5 Stars
The premise is simple:
“Do you guys wanna go see a dead body?”
The end product is quite possibly the best coming-of-age story ever written. This is what the saying “boys will be boys” is about. It’s about going on an adventure, and saying swear words when out of your parents’ earshot, and trying a cigarette just so you can say you did, and standing up to bullies, and most of all it’s about friendship. Because really?
“I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, did you?”
I decided to give this one a listen after forcing it on my oldest son in order to make sure he’s actually reading when he says he is. There’s a good chance he’ll choose to be contrary simply to hurt my feelings since even the most decent teenager is still pretty horrible. The good news is I was able to pull a double-whammy and make the youngest listen too on the way to and from his baseball tournament this weekend. He arrived a little late to the party when Gordy and the boys were getting ready to meet Milo Pressman and the notorious “Chopper” and was on the edge of his seat during the train dodge. He completely blew me away when he complained as I hit strategically hit pause at a certain point in the story so we could hear it in full the next morning. And what a morning we had! A total barf-o-rama full of cackling and full-blown guffaws.
An obvious must for any Constant Reader and, as far as I’m concerned, anyone else as well. Truly an actual contender when it comes to the “like this or we can’t be friends” option. It’s that good. And the movie is one of the best book-to-screen translations in the history of filmmaking. Perfection.
Endnote: This was my third audio book and I finally found a winner. Frank Muller’s voice was just like butter. The only thing that could have been better is if it would have been Richard Dreyfus doing the narrating : )
“Do you guys wanna go see a dead body?”
The end product is quite possibly the best coming-of-age story ever written. This is what the saying “boys will be boys” is about. It’s about going on an adventure, and saying swear words when out of your parents’ earshot, and trying a cigarette just so you can say you did, and standing up to bullies, and most of all it’s about friendship. Because really?
“I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, did you?”
I decided to give this one a listen after forcing it on my oldest son in order to make sure he’s actually reading when he says he is. There’s a good chance he’ll choose to be contrary simply to hurt my feelings since even the most decent teenager is still pretty horrible. The good news is I was able to pull a double-whammy and make the youngest listen too on the way to and from his baseball tournament this weekend. He arrived a little late to the party when Gordy and the boys were getting ready to meet Milo Pressman and the notorious “Chopper” and was on the edge of his seat during the train dodge. He completely blew me away when he complained as I hit strategically hit pause at a certain point in the story so we could hear it in full the next morning. And what a morning we had! A total barf-o-rama full of cackling and full-blown guffaws.
An obvious must for any Constant Reader and, as far as I’m concerned, anyone else as well. Truly an actual contender when it comes to the “like this or we can’t be friends” option. It’s that good. And the movie is one of the best book-to-screen translations in the history of filmmaking. Perfection.
Endnote: This was my third audio book and I finally found a winner. Frank Muller’s voice was just like butter. The only thing that could have been better is if it would have been Richard Dreyfus doing the narrating : )
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