Slot Machine [Paperback]

Chris Lynch (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This darkly funny look at growing up male in America is narrated by chubby, 14-year-old Elvin Bishop, who describes, with sublime sarcasm, his increasingly painful efforts to find his appropriate athletic "slot." Mature readers will find this unusual sports story both hilarious and poignant; in a starred review, Booklist wrote, "this wry, thoughtful book speaks with wisdom and heart to the victim and the outsider in us all." An ALA Best Book for Young Adults.

From Publishers Weekly

In its voice, setting, characters and action, this wry account of a Catholic boys' high school orientation camp is so different from Gypsy Davey, Lynch's grim chronicle of urban lowlife, that at first glance it hardly seems to be by the same author. But for all the gallows humor and guys-at-camp mayhem, there is a similar, uplifting theme about maintaining one's selfhood and convictions despite a dehumanizing environment. From the moment he's herded aboard the bus taking him and best friends Mike and Frank off for "Twenty-One Nights with the Knights," the resilient narrator, Elvin Bishop (no reference to the musician of the same name), knows he's the "fat guy" whom everyone is going to pick on. Being disinterested in sports as well as physically inept, he fails conspicuously at various sports before he finds his "slot"-something that everyone must have, according to the militaristic head priest. Although he would like to fit in somewhere, Elvin refuses to compromise himself just to be accepted by others. Ironically, he as well as athletic Mike find some happiness with the misfits in the scorned Arts Sectors, while handsome, popular Frank endures a humiliating, brutal hazing to become one of the campus elite. Wise, thought-provoking and strong-hearted. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Library Binding edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (August 16, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0064471403
• ISBN-13: 978-0064471404
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #882,359 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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  Books > Teens > Authors, A-Z > ( L ) > Lynch, Chris

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars slot machine, January 25, 2002

By	Hans Bodewig (San Salvador, El Salvador) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slot Machine (Paperback)

This marvelously written book takes you straight into a not-so-perfect teenager's head. Elvin Bishop is fat, weak, indefensive and insecure. Just as Elvin gets out of school he learns that he is going back, sort of. He is going to a so-called "retreat", which is really just his new school. The camp is called "Twenty one nights with the knights". Elvin is always being picked on. He knows that the retreat is going to be terrible ever since the bus-ride to the camp when everyone starts picking on him and stealing his food. To Elvin, food is almost as precious as gold, so when they were stealing his food he felt miserable. To comfort himself he would look at the school's brochure, trying to image and pretend how much fun he would have there. His vision slowly fades away as he starts settling in. Almost immediately, everyone was picking on Elvin; his only defenses being his two best friends Mikie and Frankie. Out of those two his only real friend is Mikie because Mikie really understands Elvin. Frankie is his friend too but he isn't really a "real" friend, just someone who is nice to Elvin. Elvin feels that: "Frankie is just too perfect to be my friend".
The camp has a system of "slots", or places in sports. Elvin is just good for nothing, no sport seems to fit his personality, he tries football, soccer, baseball and finally when he thinks he found his place in wrestling, his hopes are turned down by the coaches when he is asked to leave because of other incoming students. Later when he finds a slot in art he meets new friends and finds out that strength doesn't always have to be physical.
Chris Lynch is a great author who takes you into the head of a 14 year old boy, revealing his thoughts and impressions. "Slot Machine" is mostly comedy and drama. If you are interested in a good, refreshing novel, then this is a book for you.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Worst book ever, September 7, 2003

By	sro397 (Boston MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slot Machine (Paperback)

The plot of the story is that some kid goes to camp and is bad at every sports and at the end he is in the very weird art group and did not change at all durring the book. A day in the life of some guy that sleeps all day would be more interesting than this. I BEG OF YOU DO NOT READ THIS BOOK IT HAS NO POINT. Everyone who writes reveiws are parents who love the book but the kid hates it. I am a kid and I know how the person who is reading it feels

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a good book for teens, December 23, 2003

By	Joe (East Greenbush, New York United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slot Machine (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (School & Library Binding)

I read the book Slot Machine by Chris Lynch. It is an adventure/comedy book and is very entertaining and I never wanted to put down the book. I choose this book because when I looked at it it seemed interesting because of the title of the book. I loved the book because of the predicament that the main character was in. Also, there was kind of a diffrent story on the side which included one of the main characters two best friends. I would recomend this book to people from the 6th grade to the 10th grade. Chris Lynch has written other books including the Shadow Boxer and Iceman. Lynch has a masters degree from the writing program at Emerson College.
This book is about a boy named Elvin who is going to a new school. He is at a retreat where all the freshmen go to find what "slot", sport, they are in. Unfortunately Elvin can't find himself a slot. For a side story he has two best friends. One of his best friends Frankie was trying to fit in with the older and cooler kids. His other best friend Mike found his slot easily and is like there father, he kept encouraging Elvin to find a slot. In one part of the story Frankie trys to pursuade Mike and Elvin to come with him to a party with the older kids. Frank says "You guys want another chance tonight, the O's kind of think you two are wimps". After Frank said that I wonderd if Mike and Elvin were going to fold under peer pressure, but they did not. That is just on of the parts of this excellent book. I recomend if you are between the age groups I suggested that you definetely read this book.