Playworld

There is a ton to love in this snapshot of a very particular time in a very particular place. I always say I was raised by wolves. Unless I did something that would embarrass my parents in front of the neighbors, or gained a pound, my parents did not engage much with me. I traveled through life and faced things I was far too young to face without protection or guidance. The same can be said of Griffin, our guide through a 1970's Manhattan childhood. Griffin's parents love him, but mostly treat him like a little adult living rent-free in their apartment. They take as much from from Griffin as they give. Griffn's father is a stage and voice actor who has not hit the big time. When he sees his son has natural gifts he drafts his son into show more child acting. Griffin succeeds despite himself and ends up with the responsibility to work hard for his father's dreams, regardless of whether he shares those dreams. Other adults in Griffin's life exact heartbreaking, horrible payments for the love, acceptance, and guidance they show him, and Griffin, sorely in need of those things, is willing to pay some very high prices, including the price of developing a crushing facility for detachment. I understood this and I expect many other readers will understand that response well.

This also provides a brilliant rendering of 1970s prep school teenage life in Manhattan. I was not yet in NYC then, I got here in my early 20s, but I have a number of friends who lived on the UWS and UES and went to the schools name-checked here (Griffin's school is made up, but Collegiate, Spence, and others are represented) and this meshes with their stories of drunken nights at Studio 54 and Dorians when they were in the early high school years

I absolutely recommend this book, which is an old-fashioned page-turner stylistically but includes some very modern messaging about a moment in time and its impacts. It is also funny, sad, smart, insightful and beautifully written. show less

This book captivated me, at least in part because I grew up during the same era as the protagonist and remembered so many of details he captures so vividly. But it is much more than a time capsule. The writing was gorgeous: Ross uses words together in ways that seem impossible to be new because they are just so fitting. The story itself, of a teenage boy finding his way in a world where people take advantage of him in ways both small and monstrous, is at times charming, dark, funny, and meandering, just like life.

As an aside: I felt weird deja vu at times reading this book not too long after reading Bret Easton Ellis's The Shards (although obviously very different stories).

I have mixed feelings about this one. As uneven as it was, and in need of some serious streamlining, I stuck with it to the end. A lot of that was the time and place in which it was set: Ross captured late '70s/early '80s New York well, and I'm just a sucker for that, having lived through it at least tangentially. That unparented, slightly feral time to be a teenager branded those of us who went through it, I think, and it's interesting to see that turned into a full-on roman à clef.

That said, the passivity of Griffin, the protagonist, drove me a bit nuts. Maybe that's more what being 14 was like than all the spunky, introspective teen narrators of the coming-of-age fiction I've read conditioned me to expect—I don't remember much show more about actually being 14, see "feral" above—and I do think that it was probably about getting through the days and not attracting too much attention. But it was a bit hard to take for 500+ pages. What I did love was the scenery—the still-uncolonized corners of Manhattan where Griffin and his much-older inamorata park, his iconic bike ride across Long Island, and almost-but-not-quite-gentrified Upper West Side. show less

This is a coming of age novel about a teenage boy who happens to be a child actor following in the footsteps of his father (an actor also). There is very little here about the boy's acting career. The three main topics are his experiences as a high school wrestler his hopes to spark a romance with an unattainable girl (she has a boyfriend) and his much greater success with the much older wife of family fiends. A decent novel in the tradition of Phillip Roth.

I have read the author's previous 2 books but it has been quite a few years since his last collection of short stories. This book is a year in the life of Griffen Hurt a 14 year old living in Manhattan in 1980-1. It is told by the adult Griffen and this 528 page book is entirely in the 1st person. For me this is usually a problem because it gives a one sided view of the other characters. There really is no plot but just a basic coming of age story. Griffen is a child actor who stumbled into it, is good at it, but rather not do it. Ross introduces us to his mother, father, brother, and Noemi a 36 year old married woman who is a friend of the family who takes a somewhat unhealthy interest in Griffen. Ross does a good job of introducing show more many episodes in Griffen's life as if this could be a limited series. Ross does a good job of describing the settings but it is too much. It creates a tedium that limits the impact of what is going on. Ross has too many colors to work with and tries to use them all. It is an okay book but a disappointment after waiting so long for a new work by him. "Ladies and Gentlemen" a short story collection is a better choice for a first time Ross reader. show less

A coming of age story about a teenage boy in NYC in the late 70’s and early 80’s. The story covers Griffin’s freshman year at a private school in Manhattan during which he falls in love, loses his virginity, is exploited by some of the adults in his life and starts to chafe at being an actor- his father’s dream. We also learn about his family through Griffin’s eyes. The story is well done and the characters well drawn

Somewhat interesting storyline. A coming of age story and dysfunctional family intertwined with a long term "affair" between an older woman and the main character, a teen boy. As is the case with many modern novels, it lacked discipline. This 500 page door stop should have been 275 pages. A much too long of a march for a writer that is not Dickens or Dostoevsky.