Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
One Hard-Boiled Kid, September 17, 2009
This review is from: Huge: A Novel (Paperback)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
The story is set in a middle-sized New Jersey town in the mid 1980s. Eugene Smalls is called "Genie" by everybody but he wants to be called "Huge." He isn't huge though. He's small. He's 12 years old (almost 13.) He is smarter than everyone around him, but he has trouble expressing himself, and other people's stupidity makes him furious. He lashes out violently, and has been branded a "problem child." During a long suspension from school (sometime before the novel starts,) he read a lot of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Sherlock Holmes. He also built a totally sweet bike out of spare parts. Summer is ending, Huge is going to be going to Junior High in the fall, and this is when our story unfolds. It is told in a semi-noir manner, in first person with lots of introspective flashbacks and sidetracks.
His senile grandmother (who gave him all the detective books) hires Huge to solve the mystery of the vandalized sign at the retirement home, and he gradually uncovers a tangled web of treachery and deceit among the kids in his town. Or does he? Huge may be freakishly smart, but he's still a kid. He misses a lot. Plus, he has a sidekick named Thrash (given to him by his guidance councilor) who tends not to give Huge the best advice...
The language of this book is vulgar but funny. Some of the vernacular sounds more like 2000s than 1980s. I don't remember kids talking like that when I was in 6th grade back in 1986, but I didn't grow up in New Jersey. Huge himself is so furious, so off-kilter, and so full of hard-boiled detective fiction, that for the first third of the book I kept picturing him as a grizzled 40-year-old midget instead of a kid. His dialogue and thought processes are hilarious yet incisive.
Lots of 1980s period details reminded me of my own childhood, but it was difficult to pin down an exact year. Seems like 1986 to me; I don't see how it could be earlier than that.
The climax of the novel and the breaking of the case seemed somewhat labored. At some point the story metamorphoses into a "coming-of-age" tale, and everything gets sort of wanky and epiphanic near the end. Then the book goes on for another chapter AFTER the apparent ending, only to stop abruptly without a clear resolution. Sometimes it's nice to be left hanging, but in this case it felt like a trick.
This book was enjoyable but not great. Good summer reading.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exceptional Coming of Age Novel, January 10, 2010
This review is from: Huge: A Novel (Paperback)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Huge is the story of a smart, complicated boy who spends the summer before sixth grade tackling what starts off as a fairly mundane adventure. The encyclopedia brown introduction quickly blossoms into a huge adventure that stretches his character in all directions. We've all been through the challenges of transitioning from childhood to young adulthood. All of that confusion, emotion, angst and yearning are captured in Huge. The author convincingly, with skill and charm, blends the extraordinary with the expected to create a relatable and convincing journey.
The plot centers on the vandalism of a sign outside the main character's grandmother's retirement home. The main character, Huge, is tasked by his grandmother with getting to the bottom of this whodunnit. It serves as the perfect vehicle to both explore and expand Huge's captivating personality. The plot constantly drives both action and character development. While the detective story works well as a subtle backdrop to the more significant developments between characters, it's never, even temporarily abandoned.
The mature and adolescent themes visited through the eyes of a uniquely sophisticated and heroic, yet immature and obviously inexperienced youth struck a huge resonant note deep within me. Huge is easily the best book I've read this year. I can easily recommend this book to anyone and everyone. However, the vocabulary and content may be too much for some preteens.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Impressive first novel, July 9, 2009
This review is from: Huge: A Novel (Paperback)
As someone who grew up longing for a bike with a banana seat, I felt an instant kinship with Eugene "Huge", the main character of this book. He's 12 going on 13, and is a mixed up kid trying to do the right thing, but finding himself in trouble, some real, some of his own imagining, navigating relationships with the other boys, and some girls, and moving towards adulthood. HUGE does remind me of Catcher in the Rye in a way, because it is about a kid who is more or less on his own, parents in the background, navigating an independence with an unfounded confidence and (to the reader) obviously adolescent naivete. As first I was not sure if I'd really dig this story (is it really for young adults? I wondered, and the answer is, no, not really, not to me), but I got to really like the main character and root for him as he pursues Stacy and mixes it up with the big kids, crusing around town on his cool Schwinn Stingray. Fun novel.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
