Customer Reviews

H

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Rarely do I find a book that touches me the way this one does. It speaks to all of us who have felt like misfits in a world that cares so much about outward appearance and conformity.

Benjamin, a young boy of 12, is a troubled child who escapes from his reality with his toy, a stuffed letter H he calls Elliot. It seems his toy is his only companion, and the only thing Benjamin allows to share in his imaginative but unbalanced life. Through letters from Benjamin's camp counselors, parents and from Benjamin to Elliot, we find how a lonely young boy adapts when his world is stolen from him. Moving and beautifully written.

If you choose one book this new year, H should be the one. Brilliant, heart breaking, sacred and profound, this is the book that will change the way you see the world and the way you see yourself. For anyone who has ever felt different from the rest, who has noticed other people who never quite fit in, who recall the 'odd kids' from early school days and wonder what became of them, read H and meet the genius, tragic, timeless words of Benjamin Sherman, who in his illness and madness and beauty really can make the world a slightly kinder place. Like "Ordinary People," "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "Girl, Interrupted," and "The Catcher in the Rye," "H" deserves a place on your night table!

This first-time novelist embarked on a brave, wonderful, and successful journey with this extraordinary book, and what a treat it is for the reader. Instead of smug, writerly prose and New York affectation, this highly educated young writer seeps into the soul of a troubled, brilliant, frustrating, loveable young man, and shows us his true gifts...and how they can prevail despite society's obsessive pressure to make him more "normal." A brilliant novel for parents, siblings, or spouses of those misunderstood few--and for all of us who know we're different, and that we matter.

I loaned the book and started reading it at 4 am when I had given up sleeping. I finished it at 8 am and woke up crying. The book is carefully veiled pain, enigmatic suffering, wrapped tightly in blazing insight. The best moments lie in the subtleties of dialogue and expression recorded by Benjamin, the 12 year old character -- and that type of writing is something that will open more of the book up as you re- and re-read it.

I think "H" is an impressive debut novel. It is well written and insightful. Ms. Shepard seems to have enormous feeling for her protagonist, Benjamin. Her unflinching portrait of him is as remarkably loving as it is detailed. Benjamin is simultaneously peculiar beyond belief and a treasure. Reading "H" made me think a lot about the strange people I see daily on the streets of New York. It's merely easy to assume they are "wierd" and incomprehensible; "H" suggests that seemingly incomprehensible behavior could be the soul expressing itself. Seeing life from the point of view of "H"'s protagaonist was both moving and eye-opening

I very much enjoyed this. Shepard captures the sense of the lost world of childhood without any sentimentality. I recommend this novella to anyone who likes good prose and who likes to be moved by good storytelling.

There are so many kids who just don't fit in and who live by rules set by their own minds. Unfortunately many people do not take the time to find out what's going on with those kids and dismiss them as troublesome. H's Benjamin is one of those special kids and luckily, the author of H allows us time to get to know him and to understand him -- and to see why he's worth getting to know. I can't recommend it enough.

This is the most brilliant and cleverly crafted short novel, alternating between letters to and from a mentally-distraught boy's parents and his camp counselors and his diary entries, as he writes to his stuffed letter H. The premise is so imaginative, but most impressive, it captures the inner world of someone struggling with mental demons perfectly, and you, the reader, go there, too. It is impossible to put it down once you've picked it up, the lyrical writing captivates.

I loved H -- it was a seamless and compelling visit to the mind of a troubled but also original, smart, funny and endearing young boy. The writing is simple and elegant, and the characters are wholly believable. I stayed up half the night to read it in one sitting, and found it absolutely worth the effort!

Elizabeth Shepard has a lot of talent, but H. is not her book. Rather, it is a mixture of seemingly purloined stereotypes about idiot-savant kids, and fussily compassionate parents. In this collection of letters that centre around a "retarded kid", only a precious few really hit home. In most of the book you can see that the author "wrote" these letters. Books like Please Don't Say Hello and Fantastical Dr. Canterbury are much finer and more realistic portrayals of what most people would call "madness". In the meantime, wait for Mrs. Shepard's second novel.