Customer Reviews

Good Times, Bad Times

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Good times, Bad times was truly a wonderful story. A good friend of mine, whom I've since lost touch with, introduced me to the writings of James Kirkwood. And life was never the same again! Kirkwood was a brilliant, insightful author who had a way of pulling you in and really making you feel for the characters he wrote about. This book was very appropriately titled, as it made me laugh during my good times and afforded me a great cry during my bad times. I have been searching everywhere for a copy. James Kirkwood and his novels were a very important part of the best and worst of times for me. I miss them.

Good Times Bad Times by James Kirkwood was a wonderful discovery for a teenage boy living in northern British Columbia (that would be me). It was about being different and about surviving. Like the title suggests, the main character will go through both the good times and the bad times and survive (maybe, just barely) and both types of times were, in the end, okay because it was all a part of life. This book takes up many of the themes of A Separate Peace and mixes them with a lot more humour and comes a little closer to the truth at times and builds an unforgettable relationship between two boys in a private school and their reaching out to each other to find the things they think they have missing in themselves. This book states that life will have many suprises. This is one of the good ones.

I am shocked that this title could be out of print. I first read it when I was in my early teens and have returned to the story many times since. Providing some serious competition to Salinger, Kirkwood truly enters the skin of his characters. They are completley true in their words and their actions. I felt terribly sad, a sense of loss, at the pointless destruction of their innocent lives. Yet what makes this story crackle is the constant humor and driving plot. Kirkwood keeps you glued up until (and after) the final page.

Kirkwood didn't realize he'd written a classic story at the time. This is beautiful storytelling with identifiable people who whistle past our heads, and draw us into their universe. Too bad the movie, which was to star Dorothy Louden, Cliff Robertson, and Keith McDermott, shut down during production. What a thing it would have been. An all time favorite, and by the way, it also turned me on to " Turandot"

James Kirkwood has the wonderful ability to allow the reader to preside as the jury in this fabulous story. Peter Kilburn, the main character, is driven to murder in this touching story about a young man in a somewhat fragile New Hampshire prep school. Should he be condemned for his action or is what drove him to do it more than enough justification? Kirkwood allows the reader to make the decision and keeps the reader entertained with wit, laughs and an easy ability to identify with Peter Kilburn, along the way.

Eighteen year old Peter Kilburn has been arrested for the murder of his head teacher, Mr Hoyt, and he now starts to recount the events that led up to this predicament in a statement addressed to his defending attorney, which is Good Times Bad Times.

Peter, son of a one time moderately successful Hollywood actor living in California, finds himself courtesy of the benevolence of one of his father's cronies enrolled at Gilford Academy, once a respectable minor New England school but now on the decline. He is looking forward to making new friends, and particularly to finding that one special friend; he likes to be able to relate to one close individual. Things do not look too good until a new boy arrives, the twenty year Jordan. Immediately they connect and soon develop a remarkable close and trusting friendship. Jordan is the youngest son of a wealthy New Orleans family, but if ill health has held him back in several ways it has also made him strongly individual.

Peter's relationship with his headmaster is rather different. After a bad start he eventually wins favour as Hoyt selects him for a reading from Hamlet in a school production. But Hoyt is unpredictable and unbalanced, and his moods swings from friendly to aggressive. He becomes infatuated with Peter, and jealous of his friendship with Jordan, both of which lead to a number of problems, and the tragic outcome mentioned above.

James Kirkwood masterfully conveys the spirit of youth. Both Peter and Jordan come across as likeable and honest characters while their fellow students are an odd assortment of misfits, Hoyt is clearly deranged, and there are plenty more larger than life characters. It all adds up to a funny, at times hilarious, often shocking, but above all very moving story; beautifully written it is to be highly recommended.

This book like for many others, changed my life. I felt like an outsider and for some reason the book resonated with me so much I've probably read it at least 12 times. The themes are numerous, the writing intense but NEVER pretentious. Like reading a book by a good friend that make you feel like you wish you couldn't have talked over at least one problem with this person. I came here to buy a new copy but decided to review it while I was at it. I keep buying them and giving them away!

A friend of mine with whom I taught for several years in a small New England boarding school recently wrote me a letter about his experiences teaching Good Times/Bad Times, as well as his (failed) attempts to meet James Kirkwood. I first read the novel in 1968 or 1969, and I was profoundly moved by it. It was absolutely gripping, and I'm pretty certain that I plowed through it in one long, very enjoyable night. Now, 41 years later, the stark descriptions, excellently developed characters, and intense conflicts of the novel are still etched in my mind. Did I ever teach the novel??? I'm not sure. It's possible that the sexual themes within the novel were just too intense for my readers to handle. But, it is a work that definitely stays with you after you read it, and it is an excellent reflection of the cultural struggles with which many in the U.S. were grappling in the late 60s and early 70s.

Well, it isn't the best book ever written, that is War and Peace, but Good Times/Bad Times is one of the best novels ever. It is about the meaning of true friendship. It is a travesty of publishing that it is out of print and every time I buy a copy to give to someone I have to hunt down a used copy. I have given it to about 20 people so far, I think. I think the best thing about the book is that it is simultaneously a comedy (hysterically funny at times) and a tragedy. I also think I can identify with the main character, who had such low self-esteem that he tolerated verbal and physcial abuse at the hands of the headmaster, since he was starving for a father figure that he could respect. The best part is the relationship between the two boys, Jordan and Peter. The meaning of the book is that a friendship like that can save one's life, and death cannot destroy that kind of love and connection.

This book is a classic and as some others here have expressed I am sorry that it has gone out of print. I have read the book so many times that I know the dialogue by heart. It is definitely a special one-in-a million book with wit, humor, loss and sadness. Very worthwhile reading.