Customer Reviews

Stand Before Your God: An American Schoolboy in England

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first read this book my senior year of high school when it was recommended to me by my English teacher. At the time, Watkins was the writer in residence at another boarding school in the area. I was captivated from the moment I opened the cover until I put the book down. Watkins' shameless honesty about the awkward moments of childhood makes it easy to laugh not at him, but at similar events in your own embarassing past. From his mischevious antics at the Dragon School to his studies at Eton, Watkins helps us all to remember the silly things we once did and of which we are now ridiculously ashamed. His utter familiarity with the reader allows the reader to open up and re-expose her memories to herself! While hilariously funny at times, this book also takes on the task of embracing nostalgia as memories seem to slip away. As the young Watkins ages and changes schools and confronts more "serious" issues, any reader can see how growing up happens to us. There is no avoiding it. As much as we might like to live as Peter Pan and daydream about pleasant memories, we are changed by the people we encounter and the places we go, and we just can't help it. And why should we?Watkins allows the reader to confront the bittersweet loss of childish innocence while smiling and embracing what has gone and what will come. This is not a sentimental journey, but one that is pleasantly real in a non-sappy or melodramatic way. Watkins shows the reader how to laugh at life and love all that it can throw at you.

On a side note, check out Roald Dahl's "Boy". It may be a children's book, but it is well worth the read.

Paul Watkins is a terrific writer. None of his books show off his talent as this one does. It is the story of his life as an American schoolboy in England's swankiest schools. More than that it is about a boy growing up adhering to rules and recognizing that that adherence is endemic to his English life but not his American life.

Best of all about this book, though, is the writing. It is clear, melodic, rhapsodic yet forceful. It is a book to sit and savor. One can only wonder and admire the construction of sentences and thoughts. A purely enjoyable experience to read.

This week I read Mr. Watkin's memoir for the third time, and it was every bit as fascinating and enjoyable as the first. Watkins is the most gifted writer I have ever come across. His moving and often funny account of growing up in two elite (to say the least) English boarding schools demonstrates his talent for observation and description, as well as his ease in establishing the personality and essence of each player in his work. Regardless of Watkin's undeniable skill as a writer, this unique personal experience affords us the oppurtunity to look inside a world few of us will ever see- and it's not like what you'd expect. If you've never read Mr. Watkin's work before, this is a good place to start.

Every boarding school kid should read this. At my school, the entire community, faculty and students, was required to read this. And though being at the Dragon School isnt exactly a RI co-ed prep school, so many of the things ring true. Even boys riding mattresses down stairs in their dorms at night, lol. Its a superb read.

Paul Watkins is my favorite writer. I have read all of his books and while some are good, others are brilliant. Stand Before Your God is in the latter category.

This memoir was one of the least pretentious and most moving of any I have ever read ("Mama's Girl" by Veronica Chambers is another). It is at times very funny (the gym-shoe scene) and very heart-rending (when his father is dying). Even though I am a 28-year-old American woman educated in a midwest public school system, I could identify with Watkins' desire to fit in and loneliness. It made me laugh and cry.

What has always amazed me and moved me about Watkins is that he uses the most simple words to convey the deepest emotions and meanings. Few writers of his generation do that. They think bigger words are better but Watkins proves that less is often more.

I had the pleasure to meet Paul at a reading for Archangel a few years ago. He was very shy and almost self-dreprecating, but very friendly. I hope that he writes for many years to come and that others will discover his writing and come to love it as much as I have.

Paul Watkins came to my school for a poetry festival. I had never heard of him and I was planning a boring assembly. Instead I got the most compelling, hilarious, and intelligent discussion. The next day I went and picked up his book. It was amazing! There were so many different levels of depth and thought with a touch of comedy. He is an amazing writer and such an intelligent person. Keep writing!

I bought this book on a whim, without knowing much about Watkins or his novels. I ended enjoying the book a great deal. It is difficult to write memoirs that steer away from off-putting pretension while being interesting and humorous, but Watkins has done just that. He succeeds largely by making the book more about his perception of his surroundings than about himself. But I am afraid the book is bound to have a somewhat limited appeal. At the very end Watkins tries to give the nostalgia for his schooldays existential meaning, but he is forced to admit he does not quite know how to go about that. Yet the story as a whole is very enjoyable, and we shouldn't demand that every book be an epiphany.

If you're not convinced yet after reading the above comments, check for your pulse. They hit it on the nose why this book is so great. I gobbled it up in two days when I was fourteen, and will never forget it. His journey had echoes of my own, even though I'm a home schooled girl from the Midwest. In the course of reading it, I became conscious of my own inborn writer-nature as he became aware of his own. Most people don't know what to make of this book when I try to recommend it, but it is definitely a masterpiece. (Afterwards, I read a novel of his, "The Promise of Light," which was also good.) Rest assured, our grandchildren will be reading Paul Watkins for English class - he is a master in the making.

I have read few books in my eleven years as a bookseller that have moved me as much as Paul Watkins' coming-of-age memoir. There are only three that I have read more than once: THE SECRET HISTORY, A SEPARATE PEACE (which I have read twice a year ever since high school), AND STAND BEFORE YOUR GOD.

Watkins' ability to take everyday events and anxieties and turn them into the stuff of revelation is a rare gift. His writing is clear, incisive, and, in spite of the unusual circumstance of an American attending the most exclusive of British prep schools, universally telling. I read the book thinking of my numerous perusals of A SEPARATE PEACE and my own cherished memories of attending a small private college in the rural midwest. I read the book with a pen in hand, underlining his most illuminating thoughts about Eton, and writing "Yes! YES!!!!!" in the margins when his own epiphanies bespoke my own. I read the book wide-eyed, knowing that, alone in my living room, I was in the company of genius.

I have recommended the book to many of my customers over the years, employing both of my most heartfelt evaluations: "Oh, but you MUST!" and "Trust me on this one!" They have, all, thanked me profusely for the recommendation. In this extraordinary collection of tales that make up a short time in a still remarkably short life, we find images of ourselves, and marvel that a stranger can know so much about us.

Seek it out. Read it. Cherish it. Oh, but you must! Trust me on this one!

No other book that I have read has dealt with the everday pressures of adolesence as clearly as Watkin's "Stand Before Your God." His memory of his time at the Dragon School and Eton College draws the reader in and never lets him go. He uses references that young people can relate to and language they can appreciate. This book makes you laugh out loud on one page and then cry on the next. It definitely stands as a premier piece of literature that shares with young people the common feelings and emotions associated with growing up and discovering a personal identity.