Huge: A Novel

Ok, before I get into the meat of this review: what have I done wrong? What, exactly, did I do to anger the cover design people at Random House? First they make Gone Away World neon pink, bright green, and fuzzy, and now... now....

Huge is a wonderful first novel. Its protagonist is a twelve year old boy who has read way too much Chandler, Hammett, and all the other world-weary detectives, and has convinced himself that he's a kindred spirit to them. So what does Random House do? They make a book cover that looks like it was decorated by an eight year old girl (or Sara)! It's sparkly! It looks like a trout! I just... I know there are things I don't understand in this world. Apparently, cover design is one of them.

Anyway, on to Huge. show more It's tempting to simply write about how well Fuerst sells his conceit - it's not that Eugene Smalls (formerly - and currently - known affectionately as 'Gene', desperate to convince people to call him 'Huge', like the first three letters of his name, despite the fact that he's tiny) actually lives in a hard-boiled world. There are no untrustworthy dames, no skulking mooks, no long shadows covering rain-and-neon swept streets. He's living a normal, lower-middle class life, trying to keep up with his older sister and help out his single mom. It's just that his grandmother has been consistently feeding him a diet of hard-boiled detective novels, and transforming himself into a steely-eyed, hard-hearted flatfoot is the only way he knows to cope with his changing world, faced as he is with the daunting task of entering adolescence.

The mystery elements in Huge are light, but factor large into Eugene's world. Someone has vandalized the sign of his grandmother's retirement home. They're spray-painted 'retarted' over the world 'retirement'. It's not just the vandalism that drives Eugene up the wall; it's the fact that they misspelled their own taunt. And so off he goes, onto his own case, regardless of whether his mother or sister want him to. He's not a popular boy, intelligent but reclusive, prone to rages he can't control, and he knows he's on his own. Besides, anything's better that facing the end of summer and the upcoming school year.

And that's where Fuerst, to put it simply, wins. Eugene isn't an annoying kid. He's also not an adult shrunk to miniature size. He's a twelve year old, with a twelve year old's sense of time, a twelve year old's sense of his place in the world, a twelve year old's sense of purpose and drive and fear. Hyperbole or not, he belongs in the ranks with Mitchell's Jason Taylor, McCammon's Cory Mackenson, and, yes, Salinger's Holden Caulfield. The joy in reading Huge is in watching Eugene grow up between the pages, and slowly start to question whether viewing the world through noir-tinted glasses - and keeping himself locked off from the world beyond him - is really such a wise choice to make.

-Drew show less

As I began this book, it seemed to resemble the literary lovechild of "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime" and "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao." But I was mistaken, and I was not disappointed by what the book delivered.The story is told with a serious dose of humor and irony, and the family dynamics are pretty believable. Huge seems to accept things in life towards the end of the book that he wouldn't have accepted at the book's beginning, which shows his growth and maturity; at the end of the day, this is a coming-of-coming-of-age story, because it ends right where the traditional coming-of-age story begins, when the boy begins his first real relationship with a girl.One of the the best qualities of this book was show more the way it blended the many different genres that are all present at the same time: mystery, teen angst, and honest characterization of a time/place that are clearly important for the person telling the story (both the protagonist and the writer) are all present at the same time, playing off each other and adding value to each of the characteristics.I would definitely recommend this book. While I wouldn't say it is one of the best books of the year, I really did enjoy it and was rooting for Huge by the end of the book. show less

James Fuerst brings a fresh approach to the coming-of-age novel, arming its twelve-year-old protagonist Eugene "Huge" Smalls with a distinctive voice that's shaped by the hard-boiled detective novels his grandmother funnels to him as well as the self-reliant streak he subconciously adopts after struggling through a loaned copy of Thoreau. Gifted with a high IQ and active imagination, but impeded by the absence of a father figure, his diminuative stature, and a growing sense of paranoia, Huge struggles to control violent impulses that have made him a social outcast. While some have criticized the story for for its plotlessness, I see that as a key ingredient of the novel. Like many intelligent and creative kids his age, Huge imagines a show more nefarious plot where none exists, and his gradual realization of the effects of his paranoia and distrust becomes central to his maturation.

Despite these serious themes, this novel is also wickedly funny. Huge's cheesy, hardboiled metaphors are a great touch, as are his impressions of the "bad" kids in Darren's posse. And his terror-stricken romance with Staci captures perfectly the swirling emotions comprising a boy's first infatuation. Readers who grew up in the 1980s will also dig the pop culture references and lingo. show less

The story of a junior high outcast with anger management problems. Eugene Smalls has been picked on and misunderstood his whole life. Only his partially senile grandmother has offered him any purpose in his life. Obsessed by classic detective literature, she made Eugene read her entire collection during one of his many school expulsions. Seizing upon the world of danger and respect he found there, Eugene has since dedicated his life to being a private detective, and he is about to get his first case! Someone has vandalized the sign in front of his grandmother's retirement home. Who could have done such a dastardly act? Huge, (Eugene's self-appointed nickname), is dead set on finding out.

A wild story about an angry 12-year-old whose obsession with detective fiction is both his salvation and family curse. Folks will be inclined to cf. Huge to other postmodern engagements with detective fiction (Auster, Chabon, maybe even Nabokov) but Huge, I think, surpasses them in its ethical engagement (how do we know the right thing to do? is this even possible?), its feminism, and its final awareness that escaping genre doesn't require losing everything. Wonderful.

First of all, I feel like this novel is a bit mis-characterized. It didn’t feel like a YA novel to me (and I do read YA). Instead, it felt like a coming-of-age story with a 12 year old protagonist that is written for adults. Which is perfectly fine! Just not what I expected.

The tone of the novel was a *little* bit overdone. Huge (Eugene) is very brash, very angry, and not quite as tough or mature as he thinks he is. It took me a while to convince myself that his speech/actions/thoughts/etc were realistic, but since I am neither an extra-intelligent 12 year old boy, nor have I spoken with one in a few years, they’re probably not that far off.

Once you get past all that, what you have is a story about a kid who is lonely. His sister show more won’t hang out with him anymore, his grandmother is becoming senile, his mom works all the time, and the few kids who used to be his friends are no longer allowed to associate with him, since he has a bit of an anger management problem. His solace is found in his stuffed frog, Thrash (a pretty blatant symbolic manifestation of his suppressed rage) and in the classic noir detective novels that his grandmother thrust upon him during his 3 month suspension. Thanks to those novels, he is prone to finding mysteries in the mundane and making more out of situations than what is really there. In the end, this story is about Huge finding his place, and realizing that life doesn’t have to be him against the world.

He really did grow on me, and one particular passage struck me as a perfect illustration of Huge.

'If I ever got out of this, I’d start a new, top-secret journal, which I’d keep in a booby-trapped safe, and I’d compile my own list of pointers or rules that other detectives never told you. And my first rule would be: If you were going out to the woods in homemade ninja shorts after a day of hard rain, you *always* had to wear underwear, just in case you fell on your butt, because having to deal with swamp ass for the rest of the night totally sucked. That was a solid first principle — Keep your ass dry — and I wish I’d thought of it earlier because it didn’t do me a damn bit of good now.'

So if you like coming of age stories about brash, over-the-top, slightly damaged boys, don’t be afraid to pick up this book. And keep your ass dry. show less

A thoroughly entertaining coming-of-age/whodunnit that often put me in mind of Curious Incident.

The protagonist, Eugene (aka "Huge") is a 12-year-old outcast with "acting-out" issues and an unhealthy obsession with the noir writings of Hammet, Chandler, Cain, and the like. He decides to bring the scum that defaced the sign at his Grandmother's nursing home to justice with the help of his imaginary muscle ("Thrash") and his sweet Schwinn Stingray ("The Cruiser").

The 1980s New Jersey suburbs are hilariously depicted warts-and-all and Huge himself is a pretty unforgettable character.

It's written for adults (there are a couple of "adult themed moments"), but should have no trouble finding an appreciative audience among the high school show more set.

Fun and satisfying. show less