- Hardcover: 272 pages
- Publisher: Little, Brown US; 1 edition (1 Sep 2011)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0316084476
- ISBN-13: 978-0316084475
- Product Dimensions: 15.2 x 3.2 x 22.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 667,964 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"A fresh comic voice and a talent for sharp familiarizing place-details."
--Wall Street Journal
"Sam Sacks "
--Wall Street Journal
"Sam Sacks "
Review
Masterfully wrought...downright hilarious and often hold-your-breath-and-hope-for-the-best suspenseful. The restraint with which Beard deploys moments of tension and humor make each page glimmer. -- Samuel Reaves Slaton O Magazine An exuberant first novel...Beard has a knack for melding the funny and the sad, amplifying small moments into something big. -- Susannah Meadows New York Times Epic and profound. These thoughtful, funny, awestruck, slightly peculiar girls are so endearing, so painfully true. -- Karen Valby Entertainment Weekly
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
For anyone who's trying to figure out the difference between a book about adolescence and a book FOR adolescents, your answer is here. This subtle, wonderfully written novel is not for kids (except the 15+ ones who are reading everything anyway) -- it's too painful and sad and funny. Beard recounts 1970s teendom with astonishing grace. It opens with the terrible embarrassment of burning down the house of the people you're babysitting for, and reminds you that cosmic tragedy and minor shame are equally embarrassing when you're 14.
Read it. Brilliant.
Read it. Brilliant.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
41 reviews
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Beautiful ... then disappointing
17 May 2011
Format:Hardcover
"We can't believe the house is on fire. It's so embarrassing first of all, and so dangerous second of all. Also, we're supposed to be in charge here, so there's a sense of somebody not doing their job."
Some books are written *for* children and adolescent readers, some are written *about* childhood and adolescence for adult readers. The first sentences (above) from the unnamed teen narrator who's babysitting six kids with her best friend -- the self-deprecation and mis-ordered priorities; the use of "tableau" and "sibilance" a few pages later -- predict a story *about* adolescence, circa 1970 but influenced by a wiser, reminiscing adult.
And I think that's what Beard intended in this coming-of-age story about a girl's summer before 9th grade. It's full of friendship and small-town ("insanesville") period detail woven with a riveting family subplot full of tension and high stakes. And in Beard's writing, there is sooo much good here. But at about the halfway point, the subplot fades and the story turns young-adult, where everyday adolescent problems wreak melodramatic fallout and culminate in a quick, half-earned ending. Fans of Beard (like me) will find much familiar territory from The Boys of My Youth in the first half and then likely disappointment in the second.
Some books are written *for* children and adolescent readers, some are written *about* childhood and adolescence for adult readers. The first sentences (above) from the unnamed teen narrator who's babysitting six kids with her best friend -- the self-deprecation and mis-ordered priorities; the use of "tableau" and "sibilance" a few pages later -- predict a story *about* adolescence, circa 1970 but influenced by a wiser, reminiscing adult.
And I think that's what Beard intended in this coming-of-age story about a girl's summer before 9th grade. It's full of friendship and small-town ("insanesville") period detail woven with a riveting family subplot full of tension and high stakes. And in Beard's writing, there is sooo much good here. But at about the halfway point, the subplot fades and the story turns young-adult, where everyday adolescent problems wreak melodramatic fallout and culminate in a quick, half-earned ending. Fans of Beard (like me) will find much familiar territory from The Boys of My Youth in the first half and then likely disappointment in the second.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Sometimes It's Hard to Be a Woman
18 May 2011
Format:Hardcover
I was enraptured by Beard's first book, Boys of My Youth. This one, her first novel, is highly engaging and has both humorous and horrible moments. She captures what it's like to grow up in a completely dysfunctional family, and what it feels like never to quite have the currently fashionable clothing and to endlessly worry about her status in school. The last third of the book is all about a Girl Fight, which I am precluded from having by being a guy, and which I've never understood. I think if I were a woman, I would understand the subtleties of Girl Fights and would have rated the book with five stars.
She has some memorable turns of phrase, such as "A boy with the ruinous name Milton" and many others. I loved the book, but I think you have to be a woman to fully appreciate it. Still, as a man, I was able to gain a lot of insight into young adolescent women and felt a lot more sympathy for them and a lot less pity for myself as an adolescent boy. It's not easy to be a 14-year-old girl. Now I also have more insight into my two daughters and what it was like for them to be 14.
I would strongly recommend this book.
She has some memorable turns of phrase, such as "A boy with the ruinous name Milton" and many others. I loved the book, but I think you have to be a woman to fully appreciate it. Still, as a man, I was able to gain a lot of insight into young adolescent women and felt a lot more sympathy for them and a lot less pity for myself as an adolescent boy. It's not easy to be a 14-year-old girl. Now I also have more insight into my two daughters and what it was like for them to be 14.
I would strongly recommend this book.
25 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Adolescence and cruelty
22 April 2011
Format:Hardcover
In Zanesville opens with a stunning and cruel chapter in which the narrator and her best friend are babysitting the unruly children of a pair of biker parents. While in their care, one of their children sets a fire in the bathroom. The fourteen year old babysitters respond with an immaturity that is both uncomfortable and funny-that is until the boy's parents come home and respond in a way that is unexpected. I don't want to take away the emotional impact of the moment by revealing it. I felt this sense of discomfort, humor, and horror throughout the novel, reminding me of my own adolescence. Read this novel to be reminded of what it is to be uncertain, to make bad choices, and to feel the anxiety of that strange age when you are no longer a child, but still not quite an adult.
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