A Boy's Life - Robert McCammon

[Duende Knocking]

I wrote this (sort of lengthy - apologies!) review for a favorite book of mine when I re-read it for the fourth time last summer. I have been hoping to share it with others ever since I wrote it, and thought I'd post it here. Not an official review, but just something I did for fun. I hope this can encourage someone to give this great book a try!

A Boy's Life - Robert Mccammon
4/4!

This book is, to say the least, a masterpiece, and even then I feel that such a word is doing the book a disservice. One only has to read the four-page prologue to realize what a masterful piece of work this is. McCammon takes everything good about Ray Bradbury's writing style, gives it a twist of his own, and perfects it in a way that I did not think was possible. I have read this book for the last 3 Augusts running, as the last book I read before my birthday, and I plan to continue this tradition for some time. I may know the ending of course, but it simply never gets old. I still find myself being surprised at its turns.

This book tends to be put into the Horror section of most bookstores, though I don't believe this section to be quite accurate. The back of the book, on a similar vein, emphasizes the fact that it is a murder mystery. This is true. It is a murder mystery, but that mystery is put on the back burner for much of the novel; I'd consider it a more general work of fiction than anything else.

At the beginning of the story, Cory's father witnesses a murder, and tries in vain to save the victim. His failure to do so, and the mystery behind who committed the crime, haunt him. Cory plays detective from time to time throughout the novel, especially when his father is going through a particularly difficult stage, but as he is twelve, his life as a young boy takes center stage. You never know quite what happens and what doesn't happen, especially when it comes to ghosts, his dog, his bike, and particular monsters in the area. Did they really happen? Did they not? At the end of the day, does it even matter? It's a bit like Calvin and Hobbes in that respect; you're not meant to speculate on whether things did or didn't happen. You don't wonder if Hobbes is alive, just as you don't wonder if Cory's bike has a mind of its own and a giant creature named Old Moses lives in the river.

This book touches on a wide array of subjects a child faces as he grows up. Death, bullying, racism, family difficulties, and the destruction of small-town America are all touched upon in this book, among others, but it is not done so in a cliche way. Not at all. Death is at once surreal and all too realistic, but the author does not dwell on it for an inordinate amount of time. Bullying comes in the form of a pair of destructive brothers; it is straight-forward physical bullying of the sort you rarely read about now (as a warning if this makes anyone uncomfortable). The racism is that of the mid-20th-century south, where a smaller, poorer, "black" town called Bruton lives in the shadow of Zephyr. Family problems rear their head in the form of his father's depression. The gradual demise of the town is seen through a boy's eyes that have not yet grown bitter, which gives it a unique perspective different from most authors.

The cast of characters is fantastic, and while some are very cliche, you never get the feeling that the author didn't put any thought into them. Cory's friends are, to an extent, 'stereotypes', though they are written in such a way that this is never boring. The loud-mouthed trouble maker Davey Ray. The chubby, helpless Ben. The stoic intellectual Native Johnny. The nasty bully brothers Gordo and Gotha. The creepy girl with a crush on him, "The Devil". The kid with a lisp and an unbelievable talent, Nemo. The neurotic spinster sisters 'Miss Blueglass' and 'Miss Greenglass'. The old gunslinger Cathcoate. The racist slob Moultry. The ancient, elegant ' Lady' of reputed voodoo magic. The black handyman who can fix anything. The brilliant, but touched nudist Vernon Thatcher.

Perhaps one of the best-written things in this book is the father-son bond between Cory and his father Tom. It is brilliantly written and very realistic. At times Cory is angry at his father for being a 'coward' and tries to take things into his own hands, but in the end, Tom will not let anyone, neither his son nor the reader, down!

This book may be about a kid, but I would not say it's for kids. Some of the content is disturbing, yes, and the writing can be complex, yes, but there's something about it that makes it for, as what the author would say, adults with 'magic in their hearts'. It was written to remind us of who we were and still are, and in that manner it can only be truly appreciated by an 'adult' (I'd say anyone over 20, though I would guess this book is even better once you hit your middle ages).

I would also mention that if your father was a kid in the 50s and 60s, this is a great choice. The boy was born in 1952, only a five years before my own father, and he could relate to a lot of what was in it (and he certainly did not grow up in a small town down South). This was one of my standard recommendations to fathers looking for a good read or kids looking for a father's day gift when I worked at a bookstore, and I've had more than a few fathers come back to me in the store and say they absolutely loved the book.

Give it a try! I don't think you will be disappointed.

[gali]

I have read the book and loved it! Thank you for reminding me of it.