Customer Reviews

The Ordinary White Boy

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Bonnie puts all the Advance Reader Copies out on a table in her independent bookstore. They're there for us to take if we want; she could never read them all. I browsed these books recently, reading titles, author's names, and wondering about the artwork. This one has the guy snoozing on the red couch. The Ordinary White Boy? Sounded interesting, looked interesting. So, I took it.

Turns out it was interesting. I love Lamar, the self proclaimed ordinary white boy. What's great about him is that he is coming to terms with who he is and the choices he's made in his life. I felt like I should read with a highlighter pen and mark up the passages of self discovery so I could pass it on to friends and say, check out this passage. But I might as well photocopy the book to yellow paper. It's full of discovery and I want my friends to read every page.

It occurs to me that "discovery" is a heavy word. This novel is everything but heavy. Short chapters, snappy dialogue, and insightful monologue made this book fun to read. The fact that I walked away, much as Lamar does, with a little more clarity about ordinary white boys is just bonus.

Brilliant. A well written debut from an author who is so completely comfortable with his prose that the main character dances in your thoughts long after you've put down the novel. Be prepared, this is by no means a quick read... it is instead, a wealth a detailed wit and controversy which will open your eyes and furrow your brow in the same chapter. To the reader enjoy this book... put up your feet... curl up with your blanket... energize your book club... and to the author... well done.

A hilarious, yet introspective, tale that takes the reader to places familiar and foriegn, whilst making the reader both think about things we've often dwelled upon as well as things we never imagined imagining. Laugh-out-loud funny. There is a little Lamar in all of us, whether we're proud to admit it or not.

As an ordinary white boy, with roots in a small town, I loved the writing and the observations in this book.
This is not a book for one who wants to read of a far-flung adventure. It is introspective and interesting...

Often these days I find myself wondering what's to become of some of my younger friends and relatives...good people with interesting minds and reeking of "potential" who've gone the slacker route...still living at home deep into their twenties, possibly doing drugs, probably drinking too much, doing no more than need be to get by... lost souls (or so it seems) going nowhere, doing nothing to "find" themselves, and seemingly satisfied to let it go at that. What could they be thinking, I ask myself? Well, thanks to Brock Clarke's funny and marvelously insightful first novel and its "ordinary white boy" hero--I've gotten some pretty interesting answers to those questions. And had a grand time getting them. Will it make me worry less? Probably not. But at least I have a better sense of what's going on and why all available patience and empathy must be stretched to accommodate it. An extraordinary look at "ordinary" and I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.

Clarke has written a fine first novel. If you enjoy Walker Percy's The Moviegoer or Richard Ford's The Sportswriter, check out Ordinary White Boy.

The title of this one says it all...an ordinary white boy has what passes for marginal adventures of a disaffected youth in upstate New York...unfortunately, for Clarke Richard Russo rules this roost...and as result he is treading on heretofore explored territory and Clarke's prose and narrative are vanilla in comparison.

Just wondering why the author chose Little Falls as his place to demean in his book?