Customer Reviews

Too Cool

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

 

 

Duff Brenna pulls off an interesting trick in "Too Cool." He hands us a protagonist who's mostly unlikable, but somehow manages to make us interested enough to read through to find out what happens.

Elbert Earl Evans ("Triple E" to the denizens of the juvie home he escaped from) is a bad mofo. Unlikable and brash, with little or no integrity to speak of, he bluffs his way through life taking what he wants, and to hell with those who stand in his way. His favorite pasttime is grand theft auto...which, ironically, is the very act that lands him in a snowdrift high in the mountains of Colorado, stranded in the dead of winter.

The subsequent events that lead from Triple E's choices is what is most engaging about "Too Cool." That Triple E believes himself to be indestructible lends a certain foolish bravado to his plight, and the ensuing tale is riveting and exciting.

Duff Brenna writes an awesome book about a "problem child." Using the backdrop of a howling blizzard in the mountains of Colorado Brenna writes a great story of a child torn between two worlds. Triple E, Elbert Earl Evans, must decide between a life of violence and crime or a life of education and love. Triple E flees from Goodpasture Correctional Facility, picks up his girlfriend and races to freedom. After turning on backroads and driving away from the police the car eventually gets stuck in the snow. Using this as a platform Brenna allows his main character, Triple E, to reflect on his life while trying to find a way to save himself and his girlfriend. Brenna does a great job at telling the story of Triple E's past while using the survival situation to keep you reading. Brenna's choice of names for his characters also improve the story. The name Triple E just spews a troubled kid looking for a fight, other names like Chuck Pump, and Tom Patch help describe the personality of the characters.

Too Cool is a great book for all teens. The book discusses situations that all teens can relate to. Triple E has to deal with problems with his parents, school, and a first love. Brenna writes from a point of view that most teens are in. He writes from the idea that teens are invincible. This helped me relate to the book because I was able to agree with the characters. This book is great for all teenagers and I strongly recommend it.

Duff Brenna writes an awesome book about a "problem child." Using the backdrop of a howling blizzard in the mountains of Colorado Brenna writes a great story of a child torn between two worlds. Triple E, Elbert Earl Evans, must decide between a life of violence and crime or a life of education and love. Triple E flees from Goodpasture Correctional Facility, picks up his girlfriend and races to freedom. After turning on backroads and driving away from the police the car eventually gets stuck in the snow. Using this as a platform Brenna allows his main character, Triple E, to reflect on his life while trying to find a way to save himself and his girlfriend. Brenna does a great job at telling the story of Triple E's past while using the survival situation to keep you reading. Brenna's choice of names for his characters also improve the story. The name Triple E just spews a troubled kid looking for a fight, other names like Chuck Pump, and Tom Patch help describe the personality of the characters.

Too Cool is a great book for all teens. The book discusses situations that all teens can relate to. Triple E has to deal with problems with his parents, school, and a first love. Brenna writes from a point of view that most teens are in. He writes from the idea that teens are invincible. This helped me relate to the book because I was able to agree with the characters. This book is great for all teenagers and I strongly recommend it.

Duff Brenna is amazing. The way he drew Triple E, the main character, is very impressive. Yes, this book is about a delinquent and one would think that it's the typical, superficial, and banal, and violent story of a crazy-ass failure. But it's not. Duff Brenna dove in the main character's head and really stated what was in there, which were quite reasonable reasons enough for all the destruction and pain caused by the main character. A product of smartmouth parents and a violently abusive father who thought his son, Triple E, a failure the day he failed to slaughter the cow. Since then, Triple E decided that his father's opinion of him is unchangeable that he kept such kind of rude, abominable attitude and habits: carjacking, holdups, firing guns in a friend's-enemy's backyard, etc. This is a book that anyone will enjoy. It's fast-paced and the dialogue often received laughters from me. It's a hilarious book and also touching especially chapter 14: religious readers will love that chapter. Pick this book up. Read it. It's an easy read but very worthwile and a true peice of literature. Once one finishes this book, surely one would seek previous books of the identical author: Duff Brenna, "...an American treasure (The Bloomsbury Review)."

Brenna creates a fascinating world in Too Cool. I love how the title refracts different meanings as the novel progresses. The snow landscape that Triple E and his girlfriend get stuck in is, as I saw it, fascinatingly built on Kafka's labyrinths--as he pushed through the maze of the physical snow, his mind flashed back to the maze of his past and shot forward to his ever-uncertain future. This may be just me, but since the novel is set in Colorado, I was reminded of Neal Cassady, the man mythicized by Jack Kerouac and other beat writers. Like Cassady, Triple E is a car thief. Did Brenna base Triple E in part on Cassady? I don't know, but unlike Kerouac's romantic portrayal of Cassady, Brenna gives the reader exciting as well as tragic sides to the car thief/street tough way of life. Also, I thought it was brilliant how Brenna wove in commentary on a messed up education and belligerant & incompetent adults, as that contributes to the formation of young people's minds--all without being didactic, pedantic or getting distracted from the craft of the novel. In this way, is Brenna working on ideas that J.D. Salinger developed in Catcher in the Rye? Is there a bit of Holden Caulfield in Triple E? The tension he built throughout the novel, mounting with life and death circumstances, was excellent, and Too Cool's conclusion was surprising. One other thing--Brenna is a master of coining phrases. Every sentence is a fresh explosion of language.

Stuck in the Colorado sticks, Triple E and his girlfriend, the ethereal Jeanne Windriver, are a couple of dumb kids in a really bad spot. They just don't know how bad. You'll be drawn into their dilemma as if swallowed by a vicious storm. The portraits of these characters are finely drawn and their short, rough lives are illuminated with fierce love. I knew a Triple E long ago, but we lost touch. It was great to find out what happened to him.

Duff Brenna's picture of juvenile deliquency is very convincing, except for the part where his main character, Triple E, tries to relate to his caseworker, Miss Bridgewater. And Triple E's drunken parents seem a bit cliched. But the wretched kid's pals and girlfriends are excellently portrayed. I mean, the very name Chuck Pump speaks volumes, doesn't it? The story line, wherein Triple E and two others get lost in a blizzard, is captivating, and the flashbacks on Triple E's life are skillfully woven through it.

"Too Cool" was an awesome book, I couldn't put it down. The author combined great writing with a great plot. The book is especially good for the high school aged young adult. The book is very realistic for feelings most kids will have towards their parents, authorative figure, and the opposite sex. Triple E will discover that life's not as easy as he thought it would be when he runs away from home. If you're looking for a great book, and an entertaining story, I would defintely recommend "Too Cool."

this book was so awesome. the ending was so unexpected, in fact it made me cry. i wanted it to end differently, but besides that it was so magnificent, i'm doing my report on it.

If I could rate this book "0" stars, I would. First, the character's names, such as "Chuck Pump" and "Tom Patch," are lame! Not to mention the main character "Triple E," which is very lame and completely annoying to read over and over again. But, the story is just weird because I am actually not sure what it is since there are about 25 different ones! Brenna pick one story and stay with it if you want a reader to read your book! Ultimately, there is one story happening in this book: Three juvenile delinquents steal a car, escape from their home, but they get stuck in the snow. Whoopee! Yet since "triple E" tries to be brave and help them he goes off, but starts recalling his past, which is why we get all these other stories. However, we forget about the car that is stuck in the snow! Bottom line, don't get this book!