love? For a while there I tried to reinterpret the story as a delusion taking place entirely in Oliver's mind. You could probably make a pretty strong case for that if you wanted to. Really, it isn't until Oliver sees the surprise his campaign managers have created for him that you understand how real his little world really is. Even if you don't think the book is a delusion, however, you can't help but agree that Oliver is an unreliable narrator. He's quite dedicated to the notion of being an evil genius, but is unwilling to commit to absolute evil. His mom's a good example of this. Within the same paragraph he's one moment saying, "Am I capable of love? A question even I can't answer," to later mentioning "I like to make her smile, and I try to do that a lot."

And, of course, it's funny in a rather enjoyably heartless manner. "I Am a Genius" marks the first time I've ever read a book where a character tried to play matchmaker in the hopes of making the two people more miserable than they would be apart. Great lines in it too. "The maternal instinct is strong in this one," for example. And any book where the character publishes, "counterfeit Archie comics, in which Betty and Veronica dump that idiot Archie and devote their lives to worshipping the great Reggie" is obviously going to appeal to my generation more than middle schoolers, but I don't care. It's awesome. Besides, Jughead was recently spotted in an Archie comic wearing a "Don't tase me, bro" t-shirt, so maybe kids today are ready for that kind of humor.

Sometimes I worry that a book is full of photographs and images because the author couldn't be bothered to write a full-length novel and needed to fill space. But I didn't actually get that impression with this title. Between the snarky footnotes ala "The Amulet of Samarkand" (minus the snarky demon) and photos of Basque dances, faux band album covers, and images of the characters in the story, this is just a case of ephemera helping to tell a tale. They're all cool. I was, however, mildly freaked when I saw the photograph of Oliver's parents and came to the startled conclusion that if their prom was in 1995 (theme: "Jungle Fever") then Oliver could easily be my son too. *shudder*

The recommended reading age on this book is tough. I don't think I've ever read such a thoroughly middle school aged book in my life. It's just a touch young for high school while definitely not elementary school either. Between the mild profanity (the occasional "jackass") and oblique references to masturbation, we're talking 6th, 7th, 8th grade all the way. High schoolers could get a kick out of it, sure. And 4th and 5th graders will feel quite edgy, but if you have to put it anywhere it's Junior High from tip to tail.

Lieb probably wouldn't want to hear it, but the book that this title owes the most to has to be "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" by Jeff Kinney. Both books are first-person narratives of unapologetic self-centered egotists with hilarious texts. Both have images illustrating characters, ideas, and gags. The difference is in their endings. Kinney has managed over the years to convince his editors that the amoral ending is something kids can handle. Maybe that has something to do with the format itself, but whatever the case Kinney gets away with murder. Lieb isn't as lucky. For whatever reason he had to make the book meaningful at the end. The last four pages, to be exact. He's been setting us up for some time, making it clear that Oliver strives to get his father's approval even as he does his darndest to make the man's life a living misery. Then we come to the end and Oliver is strangely hurt by his classmates' reaction to him in an uncharacteristic moment of weakness. This rings a little false (particularly when he says that the evil girl of his dreams is "the Meanest Girl in School") and is then immediately followed up with a strange moment of reconciliation between Oliver and Daddy. I dunno. Something tells me Lieb should have stuck to his guns and given the book a "Wimpy Kid" ending, mocking the standard happy dappy learning-and-growing titles out there. As it stands now, the ending renders the book a bit . . . well . . . normal.

But it's a small detail in an otherwise entirely enjoyable affair. For those kids who want something "exactly like" "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" this book is definitely along the same lines. Funny, packed with images, and entirely original it's just enjoyable. Middle school through and through. Don't be surprised if you find kids begging you for the sequel too. There's not one yet, but Oliver's too great a kid to leave alone for long.

I love good comic fiction (to me the gold standard is P.G. Wodehouse), which often leads to hopefully picking up books like this and reading them. It's not often you see a book blurbed by Jon Stewart and Judd Apatow, so it seemed worth a gamble. The story takes the student council election shenanigans of Tom Perrota's excellent Election, and tries to amplify the comedy by moving things down to middle school and making the tubby 7th-grade protagonist a literal evil genius, complete with underground lair, secret minions, and ferocious dog. It's not a bad premise, after all, it's generally comic gold to have a main character be a kid who acts as an adult, more so if they're up to no good.

However, the comic antics here just aren't that sharp or funny. I think part of the problem is that the writing is so choppy, as everything comes at you in a rat-a-tat-tat delivery with a line break seemingly between almost every sentence. It sits on the page more like a sketch comedy script or series of punchlines than actual narrative prose (and it also means the book can be easily read in under two hours). Plenty of bits and pieces are amusing, such as his messing with the English teacher by having insults printed on cigarettes that the teacher discovers in unopened packs, or his retrofitting of the school with a secret room complete with on-call butler, or his interactions with the Warren Buffett-like figurehead for his evil empire (the book is set in Omaha). But none of it is laugh, or even chuckle-out-loud funny, and the whole enterprise is just too thin. Had some more time (and words) been deployed to give depth to his relationship to his parents, or explore his budding possible romance with "the meanest girl in school" then it might have a little more richness for the comedy to contrast against. But as it stands, it feels like a wide shotgun blast of comedy one gets from a middling episode of the Simpsons. It washes over you and is amusing, but utterly unmemorable.

A final note on the audience: the book is somewhat curious in that it's been published by the "young reader" imprint of a major publishing house, but really felt to me like its intended for adults. I interact with middle graders every day at the public library I work at, and despite the various gross-out humor parts (lots of fart, body odor, etc. humor), I can't see this book working for them at all. Several examples spring to mind, such as the takedown of a local PBS pledge drive -- somewhat hilarious to adults, baffling to kids. Or the use of an ultra rare '70s Bobba Fett action figure as a key plot point -- calculated to strike a chord w/ 40-year-old geeks like my friends and I, but largely meaningless to kids.

Excellent and hilarious novel. Oliver Watson should go down as one of our great literary heroes, but probably will not. Why not? Because the novel is genuine funny, and there is an east coast bias against taking humorous novels seriously. Is Oliver a young Jay Gatsby? Probably not. A young Oedipus? Definitely. But Oliver is most like a slightly younger Alex from A Clockwork Orange. Alex was but 15, Oliver is 12, and in 7th grade (he runs for 8th grade class president, and the winner will take office the next school year.) Alex is evil, yet we sympathize with him. Oliver proclaims his evilness in the title and from the first page on, yet we sympathize with him, even though he is tubby and socially inept. Perhaps we admire Alex because he is articulate and charming. Oliver also possesses insight into the world around him, and wins us over by his astute observations and keen wit (plus, he has most excellent taste - he listens to Tales of Brave Ulysses by Cream and Sweet Jane, presumably from the Rock n Roll Animal album, and he calls Gravity's Rainbow unreadable - thank you, I thought it was just me.)
While Alex must endure society's attempt to "fix" him, and struggles to regain his self (which is purely selfish and completely contemptible) Oliver struggles to assert himself and thrive in an environment which rejects him, and worse, ignores him. He runs for class president as a struggle against these attitudes. Alex deals with his society by rejecting it and caring only for himself. Oliver deals by retreating into his fantasy world, and what a fantasy world it is. Oliver presents himself as the world's third richest man who can fix the Kentucky Derby, have people killed with a word, and, in the interest of becoming class president, overthrow a dictator in Africa. This fantasy world is presented as reality. It is a wild, crazy, 7th grade version of reality that we all would have loved to have lived, and for this reason we choose to believe this reality from the start. The connection between Oliver and Alex is cemented in Oliver's speech for class president when he addresses his classmates as "my comrades, my droogies, my pals..."
We are told to take Holden Caulfield seriously. Why? He gets kicked out of school, tools around New York City on his own, meets up with a prostitute. Does that sound like your life at 15? Oliver goes to school, deals with insipid and selfish teachers, insufferable and bullying class mates, an overbearing mother and an uninvolved father. Which story is fantasy?
In the end, Holden has not changed, nor has Alex (American version. Evidently Burgess' original version released in England has Alex realizing the error of his ways in a final chapter that was initially omitted by the American publisher.) On the other hand, in the end Oliver does a truly heroic act - he speaks the truth, and suffers for doing so. Oliver should be elevated to the status of literary hero. If that is not a reason to buy this book, than buy it for this reason: it is really really funny.

Oliver Watson pretends to be stupid. He lives with his parents. His mother is there for his every need and his father is emotionally detached. Oliver is the third richest man in the world and he is also an evil genius. He wants to only do one thing. He wants to impress his dad. When his father makes a wise crack about the school election. Oliver takes it as his personal challenge to win the school election. Turns out, though, that overthrowing foreign dictators is actually way easier than getting kids to like you. Can this evil genius win the class presidency and keep his true identity a secret, all in time to impress his dad?
I found Oliver to be a funny character. The problem is that I did not see as much depth as I wanted from him. He reminded me a lot of an older version of Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory. The plot was interesting and entertaining. It was slow and the plot dragged on for a bit. It was a fairly original book that had the fun and snark that I wanted from this sort of book. Lieb was a great writer and I am excited to see more from him in the future. This book is a good middle grade and it is worth checking it out.

In I AM A GENIUS OF UNSPEAKABLE EVIL AND I WANT TO BE YOUR CLASS PRESIDENT, Josh Lieb has created an inverted gestaltic world inhabited exclusively by the one dimensional drones that may in fact represent reality. Behind this facade of inanity lies some real creative genius, the "genius" of the title, a seventh grader named Oliver Watson. In Oliver, Lieb has borrowed liberally from other sources of the enfant terrible: the golden haired uni-mind children from the film, VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED, the monstrous seven year old Anthony from the TWILIGHT ZONE episode who has become ruler of his world, and even from Piggy in LORD OF THE FLIES. There is a tendency for adult readers to gloss over the premise that a ten year old fat boy could rule the world by proxy. After all, the saying that one might be the power behind the throne is well-established and even sincerely believed by many. The problem though lies less in the convoluted mind of Oliver but more in the collective minds of the assumed audience. Given that the picture on the dust jacket is a sliced in half photo of a pudgy pre-pubescent youth, it is not likely that many adults will look within. It is more reasonable to assume that the reader will be a middle school student whose notions of good and evil and the Way That The World Works are still largely unformed and uninformed. Such a reader will look at Oliver as more or less a kid like him or herself, more a difference of degree than in kind. The reality is more prosaic and harder to spot. Oliver may look like your run of the mill goofy kid, but he no more is like that than an edible toadstool is a poisonous one. Oliver speaks in the kidspeak of his age when addressing his family and peers, but the moment that he speaks to his adult flunky, Lionel Sheldrake, his vocabulary and tonal inflections assume Olympean proportions. And therein lies the paradox of the book. Children who read this book must maintain a double perspective on Oliver. When he speaks to Lionel, he grows metaphorically speaking, to be the very adult institution that the book so clearly lampoons. It is only when he communicates with his peers and family that he shrinks and becomes more accessible. Since most of the book deals with the nitty gritty of life as a picked on class clown by schoolyard bullies of various stripes, a youthful reader may fast forward the adult conversation with Sheldrake and focus on the monumental insecurities of middle school angst that Oliver can whisk away in a heartbeat. Further, Lieb provides some humorous variations on scholarly footnotes that may impel readers to pick up as if by linguistic osmosis the very critical reading skills and cultural literacy that educators complain is so lacking in our curriculums.

This is not a plot driven novel. The drive to be class president is the only plot glue holding the strands together. The focus is on the world view of a boy who sees his universe through the mutated senses of a genetic freak of nature, and it is his perceptions that set the tone of a world weary adolescent who, like some shrunken Alexander, complains that he has no more worlds to conquer other than to be class president. I recommend this book but with the proviso that a well-read parent may wish to chat with that parent's child about the surprisingly adult themes that are intertwined with the seeming childishness of a boy who is far more than he seems.

Definitely a quirky read! Oliver plays dumb at school (he does a great job) but is really an evil genius who thinks his parents are idiots...although he does appreciate his mothers toasted cheese making abilities. In order to prove to his dad being class president is no huge feat Oliver must run for the office despite his rather geeky and insipid reputation.

This is a pretty funny book and I did find myself snickering out loud more than once. I think it may take a little bit higher of reading level to get all the jokes but none-the-less a great book for middle schoolers!

What a great read! I just finished it and I am going out to buy three more copies for my niece and nephews. Fantastic fun!

Teen lit about a misfit high schooler with secret resources. Darkly comic farce about a seeming nerd who looks like a loser but secretly has everything he wants except acceptance, and the knowledge of what love feels like. It would be a great gift for that high school boy on your list that's too smart and/or strange to fit in with the usual pop-jocks ... or for a speech student looking for a new humorous interpretation piece. Four stars out of five, in its genre. It's hardly great literature, but you'll laugh out loud in places, and you won't regret the time you spent on it.

If you were born being a complete genius, able to understand everything said about you, then you might have turned out this way too. When Oliver is first born he hears his father make some nasty comments about him. He decides from then on to pretend to be complete idiot. When we enter the story Oliver is 12 and already the third richest person in the world. No one knows this outside a few bought people. In the beginning Oliver does not want to run for class president, but by the end he goes out of his way to make sure that only can he win, but that he has an opponent to run against.

Now though Oliver swears that he is not doing this to win his father's respect, you know that's exactly why he's doing it.

Over all this was a very funny book. At the same time though, I seriously doubt any middle schooler or higher would read it. (They want to read stories about people older than them).

Either way I recommend this for any child who has wanted to feel closer to their parents, but especially their father.