Customer Reviews

Too Much of Nothing

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

 

 

"Too Much of Nothing is a clever and merciless look back at teenaged friendship, and at two boys' jaded coming of age in mid-'80s L.A. Michael Scott Moore's dead hero recalls all of the romantic terrors and joys of high school with a wry, cold eye. A truly accomplished and absorbing debut."
- Stewart O'Nan, author of A Prayer for the Dying and The Night Country

"A beautiful novel that manages to be scary, funny, and absolutely compelling. Moore's talent for transporting the reader into the very heart of his fictional California surf town is astonishing. I love this book."
- Joy Nicholson, author of The Tribes of Palos Verdes

"Moore's fierce wit and vivid narrative deliver a heady cocktail of friendship, youth, and betrayal worthy of the Korova Milkbar."
- Black Book Magazine

"A cool-handed debut. The style is simple, the language everyday -- but the details and dialogue cut glass-sharp and often bone-deep."
- The Boston Herald

"A satisfying bildungsroman, combining a wry but heartfelt take on teen passions with a serious ethical concern for the fine line between freedom and nihilism."
- Publisher's Weekly

"Beautifully imagined ... A unique and heartrending view into a west-coast beach town teeming with punks, surfers, drug dealers, and a lone nefesh. Michael Scott Moore has, as they say, announced his presence with authority."
- Lee Durkee, author of Rides of the Midway

"A taut, gripping tale of murder animated by rabbi-wisdom and Reagan-era pop culture, Too Much of Nothing is a smart, vibrant, and utterly original novel ... Moore tenderly excavates the heart of an adolescent haunted by angst and longing."
- Rebecca Donner, author of Sunset Terrace

"Moore has written a novel close to Gimpel the Fool meets The Falcon and the Snowman -- a sometimes funny story about a sensitive ghost who while alive and sixteen in the '80s tried, but failed, to enjoy the Dead Kennedys, and got a nosebleed after snorting too much good blow ... There is an ailing and strange loneliness in the prose most powerfully felt by those who have survived grief, who have some distance from the tedious obsessions of youth."
- Joe Loya, author of The Man Who Outgrew His Prison Cell

"Moore knows the cruelties meted out by children to other children, the bizarreness of first sexual encounters, the offhanded betrayal of friends."
- Ethan Watters, author of Urban Tribes

"A talented stylist. He renders the local landscape with a poet's eye ... [and] captures the milieu of high school well, too, its crystal-clear delineations of class and coolness."
- San Francisco Chronicle

"A prosperous beginning for San Francisco-based reporter and stage critic Moore."
- Kirkus

"A hell of a ghost story."
- Joseph Weisberg, author of 10th Grade

I grew up in the environment Moore describes and can confirm that he has captured it perfectly -- but brought its shallowness into a clarity that I sure didn't see growing up. Moore is biting and funny, nostalgic and sad all at once, and he performs a brilliant trick of sneaking a looming dread into a narrative bright with the glare of upper-middle-class sunniness. Just as nice is his creation of complex, true-to-life characters and a beach town that seems to bleed off the pages of the book, like Altman movies seem to have a life outside the camera's eye: You get a sense that there's much more going on. You want to come back and keep poking around.

Despite the addage of never judging a book by its cover, I did exactly that when I picked this one up. The cover intrigued me enough to pick up the book and read the first few pages. Once I got home, I could not stop reading it. The use of description is what really pulled me in, the accurate portrayal (of a fictional town) in SoCal evoked memories of my own childhood in the same locale during the early 80s. The conflicted youth, between Establishment and individualism, rings hauntingly clear. However, the ending of the book seemed forced, predictable, and ultimately unsatisfying. I guess I should be glad that it did not turn comical by having the two freinds meet after death while floating above San Francisco.

Moore's first long-form outing certainly doesn't seem like it; he writes with grace and assurance. The Calaveras Beach of Eric Sperling's childhood is realized both poetically and economically, and Eric's friends, classmates and family are realistically drawn, yet still have a certain unearthliness. Anyone who was a teenager in the eighties or later should recognize Moore's unsentimental adolescents with a pang--the shifting allegiances, the social faux pas, the desperation of kids on the brink of adulthood trying to make a place for themselves. I didn't expect to be drawn in or held as closely as I was; too many coming-of-age stories focus on shock without substance, but such is not the case here at all. Looking forward to more from this author.

The author of this book is not trying to say "non-conformism" is a dangerous thing" (see below). The novel is a subtle satire on American counterculture; it shows how some people who talk the loudest about individualism and freedom don't know the first thing about either one. I thought it was dark and funny.

Since finishing the book, it has been in my thoughts frequently; it is a gauge against which I compare my own experiences growing up with the characters Moore has created. The author and I grew up in the same area, only a couple of years apart; we attended the same highschool for a couple of overlapping years, and a number of the locations he has so successfully described in the abstract are readily identifiable as "real" locations in our hometown. The imagery that he manages to pull up elicits a gut level comprehension of the Los Angeles climate. Los Angeles is constantly buzzing with activity, a proof of the converse of the adage "still waters run deep." The surface buzz of Los Angeles is sizable, its populace constantly vibrating on the edge of the now and the next, but with limited consideration for what comes after "next," or the past. Los Angeles isn't so much "sunny" as in a state of constant "glare." The sky isn't blue, nor is it often brown with smog; it's usually a matte silver tone -- a color that tends to simply amplify the sun's natural brightness to a dizzying shine that makes things stand out intensely. But over time that glare damages that which it shines upon, simply by its own intensity. Moore's novel is like that as well. As clearly as it depicts the world we lived in, it also has worn some of the polish from it.

With regard to another review that posits that deviation from the norm is what leads to the death of the main character, I read it as the reverse: Eric is brought down because of a critically mistimed attempt at bald honesty. It has less to do with conformity than a lack of emotional tools in youth to deal with difficult situations, or to reason out their consequences.

A fine book that got my attension from the first page. A fun read with great depth.

this is one rare book. how many coming of age stories still ring with truth and heart without getting smarmy? too much of nothing is how kids, many kids feel.
and the trauma of teen-hood is a weapon wielded into the later years. mr. moore is a beautiful writer. READ THIS BOOK!

This book centers on the major theme of individuality and conformity. Though it could be argued that since both characters were destroyed because of their need to be individuals, I believe there is a different point behind it all. In several instances, these boys try and find the hypocritical people in society. They hate a certain gang at school for their bully persona to only emulate that themselves. Their mentor talks about going against the man and capitalism, when he himself came from a very rich capitalist background and benefits from it.

This is a somewhat dark novel that shows the shallowness of several characters. All the characters are dynamic and go through several changes. The book was truly gripping in its delivery and style; I read the book in one setting because of not being able to put it down. I did not grow up around such conditions while going through high school, but since I am not that far removed from the environment, I related to this book fairly well. A good book that is worth a look

In response to Jaydekitten's comments, I do not believe that Mr. Moore was conveying a message intended to discourage non-conformist thought and behavior. In point of fact - and his book amply demonstrates this - most teens (of any generation) lack the empirical life knowledge, the bumps and bruises and contusions that the adult experience delivers, to make a considered choice and proclaim "I don't want to be a part of that." They are still evolving as humans.

Consider, for instance, the video tape released last year of Columbine killers Klebold and Harris taking the day off for a little target practice in the woods near their suburban Colorado home. There is a smug arrogance about the duo, a simmering hatred of everything and everybody who doesn't respect their self-entitled right to be "different", that is so undeserved. Simply put, these are kids who couldn't accept and adjust to the amplified traumas and social blunders of high school, for cyin' out loud, so how were they ever to adapt to the "real world"? From my point of view, what we witness with Eric and Tom and Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold is harsh Darwinian theory in action, the universe, if you will, stepping in and straightening out a couple of design flaws; unfortunately and tragically, a few innocents usually get taken out of line in the process.