Customer Reviews

The Speed of Light

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

 

 

This novel may be considered a young adult work by some readers, but it's a young adult novel in the way that _The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ or _To Kill a Mockingbird_ or _Great Expectations_ or any number of other books with young protagonists are. It's about 3 friends and their adventures over that strange, wonderous summer between eleven and twelve... That summer when suddenly the girls become interesting, and dancing is no long to be abjectly feared but possibly even sought out; when there are things in life that are slowly becoming more interesting than baseball or time travel. Carlson has always been excellent at portraying innocence lost and recapturing those whimsical moments of our youth (see "Plan B for the Working Class," "Oxygen," "Keith," to name a few of his stories), but this novel captures a time that most of us have shared in our life so perfectly that it's sad and sweet as nostalgia brewed into a heady and soft liquor. It's suitable for young adults, sure, but this book will do a lot more for grownups than Harry Potter novels ever will.

I confess that I have a bias in regard to this book. I grew up in the same neighborhood as Ron Carlson at the same time. He has captured the essence of what youth was like in the west side of Salt Lake City. I can't help but believe that he has captured the essence of life in many cities in the late '50s and early 60's. Narrated from the point of view of a sixth grader, he has recreated a community in which violence is subtly present at all times, yet not acknowledged by the powers of the community. It is a community in which 15% of those who graduate from high school were expected to graduate from college (and many didn't graduate from high school). At the same time he has profoundly presented the naive (innocent?) point of view of children who grow up in such a setting. I remember sleeping out and playing car baseball. Sorenson Park was my hangout in my junior high years, and I remember the bully who tried to take over the park. Miss Talbot was one of my teachers. Carlson has described it well, but the value of the book is not in mere nostalgia. His narration explores numerous themes of adolescence and the responsibility of adults to protect and teach them. Carlson's narration accurately reflects the emotions and thought processes of an adolescent in a working class neighborhood. At the same time he keeps the interest of the reader, who can't help but wonder what's going to happen next. In the last chapter, rather than tell us what happened to every character, he hints and tells us about the meaning of it all. This is a novel I will treasure for years.

I cant believe there are not more people reading this book. This memoir of the summer between grade school and Jr. high is a classic. The all-star chapters about getting Rafferty voted an all-star, the baseball goggles, and corking the bat are just some of the classic adventures of this part of adolescence.

Dont get the idea that there is just a fun summer of boyhood sleep outs in the book. The retrospective look at Witt, Rafferty, Larry and their families are a look into our own lives and the lives of those around us. Its a heart jerking look at growing up with lots of laughs.

I have read everything Ron Carlson has published. He is one of a handful of contemporary novelists and short story writers who never let me down, who are consistently intelligent, original, thoughtful. And entertaining. "The Speed of Light" is, for me, his best, most accomplished piece of writing. The story may be about young adolescents, but the novel's natural audience is adults, and why it was marketed as young adult literature is beyond me. In point of fact, young adults would miss much of the humor and irony of the story. No, this is a book for grownups who have lived enough life to be able to reflect on the innocence and idiocies of childhood. Story aside, Carlson's use of language is so impressive, so evocative, so precise. This is a book I will read once every year of my life and, I'm sure, find something new each time to relish.

After having read Hotel Eden and Plan B for the Middle Class I was excited to find this book. And while it didn't completely remind me of Stand by me it does at times sort of run in that same vein of nostalgic boyhood memoirs that writers of a certain generation seem to keep putting out every few years. That said, Carlson is great. He gives you just enough background and scenic description to keep you engaged but not so much that it feels like he's trying to kill the mood with authenticity or details. Its kid-noir. And, best of all, its mild enough that it can be included in the teen fiction section!

This book is about normal kids who love the summer time. They count the days until school gets out and have the time of they're lives in the summer. They love to play baseball and make up all kinds of wacky games.
My favorite part of the book is probobly when he's sitting with Karen on the swingset at the park and then he beats the crap out of Benny. This shows that he is maturing and learns how to stick up for himself and his brother. Benny and Cling have picked on kids for a long time and nobody has ever done anything about it. Finally they got taught a lesson.
I would defianately recommend this book. It never really got boring and I'd just want to keep reading it. I felt like the characters in the book and I were alike. They liked the summer and liked playing baseball and so do I. This book wasn't very hard to read and it's just an interesting story. This is my book review.

The Speed of Light is about three friends Larry, Witt and Rafferty. They have just began their summer and next year will be going into jr. high. The book takes them through the summer and all the changes they went through.

My favoite part of the book is every time the author really gets into Larry's(who narrates the whole book) head because it shows what Larry is really thinking and feeling. The author gets into how Larry notices all the chnages in his friends and how he feels when he proclaims himself as "a nocturnal butt-looker". My point is the author captures all those "first" things during that one magical and changing summer and revolves it around three young friends. The author shows that Larry is a normal baseball-loving kid who has many things going through his mind that weren't there last summer.

I would and would not reccomend this book. I would not reccomend this book because for me it was a little hard to follow. I didn't understand all of the games they would play and there would be a part in the book where it would say how much Witt hated a certain game and in the next paragraph or so it would say how much Witt enjoyed the game and how good he was at it. I would reccomend this book because I think it shows a powerful message: Everything and eveyone is changing. The summer in the book is that special summer where everything has changed and in the book this is probably the last summer Larry will spend with his three best friends because, after playing an excellent game of baseball, Rafferty suddenly is thrown into the popular crowd and Witt moves to Pocatello, Idaho to live with his uncle for a while, while Witts' abusive father gets therapy. Over all,this was an "ok" book, not quite what I expected, but it had its moments.