Crazy

Definitely not The Exorcist and much more my type of story. With Crazy, Blatty returns to his comic roots - Yes, he wrote comedy and humor before his world-renowned excursion into horror - with his 82-year-old former screen writer (the Joey El Bueno of the story) busy at work in a Belleville hospital bed, writing his memoirs. With time warps into the past, Blatty brings to life a bygone era of growing up in the immigrant community of Manhattan's Lower East Side, the rough and tumble nature of boys and the magic of Coney Island. I am not going to go into details as this story is one that should be experienced - kind of like one 'experiences' a Garrison Keillor book - which is also why I highly recommend listening to the audiobook show more version. The humour is a bit off beat and made even quirkier by Jane, Joey's mysterious friend, when she puts in her appearances. My favorite character is Nurse Bloor, the elderly Joey's diminutive 4 foot tall, stiletto wearing and wise cracking nurse. She is awesome! Given the time warps, this story tends to jump around an awful lot and left me in a bit of a muddle at certain points in the story.

Overall, a fun slice of life fictional memoir with a wonderful ending that made up for the earlier, muddled bits and always nice to see a book cover that perfectly fits the story! show less

Short, quirky, occasionally funny and often touching, but not to the extent that it really deserves this cover endorsement: " 'Crazy is terrific! A wonderful novel! It's funny, touching and so full of love!' --Julie Andrews, legendary star and bestselling author." Unless, of course, that endorsement itself is meant to be part of the crazy quirky concept of this odd little novella. Why Julie Andrews would ever read it is beyond me. Who knew Blatty was known for being funny? (He wrote the screenplay for "A Shot in the Dark". Again, who knew?) I associate him only with The Exorcist which was hard to put down but had no humor in it at all, as I remember. Which brings me back to Crazy, in which I did not find much humor either. Maybe you show more have to have been an adolescent boy once to get it. The narrator, Joey El Bueno, tells us about his childhood from the perspective of an old man in an assisted living facility. It was a good childhood, despite being motherless. Joey had a loving, caring father, whom he loved and respected in return. And he had Jane, the elusive girl who gives him spiritual guidance at unexpected moments through what he calls "time jumps" for several years during his youth. Who is she? Does anyone else ever see her? What's it all about? Well, you'll soon figure Jane out---sooner than Joey does, for sure. But beyond that slight exercise there isn't much to this story. I found it episodic, stylistically awkward and not particularly engaging. show less

I have no idea what this book is about. I can't even remember why I downloaded a copy in the first place. The premise is fairly obvious from the opening chapters, but the stream of consciousness style waffling and references to 1940s New York completely obfuscated the story for me. I caught the rhythm of Joey's reminiscing/ranting occasionally, but mostly I was just willing him to shut up. Glad it's a short book. Also, the ending was slightly too saccharine for me. On a side note, I am tempted to watch Ray Milland in The Uninvited now. The film, described in passing, sounds better than this book!

Unlike some of the others who have reviewed this book, I really enjoyed it. It was quirky, but having read a nonfiction work Blatty wrote about his mother years ago, I feel I have a better understanding of why he wrote this.

Someone gave me this because she said it was a kid's book. It's not a kid's book. It is definitely a book for adults. I think I'd have enjoyed it more if the sentences were shorter and the paragraphs not quite so long.

This just isn't my cup of tea, so I didn't finish it. It was boring and sounded like a spoiled brat adult telling the story.

Short and sweet, but I guess the ending way to quickly.

Also loved the Gunga Din and The Temple of Gold reference.