The Spectacular Now

A really good book with a really unlikeable narrator. I know I'm supposed to love Sutter--he's the life of the party! He's popular! He's friendly!--but he's also kind of an asshole, I thought, even aside from his alcohol problem--he's just so outgoing and everything's-a-joke that he really got on my nerves.

I enjoyed the book and I wouldn't be surprised if it lands on the Printz shortlist--but Sutter is not someone I'd want to spend any more time with than I already did. ( )

Okay... so I've been putting off this review because I was unsure about my rating. My initial reaction was FIVE STARS!! FIVE STARS!! but then I got to thinking about my dislike for the ending and thought maybe I should round it down to four... and then I was like "but is my problem with the ending because it was bad - or because it didn't go the way I wanted it to?"... so I eventually kept my five stars because I am so completely in love with the amazingly complicated and wonderful character that is Sutter Keely. He is complex, multi-dimensional, so vibrant and full of life that it's hard to accept that he isn't real and about to jump off the page.

[a:Tim Tharp|321382|Tim Tharp|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1283812611p2/321382.jpg] has written a very funny, sad, thoughtful book that creates such an in-depth picture of a boy who is simultaneously lovable and exhausting. I am friends with the female equivalent of Sutter Keely, a person who you always want at your parties because you know they'll bring every social situation to life, a person who is kind and means well but is very hard to deal with in any more than small doses, a person who is nearly always just a little drunk. How many times have I rolled my eyes and thought "okay, give it a rest now"? I think I can appreciate the world through their eyes a little bit more after reading [b:The Spectacular Now|3798703|The Spectacular Now|Tim Tharp|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320493552s/3798703.jpg|3842894].

Sutter is the kind of multi-layered character I love to read about. On the surface he's a warm-hearted, over-the-top drunk, the kind of guy who's popular in high school but will probably never end up achieving his potential because his aspirations don't extend further than locating his next alcohol fix. Underneath all this he is troubled and sad and lonely, people often think that a drinker's problem is the alcohol, but nine times out of ten it runs far deeper than this. His dad is nowhere to be seen, his mum and stepdad seem to have forgotten he exists except for when they pause to threaten him with military school, his best friend no longer wants to hang around with him, he's just been dumped... and then along comes Aimee. The one person in the world who has ever seemed to need him, truly need him, to get her life back in order, to gain confidence and to sort out her future. Can Sutter finally make a difference beyond the small realm of his booze-fuelled spectacular now?

I'm still not sure how I feel about that ending. Do I like the fact that this book doesn't carry the message that we were all hoping for and expecting? Not really. But is this a representation of real life in all its fucked up, messy, sad, sometimes funny glory? Probably... yeah, probably. I guess in real life not everyone gets saved and perhaps that was what [a:Tim Tharp|321382|Tim Tharp|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1283812611p2/321382.jpg] was trying to say. ( )

I picked up this audiobook after hearing MacLeod Andrews* at the ALA Odyssey Awards reception this summer and I was immediately sucked in by the humor and Andrews's believable Oklahoma drawl. This is a story that lends itself very well to the audio format and with Andrews at the helm, it's just like Sutter Keely himself is sitting across from you and telling you the story.

I'd recommend for fans of John Green.

Review on the blog: http://www.abbythelibrarian.com/2011/09/audiobook-review-spectacular-now.html ( )

Sutter Keely is not your normal YA novel teen: he's friendly, smart (-alecky), funny, articulate, adventurous, and an alcoholic. At turns, achingly self-aware and then obtuse, 'The Sutterman' stumbles through his senior year, learning a bit about his long-absent, deadbeat dad, befriending a "loser" girl, Aimee, and --most of all-- having a good time. The reader not only sees the bad choices he makes but cares enough to feel sad about them. But this is no After-School Special: Sutter is still "God's Own Drunk" at the end of the book.

The voice is authentic; the actions ring true = a more harrowing look at the dangers of drinking than any MADD pamphlet. ( )

In The Spectacular Now, the main character was very likable. In fact, most of the characters were absolutely likable.

I was worried that this book was going to go for the trite "boy hangs out with unpopular girl and ends up liking her" story line that echos Ten Things I Hate About You or something. Fortunately, it didn't.

I wasn't totally sure about the ending, though. I liked the ambiguity of it, but I would have felt more satisfied knowing what type of spectacular now the protagonist was heading off into.

But don't get me wrong - I definitely liked this book. The voice was very appealing, and I thought the situations and emotions were very realistic. I was caught up in the story and had a hard time putting the book down sometimes (though not all the time).

"I embrace the weird."