Customer Reviews

The Mad Cook Of Pymatuning

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

 

 

I purchased this book immediately after reading a very positive review in The New York Times. I devoured it in one evening and was totally drawn into the summer camp, its rituals and games, and was fascinated by the charismatic Indian working there...what was he up to?! I could not have imagined the plot that Mr. Lehmann-Haupt develops. As a big fan of the genre, it's rare that I come across such a thrilling, evocative and intelligent--yes, intelligent--thriller! The author is an amazing storyteller and someone who clearly knows an awful lot about Native American myth and history, too...or at least he did his homework! This is an excellent choice.

A moving portrayal of a young man coming to grips with his personal life and feelings and a dramatic illustration of ethnic fervor driven to excess. THE MAD COOK OF PYMATUNING is a gripping read, a book to savor and think about - I couldn't keep myself from re-reading it.

Two stars for the fact the book kept me reading, kept me interested in what would happen to Jerry and his brother, kept me curious about Buck (Redclaw) and his motivations, about Win and Woody and TJ. But only two stars because so many questions are left unanswered. What becomes of Jerry and Peter after their summer? How does it change them? After all, this is written as a sort of memoir, with repetitive foreshadowing that bad things are going to happen because the narrator has already lived through them. Thus, little suspense in the conclusion--the adult narrator obviously survived the confrontation! Why is Buck doing as he does? Some clues are hinted at, but not satisfactorily explained. Like Jerry in his physical encounters with TJ, this book teases, but never really reaches a satisfactory climax.

I read this book because Stephen King recommended it in Entertainment Weekly. He said it was one of the years best, but I disagree. The story is frustrating to read because it builds the reader up so much and then nothing really happens. It's so predictable. Then the story just ends. I actually thought my book was missing the last chapter, until I asked a friend if there's was the same. I could have kept reading but the author just cuts the story off- maybe his computer crashed and he didn't get to finish the story, but the editors liked it that way. Highly disappointed.

In the summer of 1952, seventeen-year-old Jerry Muller returns to his beloved summer camp as a junior counselor. Jerry looks forward to bonding with his younger brother Peter, a first-time camper, while introducing him to the pleasures of the Pennsylvania forest and to the American Indian rituals that have traditionally been the core of the camp program. Instead he finds himself engulfed in a series of increasingly terrifying adventures set in that forest and orchestrated by Buck Silverstone, the camp's enigmatic, charismatic teacher of Native American lore.

The Mad Cook is at once a poignant coming-of-age novel, a compelling who-dunnit, and a thoughtful meditation on the darkness and violence that lie just beneath the surface of everyday life. It's hard to put down and impossible to forget.

A great premise here: young boys at a summer camp deal with an Indian guide who has sinister and deadly plans for them. There are some good visuals and occasionally some decent dialogue.
Unfortunately, many scenes could have been much more frightening, tense and effective if they hadn't just trailed off. The Indian, Buck Silverstone, is certainly frightening, but I was expecting more of an attempted massacre of the youthful campers at his hands. Not that I crave the blood and gore, but it just seemed the logical way to go.
Plenty of potential, but it just doesn't satisfy in the end.

I gave it a star because I did read the whole thing. The characters were not well written, Jerry, our hero was ridiculous. Actions were outre and unexplained, and yet the ending was predictable and unsurprising. And they killed off the dog. I hate feeling I've wasted my time when a story is over.

Like other reviewers, I also read this book because it was listed in Stephen King's Top Ten of 2005. The story does a good job of keeping you interested and wondering what's going to happen next. The ending, however, comes to such an abrupt halt that it made me mad that I couldn't put the book down for 2 days.

So Stephen King pointed me in the direction of this novel after declaring it one of the year's best in EW. I spent many a summer as a camper and camp counselor so I was game, BUT this novel is a mess. More surprising, the novel manages to be both homophobic and racist. What a disappointing two days of my life.

When I was young I never went to summer camp (never even heard of it, in fact), but this book covers all of the fears engendered by the thought of leaving the homestead and going out into the woods with complete strangers.

This is a horror story that begins as a commonplace vacation at a summer camp previously attended by the protagonist, who this year returns as a junior counsellor, bringing his younger half-brother with him for the first time. We get to meet many of the camp's attendees and also the folks, both young and older, who run it. Quite soon there is a palpable feel of menace centering around the mysterious fellow who is supposed to instruct the campers in "Indian lore".

There is the obligatory "forbidden woods" that looms threateningly near the camp, odd behavior on the part of many people, and a bit of adolescent (and mature) sex thrown in for good measure. The story moves along at a pace that could have been a bit faster, but the pace does tend to build up the suspense.

Everything gets connected at the end, and there is a suitably terrifying conclusion, which wraps up the plot. It's an enjoyable summer read, but not one I'd take with me if I were going camping in a strange place!