Customer Reviews

Thumbsucker: A Novel

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

So, I saw the tralier for Mike Mills' film adaptation of this book a few weeks ago and decided that since I live in North Louisiana and I probably won't get to see the film until it comes to DVD (unless I drive a few hundred miles to an independent theater), that I would buy the book. So, I ordered it and it came in the mail on a Saturday afternoon. Given that my life is pretty boring altogether, especially in the Summer, I unwrapped it, opened it up, and dived in. And, I kid you not, I did not stop reading until I was done. From the first paragraph, scratch that...the first LINE, I was hooked. Now, I will admit that I am a sucker for a good coming of age, Holden Caulfield-esque novel, but this one really surpassed my expectations. As an English major and hopeful writer (fingers crossed), I found this to be one of the most thoughtful, insightful, dramatic, and darkly humorous novel's I've ever read. I think Walter Kirn did a fantastic job of portraying his characters as authentic specimens and I am extremely jealous of his writing style altogether. All in all, I would recommend this book to anyone with and open mind and an afternoon to spare, because they won't be able to put it down.

I had relatively high expectations; lots of 4 and 5 star reviews on line, the newspapers loved it, the consensus seemed to be "hilarious." I found very little entertaining in this book. The characters alternated between flaky and cliche, and the story never once even caused me to crack a smile. I tried in vain to detect some sort of existential underpinning here -- Justin's oral obsession as a reaction to his reluctance to act, his choosing not to choose. This was never flushed out (and may not have been intended; alas, opportunity lost). The plot was horrendously thin, the characters flat, the story completely unengaging. The novel didn't raise any questions and didn't ask me to think about anything. Did the writer even have a message? I give 2 stars because (mercifully) I finished it in one night.

THUMBSUCKER started off great--I liked the narrator Justin from the first page. But then it sort of fizzled. I gave it two stars only because, like Saturday Night Live, it just didn't sustain the humor and energy that grabbed me in the beginning.

The funniest passage is his description of a nocturnal trip in his grandparents' motorhome.

There were a few other sections where I laughed out loud, but it always seemed that the reader was held at arm's length, so I couldn't feel Justin's adolesence anguish. I think this book would have been much better if it had been edited a little more tightly, or if the grandparents--and other peripheral characters--had more page-space.

Read this if you're going on a long bus trip. It's not a great book, but it's not a bad book, either.

Oral fixations, family dysfunctions and other psychobuzzian concepts plump out the story of Justin's high school years in Walter Kirn's Thumbsucker. Thumb sucking, whiskey drinking, fly fishing, toke smoking and bible thumping play a big part in this story which is less about coming of age, and more about resisting coming of age. Walter Kirn's prose is clear and interesting and the Midwestern setting vivid. But his characterization of Justin is inconsistent. I found it very difficult to understand what motivated Justin as Kirn sped him through the years of his adolescence. On one page he was out to score pot and a scant hundred pages later he was striding up a mountain to save his father's life with scarcely any explanation for his behavior in between.

Although the incidents of this book were fun to read, they didn't work together well as a novel, so I can't quite give it two thumbs up.

Being a former thumbsucker myself I found the humor related to this unfortunate vicitm of an oral fixation not only whitty but excentric. This book begins to seemingly tell the story of an unfortunate victim of hypnosis. Who through losing his desire to suck his thumb chooses other self-destructive modes of release. As the story progresses the reader(if he/she knows enough psych 101 lingo)will come to recognize that the path chosen by the narrator is more a result of a very diysfunctional family and a very insecure ego. The use of an oral fixation as the analogy for a blossoming youth is an exaggerated journey though contains so many examples of what issues present themselves to youth that it is an easy and entertaining read. You will find that it becomes a little much in parts, but yet the author quickly pulls the reader out of situations that seem to drag on and quickly thrusts you into another hard pressed adventure. I recommened it to any one interested in psychology and anyone who was, or still is, a proud thumbsucker.

To echo some of the earlier reviews, this is a disappointingly slight novel from the author who created the captivating world of "She Needed Me". Kirn writes well, but this novel is surpisingly devoid of meaning. Vignette after vignette depict a depressingly stale Midwestern adolescence, with a broadly drawn protagonist and his vaguely drawn family. Justin Cobb has any number of adventures - his mother works at a Hazelton-like rehab clinic,where she may or may not be having an affair with a tv star in-patient, his speech coach has casual gay sex (point please?), his seldom seen grandparents appear and briefly, if unintentionally, kidnap Justin, and Justin has his first sexual experiences with a fellow Mormon convert. Some of these tales are well told, and keep the pages turning. But what's the point?I had to laugh at earlier reviews listing the novel's strength as it being a quick read. You know you're in trouble when that saves you from a bad review.

Not many reviews or descriptions of this book call it episodic, which it is for the first 200 of 300 pages. I don't like episodic novels for the most part so a four star review is pretty good. I was going to give the book 3 stars before I read the last 2 pages. The ending sort of made the episodic nature of the book appropriate -- but we can't talk about that . . . Good book -- funny, fast, original.

Thumbsucker follows the up, down, and all around trajectory of Justin Cobb, a teenager living in the Upper Midwest in the 1980s. At the beginning of the novel, it appears that Justin's life will revolve around the tension of his thumbsucking habit. There is enough there for a good book, considering the context of his life. Justin is the son of Mike Cobb, a failed athlete turned failed sporting goods entrepreneur and overzealous hunter. Justin rarely meets with his father's satisfaction. Justin's dentist turns to hypnosis to solve his thumbsucking, and then later to Ritalin. It is with the latter fix that the book shifts into its true path.

Once on Ritalin, Justin is freed to pursue an erratic smorgasbord of passions -- working at a gas station, debate club, girls, fly fishing, recreational drugs, and finally Mormonism. With each he immerses himself in the totality of such a livelihood. In almost every encounter, he meets adults who engage his passion. At first, those adults appear to be principled mentors. In almost every case, though, the adults turn out to be thwarted by self-interest and deceptive moral ambiguity. The contradiction between Justin's earnest searching and the acts of those adults sets up the book for the comparisons it makes to the story of the Catcher in the Rye. Perhaps Justin Cobb is a new version of Holden Caufield. I suppose there's a bit of Ferris Bueller here, too.

This book is described as a story of the 80s. Refreshingly, that effort is done without using a bunch of symbolic shortcuts. There are no references to popular music, politics, or current events. I suppose the Ritalin marks the book within a specific time frame, but that is about it.

This is a fun book to read, not something that will take weeks. It would be good for a book club. It would be ideal men's book club.

This was a great read. The characters are hilarious, with my favorites being Mike and Grandma. I'll be buying more of Walter Kirn.

I had a preconceived idea of what this book may be about, but I was wrong. I was surprised to find out that the book was an interesting read, more entertaining and a little thought provoking. If it would have taken more than two days to read, I would have lost interest. The main character deals with a lot of issues, especially concerning drugs, his family and religion which would ideally take the book somewhere, but it really didn't go anywhere. Not bad, but not the greatest book I'll read this year.