Jack [Paperback]

A.M. Homes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 5, 1990

In Jack, A. M. Homes gives us a teenager who wants nothing more than to be normal—even if being normal means having divorced parents and a rather strange best friend. But when Jack’s father takes him out in a rowboat on Lake Watchmayoyo and tells his son he’s gay, nothing will ever be normal again. Out of Jack’s struggle to redefine what “family” means, A. M. Homes crafts a novel of enormous humor, charm, and resonance, the most convincing, funny, and insightful novel about adolescence since The Catcher in the Rye.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Jack is almost 16 as the story opens, struggling to keep life normal in the wake of his parents' divorce some years earlier. During a weekend outing, Jack's father admits to being a homosexual, throwing Jack's psyche and social life for a loop. Homes " perfectly captures the feelings, actions and even the speech cadences of a typical adolescent American male," commended PW. Author tour.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“A moving novel, and a very refreshing one. Jack is such an engaging, attractive human being, it’s a pleasure to believe in him.” —David Foster Wallace

“The engaging, doggedly funny [Jack] is likable from the first paragraph, a good kid caught in circumstances too much for him. And in the particulars of those circumstances, A. M. Homes touches upon something unique. Ms. Homes handles the big subjects subtly, deftly and with an appealing lack of melodrama.”—The New York Times Book Review

“A. M. Homes has created a most endearing teenager, and an intensely real world around him .... A fine book.”—Hilma Wolitzer

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; First Edition edition (September 5, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679732217
• ISBN-13: 978-0679732211
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #300,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #37 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Parenting & Families

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Read This Book!, January 31, 2006

By 

Monica Timmings "SRT" (Rye, New York United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jack (Paperback)

Jack, a work of fiction by A. M. Homes, is a remarkable story in which Jack must make his way through high school with more than just the usual pressures and awkwardness of growing up because his father is gay. It is hard to believe that this is Homes's first novel because the Sarah Lawrence graduate has won several awards such as a James Michener Fellowship, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and a Henfield Transatlantic Review Award. Although Jack has a cornucopia of themes the most constant theme is that what ever happens your family is always your family, no matter how strange they are.
In the story Jack lives with his mother and her boyfriend Michael sometime in the 1980's or 1990's. He is an only child and is fifteen, when the novel begins, attending public high school where his best friend is Max and his girlfriend is Maggie. Even though Jack thought he knew his father pretty well it turns out that he knew less than he thought, because he reviles on a boat one afternoon to Jack that he is a homosexual. Unfortunately, the novel takes place in the years before homosexuals were excepted because people were afraid they would "get AIDS from them or something" (pg. 40). However strange and uncomfortable Jack feels, after much difficulty he realizes that he can't just shut his father out of his life because he is his son and he knows that he is just going to have to get used to his fathers sexuality. Clearly Jack's life much more complicated than that of the average high schooler.
Homes's novel is full of numerous interesting and real characters. Jack is what I think of as a typical teenager; he plays on the basketball team, has a best friend and a girlfriend, despite his bumpy home life, he is fairly normal. Sadly the same can not be said for his best friend "stupid Max," who also experiences trouble at home (Pg. 38). Max's trouble becomes much more serious than Jack's though when his father beats his mother so badly that she kicks him out of the house. Maggie, Jack's girlfriend, whom he describes as one of the "ultra cool crowd, the kids who never, ever, talk to anyone but themselves" which was why he was so surprised when she started to like him (pg. 54). Jack's father lives in an apartment complex with Bob, and is slowly regaining Jack's friendship. Michael, Jack's mother's boyfriend, is a little strange. Jack calls him "Old Mr. Zen" because he is constantly pouring out somewhat hippie-like and wishy washy advice that is only applicable to the situation half the time, maybe more if you really search fro the meaning in his words (pg. 29). However weird these people may seem, at the end of the day they are Jack's family.
Jack by A. M. Homes is an addictive story. Homes has a great writing style because she uses a lot of both indirect and direct characterization. In my opinion that is the best way to hook the reader because it makes me feel as though I know the characters. Also, because Jack was such a believable teen, I felt as if his observations were ones that I might have made myself; in other words it didn't sound as though an adult was writing his thoughts, they sound real. I really enjoyed this story and thought that Homes's use of characterization was not only engaging, but effective.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Much different from Alice, but wonderful nonetheless...., April 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Jack (Paperback)

I loved this book from page one...I picked it up after reading" End of Alice" while i was at work (in a bookstore of course) and thumbed through the first couple of pages and was hesitant in putting it back...i'm glad i didn't....this book was funny and emotional and i recommend it to anyone who was confused as hell growing up.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An early novel about a teenage boy whose father is gay., February 10, 2007

By 

Linda Linguvic (New York City) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jack (Paperback)

Because I've read some of A.M. Homes' other work, I was interested in this early novel of hers written in 1989. It doesn't have the punch that either "The Safety of Objects" or "The End of Alice" has, but it clearly shows the promise of a young writer.

Written as a first-person narrative by a Jack, 15-year old boy in the suburbs, which is Ms. Homes' favorite landscape, we experience all of this boy's highs and lows. His father and mother have recently divorced and his father has just told Jack that he is gay. This, of course, has a tremendous effect on the boy who has conflicting allegiance to each of his parents. Jack is also dealing with adolescence. He is starting to date girls and take driving lessons. His best friend's parents have problems too. And someone has written some cruel words on Jack's locker at school.

The book is merely 218 pages long and a fast read and drew me right into the mind of this young man and his conflicts. If you are a fan of A.M. Homes, you might like it. But the theme is simpler than some of her other work and didn't have the same kind of depth. But I did enjoy it for what it was.