Chris Crutcher

I adore Chris Crutcher's books and have read almost all of them; I never seem to tire of his themes of compassion, intellectual freedom, standing up against bullies, and open discourse. That said, this book did not work well for me, although I appreciate that he tried a new approach. I think that might be the problem: the book's two unusual elements each might have worked better alone, giving the author time to work them out more successfully.

The first element is that the author is narrating show more posthumously; Billy is killed in a freak accident (he kicks a pile of sheet rock and it falls on him) and he then narrates the story, popping in and out of the other characters' heads as a dead person. I have no problem with this idea, but Billy relates the thoughts he sees/hears, sometimes in third person and sometimes in first person, even within the same paragraph. Since he also narrates his own portions in first person, I had to keep stopping to figure out whether a particular thought belonged to Billy or to his friend Eddie, whom Billy visits and helps throughout the narrative.

The second unusual element is that Crutcher inserts himself into the narrative; the book that some characters want to ban is a fictitious book by Chris Crutcher himself. The characters fighting both for and against banning the book check out Crutcher's website and give lots of facts about his life. It comes across as a bit gimmicky and in my mind doesn't add much to the story.

This book is also shorter than most of Crutcher's work, and it feels as though he rushed to the conclusion, which seemed mostly an excuse to have a couple of characters give impassioned speeches. In my opinion, a clever argument given as a speech should rarely be the climax of a book; it then makes the book seem too much of an excuse for the author him/herself to give a speech.

Finally, while I agree with Crutcher that the people/characters we see as the "bad guys" do not generally think they are doing bad things, such as the reverend/school board member who is trying to ban the book, the fact remains that what they are doing *is* wrong, so I'm not willing to just accept that "bad guys aren't that bad" on face value. The characters against censorship lose the battle (all of Crutcher's books are banned in the school) and supposedly win the war (the janitor and librarian who've lost their jobs over this issue get jobs at the public library -- which is completely unrealistic). Somehow, this ending just didn't satisfy.

All these criticisms aside, I think Crutcher is a fantastic writer and I will continue to buy and read his books. I've already pre-ordered his next one! show less

Eric's only friend in middle school was Sarah Byrnes, a girl with an acerbic sense of humor and severe burns on her face and hands. She and Eric, the fattest boy in school, made up a sort of club of rejects, banding together to use their wits against their tormentors. Now, in high school, Eric has discovered swimming and has made at least one other friend, but Sarah Byrnes is still one of the most important people in his life. And she's in a mental hospital, in a catatonic state. Eric visits show more her regularly, wondering all the time: what happened to make her check out like this? Is there any way he can help her find her way back?

I thought I had read this as a teenager, but if I did, a whole lot of it went right over my head! I suspect that I remember seeing the title on the library shelves, but that I never checked it out. I have such mixed feelings about this title. First off, parts of it are extremely dated. I can't really hold that against the book; in its time, I'm sure they added a lot. It's just that teens now are going to struggle with that aspect and miss out on a lot of the humor. Other parts, including some of the class discussions from Eric's Critical American Thought class, are starkly relevant. Certain plot elements are extremely predictable, like the Inspirational Teacher vs. Uptight Administration storyline, and the way Jody's story plays out (I'm being intentionally vague to avoid spoilers) -- again, they might have seemed fresher in 1993. All of the adult antagonists are pretty one-dimensional, though a kid bully gets some more nuance. All in all, I can see this book being taught in a YA literature course, as it's a strong example of a 1990s realistic teen novel, but I'm not sure I'd hand it to teens today, at least not without some additional context. show less

CATEGORY: Required

Moby is a fat kid turned slightly less fat kid. Middle school was rough for him, but he had Sarah Byrnes to get him through it. Sarah Byrnes is a burn victim. She's witty, harsh, and will stop at nothing to get revenge on the popular crowd. But when Sarah and Moby get to high school and Moby starts swimming, they drift apart. Sarah resents Moby's move to the popular crowd and his slight weightloss, losing his physical "loser" marker. But now Sarah is in the hospital after a show more mental breakdown and she isn't speaking. Moby goes and talks to her everyday, and finds out more about Sarah's traumatic past. Suddenly, everything becomes clear in Moby's life and part of that is because of Lemry's Contemporary American Thought class. Abortion, child abuse, Christianity, and suicide attempts are all in play in Chris Crutcher's phenomenally deep YA book.

I loved this book so much. I loved the Christian criticism, the adult topics in high school, and the greatest depictions of friendship I've seen in a YA book. I think that, although this book is fairly controversial, it would be a great fit for a large number of high school students. Crutcher promotes critical and deep thinking about things a large number of teenagers have just accepted as fact, religion included. show less

Dear Chris Crutcher,
I said I would give you another chance after Chinese Handcuffs, which I basically hated. And I was really getting into Whale Talk, despite some animal torture (what is it with you and animal torture?) when you had to go and make me like these characters a lot and then bad things keep happening and I end up crying. What gives, Chris Crutcher? Is it that you like to see people cry? Huh?

Okay, so I liked this one even though it was tragic and sad and infuriating and made me show more hate people. I give. show less