bookchickdi: coming of age

Showing posts with label coming of age. Show all posts

Monday, January 11, 2021

Everywhere You Don't Belong by Gabriel Bump

Everywhere You Don't Belong by Gabriel Bump

Published by Algonquin Books ISBN 978164370859

Trade paperback, $15.95, 272 pages

Gabriel Bump dedicates his thought-provoking debut novel Everywhere You Don't Belong to his Grandma and young Black men like Tamir Rice, Mike Brown, Travon Martin, among others.

Set in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago, teenage Claude lives with Grandma and her friend Paul. Grandma participated in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Paul is gay and unlucky in love. Grandma gets Claude into a Catholic school on the other side of the tracks, but Claude is bullied at school because he is "bad at sports, no jokes, no rich parents, no excellent homework to steal and copy."

A few months into his tenure at Catholic school, his Grandma and the nuns had a disagreement about sexual abstinence (Grandma is against it), and Claude and Catholic school part ways. Grandma is quite a character, but she loves Claude.

Basketball was everything in Chicago at this time- the Bulls had Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman, who were all on team that won multiple championships. Claude wasn't any good at basketball, but his best friend Jonah was a superstar. When Claude was badly beat up by Jonah's rival, Jonah's parents move him away, and Claude is left alone.

The South Side was also home to the Redbelters, who Grandma says thinks they are Black Panthers, but they recruit kids to sell drugs for them. When Claude and his friends are caught in the middle of a deadly riot between cops and the Redbelters, the neighborhood is being torn apart live on the nightly news.

Claude wants to escape and so he goes to college in Missouri to study journalism. His hopes of being his own person is hindered by his fellow students and teachers who once again want to define him by his race. When a young woman from home tracks him down, he has to decide where his future lies.

Everywhere You Don't Belong is a worthy addition to the best coming-of-age novels, from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn to The Catcher in the Rye to more current ones like Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give. Bump creates a character in Claude who comes alive on the page. Good authors put us in the shoes and minds of their characters, and Bump does that with great empathy and a little humor (Grandma and Paul provide that). I highly recommend Everywhere You Don't Belong, and I'm not alone. The New York Times chose it as one of their 100 Notable Books of 2020.

Thansk for Algonquin Books for putting me on Gabriel Bump's tour.

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Weekend Cooking- The Grown Ups by Robin Antalek

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking. If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

The Grown Ups by Robin Antalek
Published by William Morrow Paperbacks ISBN 9780062302472
Trade paperback, $14.99, 357 pages

The cover of Robin Antalek's The Grown Ups is a photo of what looks like an abandoned picnic table. It drew me in right away, wondering what happened at that table. Did the people who ate there enjoy themselves or was there an argument and is that why no one is sitting there?

The Grown Ups open in 1997 at Suzie Epstein's 15th birthday party. Suzie brings her neighbor Sam into her basement and shows him photos of neighborhood women that her father, who just moved out out, had hidden. Sam just wanted to kiss Suzie, but Suzie wanted Sam to know that his mother's photo was there, and that it implied that her father and his mother were sleeping together.

Soon after, Sam's mother left too, and that left Sam alone with his father and older brother Michael to fend for themselves. Suzie's mom falls into a funk and it is left to Suzie to run the household and care for her little brothers.

Suzie's mom moves the family away to reunite with her husband in Brookline, far away from Sam. Sam is distraught and he begins to date Bella, Suzie's best friend. Bella loves Sam, Sam pines for Suzie, and Suzie is determined to go to medical school. She will not let herself become totally dependent on a man like her mother.

Suzie meets someone and falls in love, and Bella and Sam date, though Sam can't really commit to Bella the way she deserves. He becomes distant and loses his way in life.

Until he finds that he has a talent for cooking. He works for a caterer in Manhattan where

"The prep kitchens were in a warehouse building near the West Side Highway, and the food was what you would expect at a wedding for a hundred or so of your not-so-close friends. There were always a multitude of chicken dishes on the menu, as well as salmon puffs and shrimp rolls, and roasted red potatoes. These dishes traveled well on the Long Island Expressway en route to their location."

I never would have imagined that the warehouses on the West Side Highway housed catering kitchens. I will think of that the next time I am at an event for hundreds of people.

I enjoyed the descriptions of Sam's food, like "the quinoa salad with roasted vegetables, black bean burgers on whole grain rolls, a green salad, and new potatoes with lemon laid out on the table in the backyard underneath the grape arbor."

Or this one: "For dinner Sam grilled the corn and steaks, pulverized the parsley, lemon, garlic and oil into a pesto he drizzled over thin slices of meat and roasted potato, and served everything on the deck."

The Grown Ups is a wonderful coming-of-age story, although the scenes set in 1997 seemed to me to contain details more in line with being a teenager in the 1970s, with all the moms smoking and milk delivered to homes and left in boxes on the porch.

Sam, Suzie and Bella each tell their story in alternating chapters, and they feel to me like people I would know from the neighborhood. They try to be good people, dealing with family problems, unrequited love, and all the scary things life can throw at you. Sam's dad Hunt in particular was a favorite of mine, supporting his kids and just being an all-round good guy.

Antalek writes a story filled with very detailed scenes that you can visualize in your mind. After reading The Grown Ups, I picked up Antalek's previous novel The Summer We Fell Apart because she tells a story with so much heart.

The Grown Ups reminded me of Meg Wolitzer's The Interestings, another story about a group of friends struggling with friendship, love and life.

My review of The Interestings is here.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Casebook by Mona Simpson

Casebook by Mona Simpson
Published by Knopf ISBN 97880385351416
Hardcover, $25.95, 336 pages

As Mona Simpson's newest novel, Casebook opens, Miles is twelve years old when his parents separate. His mom, Irene (whom he calls the Mims) is a mathematician, not an occupation you find frequently in novels. His father Evan is a lawyer in the entertainment industry and they live in Los Angeles.

He has younger twin sisters whom he calls Boop One and Boop Two. His best friend Hector's parents aren't together either. Hector has a bit of a crush on the Mims, and he is more than willing to help Miles figure out why Mims and Evans are separated and whether they are headed towards divorce.

Miles has heard rumblings that Mims cheated on his dad, and to find out the truth he rigs up a phone extension so that he can listen to his mother's phone conversations. Mims soon begins dating Eli, who works for the National Service Foundation in Washington.

Eli seems like a good guy, but he is in the midst of a divorce from his wife and he misses his young son. His mother recently died, and he has a brother who has mental health issues. Eli promises Mims that he will move out to Los Angeles and they will be a family, she just has to give him time. And more time. And more time. And then he has to take care of his dying cat, who seems to hang on forever.

Miles and Hector become suspicious of Eli, so they seek out a private investigator, whose jobs usually consist of background checks on reality show contestants (Big Brother, The Bachelor), but there is something about these boys that gets to him, and he agrees to help them without pay.

Casebook puts me in mind of Caroline Leavitt's recent novel Is This Tomorrow?. They both tell the story of a lonely young boy, who loves his mom very much, and takes on her problems. They both tell the story from the boy as an adult looking back on his life. And they both feature strong characterizations and beautiful writing.

It took me awhile to get into Casebook, but about halfway in, I fell in love. Miles and Hector are such real, wonderful boys, trying to make sense of an adult world. Mims got to me too; she so wants this relationship with Eli to be the real deal.

Simpson creates believable characters that you feel you know. Her description of Sare, one of Mims's friends is a good example.

"She was way cooler than my parents. Sare was a very smart person who never tried anything too hard for her. She had that confidence and that boredom."

My only criticism of the book is that there are many characters, and at first it is difficult to keep track of who belonged to whom. And the fact that Miles had nicknames for his mom and sisters confused me when other characters called them by their given names.

Miles and Hector write a comic book based partly on Eli, and I'm glad we get to see the results of their work. Hector also has footnotes in the book, giving his point of view on things that Miles has written about him, which adds a unique perspective.

The ending is poignant, much like Is This Tomorrow?, and if you liked that novel, you will love Casebook, as I did. It's a beautiful coming-of-age story, sure to touch your heart.

rating 5 of 5

My review of Is This Tomorrow? is here.