Stephen King and Ray Bradbury described in great detail the life of an average American teenager in a small town in the 60s-70s, as Robert McCammon burst onto the scene with a shout of "Hold my beer".
Of course I'm exaggerating. McCammon described a small town in the state of Alabama like Bradbury and infused horror like Stephen King. Except, in my opinion, the chimney's lower and the smoke's leaner. Or maybe it's because I've already read those two, and this book turned out to be a repetition of the past. A small sleepy town, a school with annoying classmates, a loud-mouthed nasty teacher, a storytelling contest, pumpkin pies that neighbors carry to each other, hot summers, four buddies, dogs and bikes, racism, school bullies that beat everyone up and then get beat up themselves, and so on and so forth.
Robert Rick McCammon (born July 17, 1952) is an American novelist from Birmingham, Alabama. One of the influential names in the late 1970s–early 1990s American horror literature boom, by 1991 McCammon had three New York Times bestsellers (The Wolf's Hour, Stinger, andSwan Song) and around 5 million books in print.[1][2] Since 2002 he’s written several books in a historical mystery series featuring a 17th-century magistrate’s clerk, Matthew Corbett, as he unravels mysteries in colonial America.
The novel features a character, head sorrowful, who once wrote a nice novel about a quiet little town, but the publisher said it wouldn't work that way. So the character introduced a maniac into the novel, terrorizing the residents. The novel was immediately published, but the author was upset. That's the impression I got from "A Boy's Life". The main purpose was to tell about the town, to be nostalgic, to refresh my memories of friends, bicycles and childhood. One can feel that the author loves what he writes about, sincerely loves, genuinely, not hiding the poop in the wrapper. But realizing that few people will want to read just nostalgic memories, he dilutes the pastoral mysticism, adventure and detective. And here is the weakest link.
First of all, there's too much of everything. There are ghost-racers, and mysterious dreams, and the gang of the Big Doula, and witchcraft Lady, and Nazi criminals, and the monster Old Moses, and a bomb accidentally dropped on the Zephyr, and so on and so forth.
The second stems from the first. Too many events are difficult to decently describe. That's why some plots either end up with nothing, or unwind in a childish way. Say the way the main plot unfolded - well, such... It seems that this part was really composed by a boy of about twelve years old.
Although, it's good enough for the young adult label. For middle school age might be good. And the monster with a broomstick to defeat, and a magic bicycle to get, and the bandits to lay without consequences for themselves - why not?
Such books I like to read because of everyday descriptions. Some little things, details of life, what is normal for them, and for us is strange and surprising, and sometimes incomprehensible. For example, they always drink milk with everything, especially at dinner. They always go to people they don't know with pies and potato salads. In order to get the outlaw into the hands of the feds, who will arrive by shuttle bus, the sheriff goes door to door looking for volunteers, as the gang is about to attack and fight back.
I was also struck by this episode. A boy's favorite dog was hit by a car when he was at school. The dog has a fractured skull, broken ribs and paws, and he is seriously dying. The hospital says he's a goner. They say he's not viable, he should be put to sleep. And what's that? A kind dad waits for his son to come home from school and takes him to see the agonizing dog. An adult would die to watch such agony! Not only that, he is told that the dog should be put to sleep, so that it does not suffer, and you have to sign a consent to put it to sleep, it's your dog. Not only that a child (12 years old!) is shown such a thing, but also forced to take responsibility for the adoption. And then they will spend years in psychologists, traumas to work through.
And also the book has a sugary-sweet ending, just all slips from syrupy.
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