Little Red Rooster [Hardcover]

Greg Matthews (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Matthews (Heart of the Country has set this contemporary coming-of-age novel in suburban Indiana. Fifteen-year-old Burris Weems, who is bright, talkative and admittedly pedantic, decides to dictate his secret thoughts into a stolen tape recorder. His first entries comprise a litany of what is wrong with the world in general and Burris in particular. He is short, he limps, he failed every subject last semester, he shares a tiny house with his chain-smoking mother and sister, and his sex-life is nonexistent. Burris has a realistic teenage voice, and his early, rapid-fire diatribes can be annoying. Things pick up considerably for Burris (and the reader) when he gets a summer job stacking cartons. Befriended by Lee, a co-worker, Lee's wife Diane and Diane's father Genewho, after a sex-change operation, is JeanBurris's world changes dramatically. The suicide of one of his new friends provides the impetus that sends Burris on a funny, harrowing and affecting journey across the U.S.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA Burris Weems feels awkward and out of step with the world, and he scorns the conformity and confusion of his adolescent peers. During one summer, a variety of funny and sad events change his perception of himself. He makes a friend, falls in love, and loses his virginity. He loses his friend, and is betrayed by his love. In a bizarre cross-country trip, Burris tries to prove something to himself, and it almost destroys him. Burris is obnoxious but interesting. The people around him are stereotypes, but that is fitting with how he perceives them. Through the traumas of the summer, Burris becomes less critical of himself and of others and gains self-respect. Burris Weems' quirkiness is appealing, and his feelings of inadequacy and his bravado in the face of those feelings will make him a sympathetic character to those enduring the growing up process. Lois Jerolleman, Houston Public Library
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 247 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult (April 18, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0453005365
• ISBN-13: 978-0453005364
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,029,221 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome, April 21, 2000

By 

F. Adkins (Asheville, NC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Little Red Rooster (Hardcover)

I just finished this book recently. I've been a big Matthews fan and loved Power in the Blood and One True Thing. This novel was something rare. It was pretty much a blatant ( ) of Catcher in the Rye, but he pulled it off so well that I think it may have been even better. The cast of odd characters are fantastic and Matthews masterfully holds up the structure of the novel(The whole thing is Burris Weems speaking into his stolen tape recorder). If you haven't read anything by Greg Matthews start now. You won't be dissapointed. He's probably the best kept secret in literature today.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Little Red Rooster by Greg Matthews, January 2, 2000

By 

Richard C. Speaks (Sacramento, Ca. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Little Red Rooster (Hardcover)

This book is redolent of Salenger's Catcher In The Rye. It's about 16 year-old Burris Weems, who reminds me a lot of Holden Caulfeild, but he's not such a whiner. He's very intelligent and highly observent, but lacking in ambition. He stole a microcassette recorder from a Radio Shack on the day he learned that he'd failed the last semester, and will be held back a year. He begins talking into it....and that is how the book is written. He talks about his Mother, who sells paintings of Jesus and Elvis on black velvet, and of his cab-driving sister, and of the Father he never knew, who died in Viet Nam, and how he was born the very moment Neil Armstrong stepped on the lunar surface and blew his famous lines, and such. Then he meets a guy at a Summer job in a box factory, who introduces him to his wife and her transexual father, and unintentionally sets the story into high gear. As he talks about all these things into his mini-recorder there is no hint of the wild adventure ahead, so this book will catch the reader off guard at every twisted turn, and provoke explosive laughter out of the blue. This book is a rare treasure, that few know about. Matthews has written one hell of a book, and it deserves more recognition. Upbeat, witty, funny, shocking, and original.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Loving Gone Bad For A Lost Teenager!!!, April 12, 2005

By 

John Baranyai "Book Nerd And Ex High School G... - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Little Red Rooster (Flamingo) (Paperback)

Burris Weems is not your typical 16 year old High School teenager. He has flunked out of school, doesn't have a girlfriend and feels alienated by Society. He spends a great deal of time in nocturnal walks trying to make some sense of his life and talking into a tape recorder which he stole from Radio Shack a year earlier. He has an eccentric mother and a recently married sister who is the only female cab driver in his home town of Buford. Then Burris makes a friend who introduces him to his wife and her transexual father , Gene. Gene has recently undergone what is referred to these days as "Gender Reassignment" and now deeply regrets his actions. Then Burris loses his virginity , Gene commits suicide and his new found friends have packed up their car and moved away to Tumcarry or so Burris thinks. Then he is on a roller coaster ride which covers seven States with Gene's body in the trunk of his car.This book is reminiscent of Holden Caulfield in "Catcher In The Rye" but unlike Caulfield Burris does not blame the rest of the world for his shortcomings and is fully aware of his own occasional inadequacy at all times.This is a wondrous book about the Coming Of Age and the Loss of Innocence which is expertly handled by Greg Matthews who is a Master of his Craft.The end of the book sees Burris a little sadder but a lot wiser. I was delighted to learn that Burris returns in the author's next book "The Gold Flake Hydrant". This book is a gem and I was lucky enough to read it in one sitting.Mr. Matthews captures the often lost voice of teenage youth and the Themes of Good Loving Gone Bad in a highly enteratining style which is a Testament to his writing skills. The author has now returned back to his Native Australia and I say "Welcome Home Greg. We all missed you!!!"