Adam Rapp (1) (1968–)

One of the best books of 2009. Too bad I didn't get around to reading it until now because I definitely would've fought for it to be included in the Mock Printz.

Rapp has created some amazing and unforgettable characters in this road trip novel. Punkzilla is a 14 year old boy who runs away from military school and starts living his own life. After discovering his brother is dying of cancer, Punkzilla leaves Portland, OR and begins an adventure full of buses, bullies, transgenders and show more others.

Rapp really knows how to write about those who live on the fringe. The stream-of-consciousness writing is unbelievably honest and gut-wrenching and puts you into the mind of the main character.

I can't recommend this book enough. It's a Diane Arbus photo come to life show less

Decelerate Blue by Adam Rapp and Mike Cavallaro is a beautiful book with blue edges and black and white art. It's about a future where nothing matters but speed and brevity. All food is preprocessed, all books and films are condensed. Even language is as brief as possible. Lives are run by a corporation and, as you can guess, not everyone is thrilled about this. Angela is only in high school but she already knows that this life isn't for her. She wants something different and she finds it by show more accident when she stumbles into the lair of the resistance.

The beginning of this book seriously had me stressed! The frantic conversations, each sentence of which ends with the word "Go", made me feel rushed and irritated. Angela's frustrations came through clearly, as did her immediate relief once she found the resistance. The ending was heartbreaking but the ultimate message of appreciating each moment balanced that out somewhat. As some of us participate in small rebellions and resistances of our own these days, this book seems particularly relevant.

http://webereading.com/2017/05/spill-zone-and-decelerate-blue-or-ya.html show less

This is a novel which in telling the story of one American family over 60 years examines what one critic called "the dark heart of America"--our country's relationship with violence. Along the way it touches on such topics as mental illness, abuse in the Catholic church, handicapped siblings, serial killers, the NY art scene, imprisonment, familial relationships and much more, somehow making it all fit together and work.
It begins in 1951 when we are introduced to a large Catholic family in show more Elmira New York through 13 year old daughter Myra. Every Sunday after church Myra is allowed to spend a few hours alone at the diner, where this Sunday she is reading a book forbidden to her at home, Catcher in the Rye. A young man approaches her and introduces himself as Mickey Mantle, a rookie player with the NY Yankees just passing through town. He offers to driver her home. And over the years that follow we get to know Myra, and her sisters Fiona, who becomes an actress, Joan, who is developmentally delayed and never leaves home, Lexie who has a successful career in finance and a "good" marriage, and the only brotherr, Alec, who seems to be constantly in trouble.
The novel is told episodically, with large chunks of time passing between episodes, and we see the darkness that infuses our society in acts of violence, some of which affect the family directly, and some of which are merely peripheral. For example, at the end of the first section, involving Myra and "Mickey Mantle," a family down the street from Myra's home is brutally murdered while they slept. In a later section involving Myra as she begins her nursing career, several young nurses are murdered in the Chicago apartment they shared (one in which Myra used to lived, an obvious reference to the murders by Richard Speck, one of the earliest mass murders. Of the other family members, the one we hear the most about is Alec, who himself lives on the edge of lawlessness. Alec is estranged from the rest of the family, and harbors deep, dark secrets.
The book is well-written. The pacing is excellent, and compels the reader to keep on reading. The characters are diverse and entirely believable and real. The book reminded me a bit of a Jonathan Franzen novel. It is one I recommend. show less

Adam Rapp hits the nail on the head again with Punkzilla. I wondered if he'd permanently lost his touch with Year of Endless Sorrow, but he's got it back. Punkzilla revists many of the things Rapp has written about in previous books: the military academy, intellectually precocious children, pedophilia, drugs, aimless wandering. The only thing missing were his gorgeous similies and believe me, I felt the loss.

The book consists of a series of letters concerning Jamie "Punkzilla," who went AWOL show more from a military boarding school about six months ago and has been on the run ever since. Most of them are journal-type letters he's writing to his older brother, but there are also several letters written to Punkzilla by others. The letters aren't in chronological order, but they are dated so it's pretty easy to make sense of them. Each letter-writer has a distinctive voice, and though many of them get only one or two letters each, those few pages were enough to very clearly show Punkzilla's relationship with that person. Punkzilla's letter/journals to his brother P seem like something a real fourteen-year-old boy would have written, and his reactions to the events of his cross-country journey and the people he encounters ring true as well.

This book is very bleak and not for the faint of heart, but it's not as dark as many Rapp books and it ends on a hopeful note. I zipped right through it and really enjoyed it. Very much recommended. show less