Crazy

Picked up this autobiographical coming of age novel at the Kensington Day of the Book Festival 2025, not realizing it was either of those things. While memoirs are a favorite nonfiction type of reading for me, coming of age novels are not up there on my preferred reading list. But I am also interested in reading translated novels, so that I can get a taste of what's being written elsewhere, in languages that are not English. Also, both my brothers went to boarding schools, and though cultures between schools can vary so much, it always brings them a little closer to mind for me.
The author not only was 16 in the novel, but apparently 16 when he wrote this, his first book. Sixteen year old boys are a creature all to themselves, and I was show more interested to see what the definition of crazy was for 16 year olds in Germany. One bit of conversation, centered on that, also pretty much answers why Lebert chose Crazy for a title:
" 'As far as I can see you're not disabled and you're not normal,' " Benni reports his new roommate, Janosch, saying to him. " 'Far as I can see, you're crazy.' He laughs. 'Uh-huh -- you're not disabled, you're crazy.'

" 'Crazy?'

" 'Crazy!' Now we're both laughing. It feels good and we can't stop."

I'm not sure it has the same impact in English it does in German. It didn't for me, even though I know the word in German is verrückt, which is a great sounding word on its own. show less

Meh. I've seen it all before. This book was highly deriative of The Catcher in the Rye and others of its ilk. I wouldn't have finished it at all if it weren't for the novelty that it was written by a sixteen-year-old German boy. As it was, the characters didn't grow or change, and I spent the entire book waiting for something to happen. Perhaps Benjamin Lebert just needs to grow up a little.

These autobiographical novel recounts the school days of young Bejamin Lebert: disabled, facing his parents' divorce, failing out of school, and shipped away from his native Munich to boarding school. We see Lebert's coming of age and dealing with the trials of adoescence in boarding school. Lebert shares the loneliness of boarding school life with his fellow students, and they quickly form intense bonds. The book puts in stark relief all the hopes and fears a world of teenagers can produce. Ultimately, this is a touching look at teenage life.

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„Hallo Leute. Ich heiße Benjamin Lebert, bin sechzehn Jahre alt, und ich bin ein Krüppel. Nur damit ihr es wißt. Ich dachte, es wäre von beiderseitigem Interesse.“ Mit diesen Worten stellt sich Benjamin Lebert an seinem ersten Schultag seinen neuen Mitschülern im Internat Schloß Neuseelen vor. Es ist sein fünfter Schulwechsel. Diesmal soll er endlich die 8. Klasse bestehen. Zusammen mit seinen fünf Freunden übersteht Benjamin die Zeit im Internat. Bei allen Unternehmungen – bei nächtlichen Besuchen auf dem Mädchengang genauso wie bei heimlichen Ausflügen ins Dorf – beschäftigt sie fortwährend die Frage, worum es in dieser ganzen Veranstaltung namens Leben eigentlich geht: um Mädchen, um Sex, um Freundschaft und show more ums Erwachsenwerden oder vielleicht auf einfach nur darum, immer weiterzumachen, wie verrückt die Welt und wie „crazy“ man selbst auch sein mag. (amazon.de) show less

Das Buch ist wirklich lustig und spannend, allerdings ist der Film dazu noch viel besser! Das Buch ist autobiografisch.

Hier kurz was zum Inhalt:
"Crazy ist ein autobiografischer Roman von Benjamin Lebert über die Zeit der Jugend. Dabei porträtiert der Autor seine Erfahrungen als Halbseitenspastiker und geht auch auf die Probleme des Erwachsenwerdens, Pubertät, Neid und Eifersucht, Freundschaft und Liebe ein." (Quelle: Wikipedia")