2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great American Non-Aristotelian Novel, November 5, 2001
This review is from: Where Do You Stop?: The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences, and Observations of Peter Leroy (Continued) (Paperback)
Take one ten-year-old boy going on eleven, quantum physics, the mysteries of sex, grown-ups and an apparently ever-widening world to know and you have the ingredients of this entrancing novel by Erik Kraft. I recommend it highly to all readers as a painless and entertaining way to get a genuine feel for the the non-aristotelian approach implicit in quantum physics as filtered through the brain of a wonderfully curious youth.
The book is written in the form of a memoir by middle-aged hotel owner and memoirist, Peter Leroy, and continues the recounting of his nineteen-fifties childhood in Babbington, Long Island, "Clam Capital of America," which began with the previous Kraft novel, Little Follies.
The present title, refers to a question for a science paper assigned by Peter's new seventh grade "general science" teacher Miss Rheingold, who has distracting legs, a passion for quantum physics and a disconcerting way of asking discumbobulating questions.
The science paper must answer one of the six questions that the children pick out of a glass bowl on the first day of class. Their paper must include a demonstration or experiment and diagrams and has no deadline. You might wish to try your hand at them yourself:
Where does the light go when the light goes out?
When is now?
What is the biggest question of all?
Why are you you?
What really happens?
Where do you stop? (p. 43)
Peter picks the final question and with some of the other members of his group finds that he gets taken over by the question:
"If it seems like a simple question to you, try thinking about it with a ten- or eleven-year-old brain. Well, where are the edges of things? Where in space-time, for instance, does one phase of your life end and another begin? Where do you mark the onset of an idea, a discovery? Where do you mark the end of a belief?" (p. 5)
The novel follows Peter's discoveries during the school year as he becomes aware that the distinct boundaries that separate people, `ideas' and things may not appear so clearly when examined closely.
The scientifically and sexually-awakening Peter takes particular delight in realizing that smelling anything involves taking molecules of that substance into ourselves and that at a sub-atomic level some of the electrons from one thing or person may overlap with those of another.
He explains this to Ariane, a seventeen-year old woman, for whom he has developed a crush:
" '...You think you stop here, at your skin--'
I touched her. Without thinking about the liberty I
was taking, I put my hand on her leg...Apparently I was too close, because she slapped my hand and said, 'Down, boy.'
'Sorry,' I said, though I was not sorry at all. 'But
the thing is that you don't stop here.' I hesitated a moment, then touched her finger, just barely touched it, to show her what I meant. "This isn't the edge of you. It looks like it, but it isn't. Little bits of you are spreading out. All over the room. I know they are, because I can smell them.'
'That's sick.'
'No, no. it's not,' I said, 'You smell great, I love
smelling you.'
'Peter!' she said with a grimace. 'If you don't cut this out, you're going to have to go home.' " (p.151-152)
We see Peter and his world expanding in other ways as he becomes aware of the dark-skinned people who live on the other side of Babbington. He befriends one of them, Marvin, another member of his "where do you stop" group. Through Marvin he realizes that the boundaries that have been set up between the whites and blacks of Babbington have less rigidity and that he and Marvin have a great deal more in common than some adults suppose.
The book appears full of many tempting general-semantics-oriented nuggets. For example, Peter describes a method of demonstrating a chain reaction using mousetraps and ping-pong balls, illustrated on the book's front cover, that sounds tempting to try. Peter's discussion of "cumulative error" with his adult friend Porky provides an amusing analogy for time-binding, both positive and negative.
Indeed, with the demonstrations, diagrams and discussion of "Where Do You Stop," the adult Peter Leroy, writing years later, realizes that with his memoir of his seventh grade year he has finally completed his general science project for Miss Rheingold. Kraft has managed to meld his characters, story and theme together into 181 pages of artless-seeming art that truly conveys the sense of a bright and inquiring ten-year-old learning more about himself and his world. The book has another bonus as well. Before you finish reading you will probably discover, as I did, that you have joined Peter's group.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Funny,wise, philosophical,a novel about childhood in the 50s, July 18, 1996
By A Customer
This review is from: Where Do You Stop?: The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences, and Observations of Peter Leroy (Continued) (Paperback)
Who but Eric Kraft could write a novel about diffusion?
"Where do you stop?" is the question assigned to 11-year-
old Peter LeRoy by his science teacher as the molecules of
her perfume pervade the room. The image of diffusion per-
vades the novel, from Peter's childhood memory of mixing
peas and mashed potatoes, to racial intergration in the
fictional community of Babbington. Memory itself is a
series of vignettes suspended in the "Zwischenraum" of
time. And of course we can't really tell where one of Mr.
Kraft's novels stops and the next one begins as he
chronicles Peter's life.
The story ("to be continued") is told with Mr. Kraft's
usual humor and digressiveness. We learn more about
Babbington of the 1950s, clam capital of the world, and
catch Peter at a time between childhood and awakening
sexuality (that perfume). Grandpa Herb, the Studebaker
salesman, makes another great invention, an automatic
garden sprinkler.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Wow! This is one of the most interesting I have ever read!, June 6, 2004
This review is from: Where Do You Stop?: The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences, and Observations of Peter Leroy (Continued) (Paperback)
Using his Pychon-esque writing capabilities, his clever, but not flashy wit, and unbelievable narrative abilities, Eric Kraft has shapen one the most unique and interesting books I have ever read. It was recomended to me by a friend. I was reluctant to start, but I wound up reading it in about two days.
The series of books are the memoirs or a fiction character, and his life on long island. Within the narrative, there are simple clues that begin to tell you the this Fictional character isn't alwaystelling whole truth. But, he's fictional to begin with, so does it really matter. The book is filled with great quirks like that, not to mention that it is one of the funniest things you will ever read. Eric is one of the few authors who truly understands the mind of an 11 year old boy. He offers a wonderful glimps of life as a child during the 1950's, and touches issues such as race, funding in public schools, and ratio of beer to lemonade creates the perfect shandy.
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