Midwestern Misfits

I chose this book because Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) recommended it in an interview. It provides a sentimental view of Midwestern America (mostly Chicago and Champaign-Urbana) in the 1920s, viewed from the 1940s. The first half reminded me of early Scott Fitzgerald stories (Bernice Bobs her Hair) and Sinclair Lewis (Babbitt). Teenage boys in high school deal with their families and classmates and pretend to be more grown-up and sophisticated than they are. Two boys, Limey and Spud, opposites in every way, become super-close friends. A girl comes between them, sort of.

But the second half becomes melodramatic and banal. Limey and Spud follow different routes in college, testing their friendship. The girl remains fond of both. But Limey becomes weak and simpering, while Spud grows increasingly angry and a bit dense.

Are the young men lovers? Hard to say, as the novel reflects an age when that love really did not dare not speak its name. But it begins with a bunch of naked teenage boys playing water polo in the school pool, college boys share beds snuggling warmly and there is even a chaste lip-to-lip guy kiss. Secondary characters include a bachelor professor living with his party-loving mother and an affected antique dealer who runs a men's rooming house with his little dog. But despite all that, there is never a hint that any characters--male or female--actually have sex.

The book is fun as a historic artifact, and the first half is kind of charming. The narration was good, with nice choices for the voices of the various characters.

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4 people found this helpful

I don't get it!

I was looking for an exemplary piece of fiction from "back then" when plots and character arcs were king. I had heard that Maxwell was an editor of great writers, so I felt "safe" that this would be a terrific read. But I found it boring. There is some suggestion of homosexual love between two friends, and that is handled beautifully in the early sections. Innocent friendship gone intimate and all that. By the end, it was messy and blatant. I am not sure about the importance of the so-called romance, but I am sure that the contrasts between the boys, their upbringing, their current situations were very important. A motherless boy is always good for great character and faulty conceptions of the world.

Maybe because of the time, the sexual relationship could not be more deftly illustrated; I get that. But it was thrown on thick at the end as if the writer wanted to make sure the reader "got it." The sentence about "not liking effeminate men" was the only thing definitely "effeminate" about that particular character.

Am I missing nuances here? I could go back and re-think some scenes and find ways to add homosexual behavior to some, but why? I think that as a book about growing boys, motherless children, poverty and academia, about Chicago and about adolescence, it is just dandy.

I would not recommend this for anyone else to read or listen to -- because it was BORING. The language was lovely, but not stunning. The sentences and the word choices were rather plain.

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1 person found this helpful

Ahead of its time

Beautifully written and a bit of a scandalous tale for its time but I found my 21st century values wanted more.

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Superb narrator

The narrator was wonderful. He got into the characters with different voices and made the whole thing just something you could get lost in. excellent

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Great book. Ending of Audio differs from Print

The writing is really superb--crisp and economical, but lovely at the same time. A few others wrote here that the writing includes digressions not related to the plot. My sense is that the book accurately captures the friendship between the two boys *because* young men don't communicative about their feelings in an open straight-forward way. Maxwell very artfully creates metaphors that mirror or illuminate what's happening.

I started the audio book and then switched to the ebook version. The endings aren't the same. Maxwell wraps up the plot the same way, but the material in the last chapter of the audio book is spread out and augmented into two chapters in the print edition. If you liked the audio book, I'd suggest trying to find that last chapter in print. It buttons up the book well.

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1 person found this helpful

Charming classic

A very charming story about two very different boys who form a close friendship that then leads in to a one sided romance

For the modern reader I have to give a sensitivity warning (with the fear of sounding like a total SJW) this book might come off as a little "queer bait-y" to the modern reader. To a modern person it would be quite obvious that one of the boys is gay and is in love with the other boy. Whether that was intentional or not is hard to say, but to me it does read like it is. This is never made explicit but there are a lot of passages that would be hard to interpret otherwise. This might be frustrating at times but one has to keep in mind that this book was written in the 1940's.

If this does not bother you it is a very charming story, loved the characters and Maxwell's language is beautiful. I have also rarely read a book about teenagers that so well captures the way they think and act. His portrait of the teenage mind is so perfect and captivating and to me as an adult it really takes me back. It does this completely without being either sentimental not judgemental. It treats teenagers with respect with the full knowledge that they are at times (if you will excuse my french) overly melodramatic dumb-asses fuelled by hormones and with very little common sense.

The narrator does a great job at really showing off the beauty of the language and his voices for the different characters are fitting.

I would recommend this book, just keep in mind that it is a little bit dated.

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Relationally uneven

I thought the book was about the two main characters, but there were many abounding sequences where there were characters and dialogues between characters that had absolutely nothing to do with the main characters that didn't really seem to add to the story. They just seem to be Meanderings in aimless directions. I didn't like the narrator's voice of the two main characters, I thought the two main characters were rather selfish, not looking out for one another, not a good friendship not a good fit. The voice of the narrator seemed to add to this thought and feeling of mine.

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Suicide attempts will not fix a person’s problems

Terrible ending to a boring story. Would have been 2 stars except for the end.

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