Customer Reviews

I Love You, Beth Cooper MTI

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Larry Doyle's "I Love You, Beth Cooper" takes a novel type (the coming-of-age story) and manages to work in equal amounts of pathos and hilarity without detriment to either. What you need to know about the main characters is that Denis Cooverman is class valedictorian and captain of the debate team (he speaks "nine languages, three of them real") and Beth Cooper is the head cheerleader. As another reviewer has noted, if you thought high school was the be-all and end-all of your life, skip it. If you're one of the rest of us, get this book right now!

Denis decides to declare his love for Beth (who scarcely knows he's alive--their only contact has been from being seated alphabetically next to each other in class) from the podium at their high school graduation. From that moment, at the very beginning, the comedy comes fast and furious, starting with the response Denis prepares to Beth, depending on whether her reaction to his oath of love is positive or negative:

POSITIVE: "Then we agree."
NEGATIVE: "It's my medication."

Some of the hundreds of great lines from the novel include:

"Denis jerked his face to the side--universal body language for 'Yes, I was staring at you'--while maintaining his casual yet defiant pose against the wall. It made him look like a male underwear model, except not."

"Denis thrust his hands back into the closet, praying they would reappear holding anything resembling a weapon. A loaded revolver would be ideal, though unlikely (his mother felt hunters should be tried for war crimes and his father drove a Prius)."

"Rich [Denis's best friend] chafed at Denis's brain ruining all their fun . . . but the doom-modeling had saved Rich's life on at least five occasions: the 'Super Juice' made from Orange Powerade, 'Batman returns' cereal, crushed Superman vitamins and topped with Mr. Muscle oven cleaner (age five); the re-enactment of the mining car chase from 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom' (age 9); the 'Harold and Maude' fake suicide re-enactment and sympathy ploy (age 14) . . . "

"Valli Woolly invited no one [to her party]. She had disinvited just enough people ('I have to keep it small') for word to get around. She wanted everybody to be crashing, so that they would all feel unworthy and she could eject anyone at any time. She was that much of a bitch."

"The kitchen was unnecessarily immense, as no one in the Woolly family ate anything with the exception of Mr. Woolly, and all he ate was Scotch."

There's a little too much bully-boy-beats-up-cowering-skinny-guy in the book for my tastes (all of it extraordinarily cartoonish and distracting), but that's my only complaint. This is an amazingly funny, laugh-out-loud-and-read-parts-of-it-aloud-to-anyone-sitting-near-you kind of book.

One of the most enjoyable, entertaining books I've read in a long, long time. I read the book in two sittings, finishing up at 4 a.m. this morning. I laughed my way throughout, to the dismay of my wife who I'm afraid was trying to sleep. This is a funny, fast-paced read, and I was actually more than a bit sad to see it end, which is always the sign of an excellent book. I hope it finds the large audience it deserves.

As other reviewers have said, this book is hilarious. The broad plot (high school geek gets a fun, crazy, intermittently painful night with the head cheerleader) is just the skeleton on which Doyle is hanging all his spot-on, extremely funny observations about modern life (teen and otherwise).

I started this on a plane and kept disturbing my seatmate by laughing out loud. The descriptions remind me a lot of David Sedaris.

It's a great gift for grads ~ but don't think of it as *just* a teen book. Anybody who has been to high school will enjoy it.

Comedy is the hardest genre to write, whether it's for the page or the screen. Doyle's worked on both The Simpsons and Beavis and Butt-Head, so he's clearly got the chops for TV, and this book proves he's got 'em for the page as well. Although I love comic fiction, it usually tends to leave me pretty unsatisfied, often tending to be satire of the "shooting-fish-in-a-barrel" variety, whereby the situations are stale and the jokes obvious. Here, Doyle takes a familiar setup (perhaps it might qualify as a subgenre) -- the last day/night of high school -- and goes to town with it in a ridiculously over-the-top manner that will leave readers looking for laughs well satisfied. It's something along the lines of "American Graffiti" meet "Freaks and Geeks" meets "Better Off Dead."

The story kicks off with the nerdy hero Denis Cooverman (aka Penis, aka The Coove) delivering his high school valedictorian speech in a sweltering gym. The thing is, his best (and only) friend Rich, a walking database of movie quotes, has convinced him to toss his milquetoast speech in favor of some home truths. And thus the speech becomes a trainwreck of thinly veiled insults, retribution, and outing of classmates, climaxing with Denis's declaration of love for the head cheerleader. This serves as the catalyst for a wild night of many wacky and/or illegal antics which are clearly not condoned, but are laugh-out-loud funny (including three sexual acts whose slang names I had to Google to decode).

If this doesn't sound particularly original, that's because it isn't. But comedy is all in the execution, and Doyle loads each page with gags, sharp banter, great wordplay, and all manner of acid observations. Yes, many of the targets for this semi-revenge of the nerds satire are obvious, but again, it's all in the execution. The wild night unwinds at breakneck speed, saturated with current pop culture references, and pretty much ready to go for the big screen. It's probably best appreciated by those who weren't the popular kids in high school, and are now in their mid 20s to late 30s, well steeped in the teen movie genre from the complete works of John Hughes to American Pie. It's totally unbelievable, and totally hilarious stuff.

I'm not really a jock. Actually, it's more like I do no sports at all. Except running. Only away from psycho boyfriends of hot girls, but that only comes later. I'm more or less a geek. Still, pretty much a nobody.

But, it's my High School graduation and that won't matter because I'll be going to College and won't see any of these people again until our High School reunion. Right?

About that, one little problem. I kind of messed up. You see there's this hot girl who is head cheerleader in my class called Beth Cooper, and as I was giving my speech because I'm valedictorian for my class, of course, I kind of blurted out a word or two. In front of every student and their families. Something along the lines of,

"I love you, Beth Cooper."

That's exactly what happened to Denis Cooverman in this hilarious novel. Poor little Denis. After that one, teeny tiny sentence, his whole life turned upside-down. Not only does he get to hang out with the hottest girl of his class and her two friends, but he's doing things he's never done before. Drinking, driving, going to parties, and running away from Beth's military boyfriend who wants to kill him. Literally.

And! This is all during what his parents think is a small get together at their house. (They are off doing something we shall not want to know in a car in the middle of the road that Denis, Beth and their friends hit in the middle of their adventure.) What a mouthful, but it completely makes him a badass.

For those of you who think this novel is just another teen hormonal adventure, you're completely right. This is exactly what teens today feel like. And it's not about the hot people. It's about us geeks out there who are basically in love with the most beautiful girl and how we would do anything to get with them.

The best part of this novel, is that it shows that geeks have a chance. That you don't have to be good looking to find love. That a persons mind will change as they see brains over beauty. I pretty much felt like I was in Denis' shoes half the time. Mind you I don't have any problems with the ladies, but I do feel like I could be better at times. And when I finished this it actually made me feel like I was much better than what I made myself be.

Though it's from a guys point of view, even girls can relate to this. It digs deep into the world of popularity from a nobody's eyes. It makes the beauties and the brains look at one another for the first time. Like putting them in the same room. It makes us all think what would happen if we were on the other side. And the ending of this novel makes us really see what is right and what is wrong.

Denis Cooverman has started a revolution that will always keep thriving. Kudos, my geeky friend. You shall always be a badass, popular kid to me.

The beginning of the book dragged a little bit for me. It got to the point where I questioned why should I care about these two "losers" talking about nothing? Denis was adorkable in every sense of the word, but do I truly need to know about his sweating problems? I thought about putting the novel down and not picking it back up.

Then the Trinity arrived.

I couldn't stop reading after that! The characters start as stereotypes, especially the girls. But as the night moved on from one hilarious (and insightful) episode to another, you began to learn more about them. Granted, shallow personalities were still shallow, but they had an interesting form to them rather than a plain palate. The book is perfect in retelling how terrible and apathetic high schoolers are, especially when graduating.

It was also very refreshing to have a true geek protagonist. Too many times I've seen the geek turn into this smooth, macho-type hero who gets the girl, becomes popular, and looks down at his former self. Denis manages to be true to himself throughout the entire book, perhaps growing a smidge bit of a backbone towards the end (the fact that he was getting annoyed with the bullying was hilarious). He was the right mix of geek, coward, and desperate bravado.

As 2 am came and went, I was laughing out loud as I was towards the end of the book . Predictably, it was a bit of a crazy ride, but hey. What else would you expect from Doyle? It all seemed to fit, from the random high school shower tidbit to the cabin up in the woods. Although the whole "Yeah, we'll just quickly push everything that would really happen in real life under the rug" with a few paragraphs felt very rushed, but I could defintely overlook it for how "fresh" the characters were towards the end (oh haha, look at me go).

Overall, I LOVE this book! <3 Complete with an internet heart. It was fantastic read that was both full of character development and hilarious moments. The only downside was sometimes the geekness got TOO geeky, but skimming those parts were had, so it's all good.

I Love You, Denis Cooverman!

I Love You, Beth Cooper is a total scream of a hilarious read. No matter how long ago you graduated form high school, this book evokes every memory of those days (thankfully) gone by! If you were astute enough to make note that high school was some form of hell on earth, without a doubt, this book is for you. Every stereotype of adolescent is here, but the portrayals are a delight.

The laughs are more than the expected. If you are a fan of teen flicks you'll find much more here than anything that could be portrayed on film. I Love You, Beth Cooper is a guaranteed laugh-out-loud book.

Let's just pretend the disaster movie based on this book was never made. This book is told through one of the most cringe-worthy leading men's eyes and you couldn't love him more for it. I found myself laughing out loud completely alone on public transportation (looking about as nerdy as "Dennis Cooverman" himself) while reading this book. It will have you laughing every minute, which is no surprise from a "Simpsons" writer. The book has humor, heart and will keep you entertained the whole time. Really, it's quite sad because this book could have made a great movie! But, Hollywood gutted it.
Read it--every page is worth it.

A very good book. It is extremely funny and fun! It is one of my favorite books of all-time. It is probably better than the movie. The movie was also very good, it was funny like the book. The book had some really good parts. The book is highly recommended. The Movie Tie In edition has more pages which includes little comic pages, showing more to the story.

Book Rated: NC-17 for Strong Language, Explicit Sexual Content,teen drinking, drug references, drunk driving and Violence (as what the author says)

Movie Rated: Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, language, some teen drinking and drug references, and brief violence.

It's rare -- all too rare -- to find a book where you constantly laugh out loud. Larry Doyle has accomplished this difficult task with: I Love You, Beth Cooper. A stunning debut, which almost certainly means more funny and smart books from this major talent.
It's a classic scenario: the high school nerd falls in love with the gorgeous cheerleader. In less capable hands, the book could be tedious. But, throughout this fast-paced book, there are dozens of hilarious scenes, great dialogue and wonderful characters. It's all the sweeter and funnier because there are many touching moments too. In a 24-hour period, these high school graduates learn a lot about love, and life. Thank you Larry Doyle.
Harvey McKinnon is the co-author of The Power of Giving: How Giving Back Enriches Us All (Penguin).