Customer Reviews

Pure Sunshine (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The editorial review on this website states that this book doesn't have much of a conclusion. I think that's funny. Neither does life, at least not until you die. In real life, our problems don't often end with everything being resolved and dramatic music playing in the background. If we were to really spend a day inside the mind of a 16 year old boy, his thoughts might seem disjointed and rambling and meaningless at times. If he suddenly got a startling revelation about life, it might not seem like a "startling revelation." It might be as simple as talking to someone and finding that there's more to life than drugs and parties. Maybe he knew that all along. Maybe he needed to hear it anyway. This book has a lot to say, you just have to look for it, because it's not going to preach at you.

First, this book isn't going to scream at you and tell you not to use drugs. It's going to show you what happens when you use drugs, what it feels like to trip on acid, and how it doesn't let you escape your problems. It's going to show you that when you come down off the high, life is still there. You can't escape it. You have to find a reason to live, something that will remain when the drugs wear off.

So the book rambles a lot. So many of the thoughts seem unrelated to the story. If we're honest woith ourselves, that's what it's like inside our heads sometimes. In real life, we're not always likeable. Things aren't always black and white. We don't always do what's good for us. And some people who use drugs don't die. That's how they can look back on their lives now, and reach out to people who may not want to be preached at.

I think the best argument against using drugs is not "they can kill you." Most people know that, and they use drugs anyway. I think the best argument against using drugs is that they don't really help you escape your problems. When you're coming down off the high and you're puking and you're alone, you need a reason to live, not a way to escape life.

So where is the hope? Where is the revelation? At the end of the story, when the drugs are wearing off and life is still there, so is a friend. A friend who listens, who cares, and who accepts Brendan for who he is. A friend who wants to be around Brendan even though he's covered in vomit. A friend who tells him that "The boy inside wasn't mud and ... and all things crazy as far as she could see. Sure some of that was there because it always is, but it's one and the same with the good." Is he going to date this girl? Is he going to stop using drugs? We don't know. As with life, there's always more to be written. We only know that at the end, Brendan has found something that is helping him heal "slowly and evenly and with expert care. Better than drugs that don't work in the long run." And so there you have it. Redemption, there for the taking.

Hey, I told you it wasn't a startling revelation. And we don't know if he'll take the redemption. But we know that there's hope, and sometimes that's everything. This book isn't for everyone, but it is for someone, and that's why I'm glad it's here.

Pure Sunshine by Brian James is a Young Adult novel chronicling two days in the life of an arrogant young teenager named Brendan. His world revolves around his friends, a group of boys who love to stir up trouble and indulge in acid and pot. One night, during a bad trip, Brendan discovers that the friends he has based his identity upon are not really his friends at all. The plot structure of the novel is unconventional, and its resolution quirky, but Brian James's prose is almost surreal at times and always engaging, making Pure Sunshine a delightful and worthwhile read.

"I was flushing the evil out....It was a good feeling knowing even though I might not be able to sleep, at least I'd feel clean."

17 year old Brendan and his friends Will and Kevin are the dregs of school society, the outcast, the fringe. Now they're in for a night of memories. After throwning back some Acid, they've hit the streets of Philly to enjoy themselves when the Pure Sunshine kicks in. The best and worst part about Sunshine is it makes everything else boring. It takes Brendan past all the normal experiences to where he can't enjoy anything anymore because of his desire for the next hit.

That's where Sunshine leaves him---at a place where the real and surreal mix together and separate in a way that leaves real life not worth as much as induced life. In the middle of a midnight trip, Brendan and the guys visit Sally, the downtown girl, so they can relax safely and enjoy their high. With so many girls that Brendan wishes he could take things deeper with, their night with Sally awakens a spark in him for something more. Not necessarily with Sally. Or any specific girl. But with something. For once, he feels his void.

Brian James' PURE SUNSHINE delves into the euphoria and pain people experience when addicted to LSD. While the details of the high can be intriguing at times, a sense of arc and story are strangely missing all the way through. The story is more a realization that drugs may not be everything Brendan's made them out to be. Thatâ(tm)s the only thing that can bring him back to the point he can enjoy reality again, give him a chance with the girl he's always wanted, and get him to a place he can feel clean for the first time in a long time.

Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens

This book was very intriguing. The thing I loved the most about it was the fact it wasn't another book about drugs trying to make you see how awful they were, and showed someone dying from them at the end. All though this book does in a way show you that drugs can mess you up. It shows you this in a whole different view. He not only tells everyone he loves his drugs, but explains what he's going through as he is doing it! To me this shows you drugs in a whole nother level.

Pure Sunshine places the reader inside Brandon's head during two nights of dropping acid with friends, and the day sandwiched between these two nights. His thoughts are somewhat random and extremely intense as he and his friends perform a wide range of stupid activities while under the influence. Some would criticize Pure Sunshine for not having much of a plot, but this lack of coherence is the point of the story. James obviously intended to paint this perfect portrait of directionless youth, and accurately portray the effects of LSD.
Brendon shares several traits with Holden Caufield from The Catcher in the Rye (Salinger, J.D. New York: Little, Brown & Co., 1951). Despite Holden's 1940s-appropriate inability to score a dose, the two young men are prone to wandering aimlessly based on whims attempting to relieve unrelenting boredom. They are both acutely aware of the people with whom they interact, and mull over several of their physical and behavioral traits. Both are intensely focused on their feelings at any given moment, and are extremely impulsive despite their almost constant thinking. Brendon's equivalent to Holden's rye field in which he catches children heading for a cliff is a garden with edible clouds, where blue children play, and rats follow him like the Pied Piper as he plays the flute.
Through Brendon, James accurately describes the teen angst that drives young people to drugs. Brendon, like all teens, lacks access to the adult pleasures of independence and a higher degree of control over one's life. Adult society has little use for him, and ignores him unless he acts as a menace to it. Devoid of any hobbies, sports, or vocational interests, in a world in which the joy of learning has been transformed into a chore divorced from real life experience, Brandon and his friends amuse themselves with increasingly destructive acts culminating in hard drug use. It is often difficult to determine where Brandon's real personality ends and the influence of the drugs begins.
Teen readers will be riveted by Pure Sunshine. Teens with more direction and/or emotional connection to adults will either pity Brandon or feel condescending towards him, and see his foolish behavior as proof that drugs should be avoided. Those more like Brandon, including drug users, will relate to the character more directly, and will probably miss the extremely subtle anti-drug message. Parents will strongly object to it for the following two reasons:
1. The anti-drug message is so subtle that it is easily missed. As any critic of Go Ask Alice (Anonymous. Riverside, NJ: Simon & Schuster, 1994) notes, while drugs usually negatively affect the lives of their users, they do not necessarily have extreme consequences almost every time they are used. It is possible to use drugs now and then without being arrested, getting seriously injured, or suffering severe social penalties. This book reflects this fact, as Brandon suffers nothing worse than a one-night spat with friends, the temporary behavior of a moron, and the type of mental activity that leads to bad poetry.
2. One really needs to have tried acid at least once to truly understand the behavior of the characters.

This book started out so good but it ended much too abrubtly. I think Brian James got sick of writing it or something. Conflicts wre not solved. It was very disappointing. I wouldn't even bother reading it unless you want to learn more about drug culture, because it will only leave you disappointed.

An amazing book. It truely brings you into the life of a couple of teens on an acid trip. This is a book that i have read more than once. Brian James does a wonderful job with this book and i would absolutely recommend it to others. Even if you dont like to read, you will love this book, its very straight forward and brings you through the ups and downs of doing acid. Definately pick it up.

This novel is an easy read that describes an extremely vivid two days in the life of Brendan, the main character and narrator. It explicitly follows him through two occasions of him dropping acid, upon which he learns more about his friends, his relationship both with them and the world around him, and himself. The novel's style allows it to flow, and the reader is drawn in. Its length also permits the reader to finish it in one sitting, which is a benefit in that one can follow Brendan from the first day to the second without losing the character's immediate feelings or state of mind. Remarks that he makes upon finally finding some clarity from the acid-induced haze he experienced the night before are strong, descriptive, and pinpoint emotions that myself as a reader could strongly both identify and identify with. The variation in vocabulary and numerous allusions attest to James's intelligence. He is obviously well learned. (Also, Brendon is extremely interested in English, my favorite subject, so I couldn't help but smile when he spoke highly of the class.) James's age contributes to the relevancy of the tale, in that he speaks and presents the matter in a contemporary tone. I look forward to seeing what else can come from James.

a few years ago when i read it. i lent it to a friend, never got it back because it was so good, and ive been meaning to buy it again for a while. it was really touching. great story.

Pure Sunshine by Brian James is a story that brings three adolescent friends together after they indulge in hallucinations. Brendon, the main character, and his two friends Kevin and Will, go to school together and decide to take acid during a school week, but disregard the fact they have to be at school the next day. Brendon, Kevin, and Will wander in their small town in Philadelphia hallucinating on acid, which in turn takes on a roller coaster ride of visuals and head games.
This story is a drug induced ride that will push any drug induced enthusiast to keep reading this book for its, funny comedic lines, and interesting coming of age experiences these characters go through.
--reviewed by Estevan Urrutia