Chinese Handcuffs

I have read almost every book this author has written, and loved most of them. So I was surprised to realize I hadn't yet read this one -- but I think I probably started it and stopped reading immediately due to a specific trigger for me that I have a difficult time getting past.

Oddly, the problem for me wasn't that between them, only four young people experience ALL of the following issues: motorcycle accident leading to amputation, drug abuse, sexual molestation, domestic abuse, teenage pregnancy, suicide, and being forced to witness a violent suicide. (Although it became a little much for me when the teenage pregnancy was revealed to be deliberate because "I thought I was losing him.")

No, what really bothered me was that the main show more character, Dillon, and his now-dead-by-suicide older brother, Preston, brutally killed a neighbor's cat when they were kids, because the cat "hurt" their dog. This is the same main character we're supposed to be rooting for throughout the book. And although Dillon experiences some guilt and does come back to this eventually, the people to whom he confesses all say "well, you were a kid" or "well, we all have a dark side." I would never dismiss someone's sadistic behavior towards an animal in such a casual fashion.

Even worse is that when Preston commits suicide, he explains to Dillon that he has to do it because the night before, he cheered on an "Accused"-style gang rape (I'm referring to the Jodi Foster movie) in a bar because the girl "was asking for it." Then, because Preston is handicapped due to the motorcycle accident, his biker buddies put him on the pool table and force the gang-raped girl to have sex with him. And Preston is all humiliated. To be fair, he actually says that he's killing himself because he promised himself that he would end it if he ever went as far as the time they killed that cat. So at least he knows on some level that he had to be pretty far gone to have cheered on that gang rape.

Also, I understand that Dillon is dealing with the fact that his brother then shoots himself right there in front of him, so it's reasonable that the gang rape is not the first thing on his mind. But Dillon goes to confront the biker guys, never mentions a word about the gang rape, but says "you humiliated my brother." And for the rest of the book, which is meant to be Dillon coming to terms with everything, this gang rape is never brought up again. It doesn't matter that this girl is scarred for life, but just that the bikers humiliated Preston, and in Dillon's mind, that's the main reason why Preston killed himself.

And to think that Preston's girlfriend deliberately got pregnant trying to keep Preston, as though he were worth keeping!

My sense of personal offense aside, this book was a big of a mess. It alternates between Dillon's first-person letters to the dead Preston and Jennifer's third person POV of her abuse at the hands of her stepfather. Occasionally we get another character's POV, including the typical Crutcher version of a high school principal who cares only about sports and his disciplinary authority. We also get the abusive stepfather POV once or twice. In the case of both the principal and the stepfather, it seems like they are thinking unflattering things about themselves in a quite unrealistic way.

I have to admit, seeing the blatant flaws in this book make me wonder if I was a little too naive when I loved some of his other books so much, particularly "Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes" and Stotan!" I can't decide if I should re-read them because I'm afraid I'll be impatient with the cliched characters -- the jackass principal, the super religious students who are the ones to fall the farthest and fastest, etc.

On a final note, I dug up a 1989 review of this book from when it was first published. The author said something to the effect that it's not a problem to have serious issues in a YA book .... but you don't have to have ALL of the serious issues in just the one book. I agree. show less

This young adult novel gripped my teen readers, showing up in the hands of non-readers sitting on the school hallway floor in front of lockers. These were cool high school boys who, for the first time in my long teaching experience, ignored the scorn of their peers to read. A magic story that drives through every environment in the adolescent landscape, from unplanned pregnancy to teen suicide, by way of gangs, drugs, child molesting, sportsmania, and parents still suffering from the last war. My juniors wrote with more conviction and passion in response to this book than any other in my teaching experience.

I'm reading Chinese Handcuffs right now and I'm about 1/4 of the way through it. By "right now" I mean I started it like an hour ago and will undoubtedly finish it by sunset. So, it's very-and I kind of hate myself for using some of these words-but raw and real and, I don't know, it justs knocks the wind out of me, like Crutcher is inside my head, privy to my pain, he knows, y'know?
I took a break from reading because I was crying too hard and I'm only wearing a wife-beater (does anyone have a decent euphamism for that article of clothing?) and they don't soak up the tears so well and I didn't want my mother and her husband to walk in and see me sobbing on our terribly beaten-down couch between a pile of paperbacks and a pile of show more paperwork, in the middle of the afternoon, with my breasts showing through my thin, white, wet shirt.
I decided to stop and finish the peanut butter ripple ice cream and make this post because I was so overwhelmed. I've had a stack of Crutcher since late February, which I bought 4-for-3 on Amazon after reading Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes, which I took out from my public library (and can I just add right now that going to the library is pretty much one of my favorite things ever?) and I haven't even started to work my way through the stack until now because it's that intense.
My mother asks me why I do this to myself. Why do I see movies, read books, if they make me so upset. It's hard to explain to her. She doesn't understand how something can be upsetting but affect you on such a profound level that it becomes a part of you, or at least deepens your range of experience. Because I want to feel art and if it doesn't ache or sting or burn, I'm not really feeling. How can I explain that? "No pain, no gain"? Even if the experience isn't terribly profound or anything, but it's still evocative-I just get such a thrill from having my emotions manipulated. I admit it. Sometimes I watch/read things that I know will make me upset just because I feel dead and alone and cold all over.

He brings the tire iron down again, then again, until Charlie is still. Electric adrenaline burns through Dillon, and he proceeds to beat Charlie's still body until Preston seizes his writst in mid-swing. "That's it," he says. "We got him." He breathes deeply. "That'll teach him to mess with our dog."
"Yeah," Dillon says. "That'll teach him." But in that moment he knows something is terribly wrong and Preston knows it, too. Neither speaks, but they stand gazing down at Charlie for an eternity in the dim light of the suddenly forsaken garage, wanting to go back-to step back over that reacherous, mysterious sliver of time that brought them here-and make it different.
p.17-18 show less

Dillon Hemingway’s life is turned upside down the day he watched his brother Preston commit suicide. It killed him, his family, and all his loved ones inside-out emotionally. But that’s only the beginning of Dillon’s trouble. As he trains for a triathlon that will put him in a coveted race called the Ironman in Hawaii, he has to deal with two girls, one his brother’s long-time girlfriend, Stacy, the other, his want-to-be girlfriend named Jennifer.

Stacy has always treated Dillon as a friend. Sure she always plays tricks on him and gets him in trouble, especially when he was young, but he was the one closest to Preston, and knows why he may of did his terrible act.

But Jennifer has an even darker secret. When Jennifer was little, show more her father used to touch her inappropriately. Her mom and dad divorced naturally, but now her new step-father, a big hotshot lawyer, does the same thing…only much, much worse. He threatens her that if she tells, both her mom and sister will get it. And when she did called Child Protection Service, he killed Jennifer’s dog, and managed to convince CPS that Jennifer is only trying to kick him out. And the only one who has any hope to save her is Dillon.

With these new set of complications, Dillon has tough choices to make that will make more than one life fate sealed. If he’s to succeed, he’s going have to go by the lesson of Chinese handcuffs: if you want to do it right, you have to do the opposite of what you normally do.

This is by far the best Crutcher book I have ever read. It’s intense, it’s scary, it’s full of twists, and the sympathy you feel towards the characters is astronomical. I highly recommend this to any person who not overly sensitive.

Rating: Five Stars ***** show less

A young adult novel about Dillon Hemingway and Jen Lawless, both who are amazing athletes and are well-known, yet both have haunting family lives. They both find solace in each other.
I almost stopped reading this book halfway through - at the start it is over-dramatic and has a sense that the characters in this book are feeling sorry for themselves and that you should, too.
However, about halfway through the plot thickens and gets a lot more interesting - so much until you can't help but keep reading until the end.

Dillon Hemingway channels his athletic gifts into triathalons -- not school sports -- as he deals with lots of issues: his attraction to two girls: Jennifer, a friend, but more? Stacey, a definite heartthrob who belongs to his his brother. Worst, his brother, Preston, has killed himself and left Dillon to pick up the emotional pieces.

Jennifer Lawless is also a gifted athlete -- basketball is her game and on the court is where she feels most alive. She has lots of issues, too -- including the loss of beloved grandfather.

Lots of 'sturm und drang' in this YA novel keep the plot bubbling. Adult characters are paper-thin but teen readers will relate to the protagonists, esp. Dillon, as he copes with his brother's death and his disaffection show more from all things high schoolish.

Due to sensitive nature of the problems (suicide, drugs, abuse) book is most suitable for mature teens. show less

Good book, lots of suspense and drama. I liked that Dillion's father in this book was supportive and understanding and wanted a relationship with his children. I have to hand it to Crutcher, for every bad dad, there's that many good parents in his books. And for all the bad administrators in the high school, there's usually an understanding coach or two to balance things out. The tale was told in an interesting fashion. Somethings were revealed through letters from Dillion to his dead brother Preston. Other things were told in flashback or regular story narrative. Despite the grim subject matter ... brother's suicide, brother's girlfriend pregnant, sexual abuse of "girlfriend", parent's divorce, pets killed cruelly, etc..... it was a show more good book. Not "enjoyable" in the sense that it was a good-time, happy romp, but in that it was a good story, well told. show less