I mentioned briefly when I reviewed Bradbury's The Illustrated Man that books about psycho children are extremely scary. That is not my personal opinion. It's a fact. Psycho kids are some scary stuff. Turns out, though, that maybe I'm just frightened of any books about kids.
It was goddam lousy, if you want to know the truth. Not really. But I did feel repeatedly like gouging my eyes out. Excellent characterization of adolescent brooding. Near impossible to read as an adult. But now I have read it and can cross that off my list of books I was supposed to read in high school but never got around to.
Whoa. I somehow missed this book because of transferring schools in the middle of my junior year of high school. The school I left hadn't gotten to it yet and the school I transferred to had already finished it. But after years of having Sarah and Andrés tell me "Sucks to your ass-mar," when JP recommended it, I decided it was time to get down to it. This is the scariest book I've read since Animal Farm. You should definitely read it when you are in high school, but I don't recommend reading it whilst raising small children. Everyday, I want to shake Alliclaus and scream, "learn how to act." The other day she beat me in the nose with her ball. I'm now convinced that she would be one of them. Help. (Just kidding. Except that she really did beat me with her ball.) It does, however, make me totally cynical about that new show (Kid Town?) where the kids take over some random ghost town or some such. "No adults." Hm. Who's running the cameras? I had my hopes that they'd go totally Lord of the Flies, but I'm guessing it will instead be some feel-good crap about how kids "don't see race" or "are kind by nature." I'm more inclined to buy Golding's premise.
I'm going to go ahead and give both of these books a "Recommended," mostly because I'm too chicken to say negative things about books widely considered classics. There you go.
Creepy kids in books freak my a bit too...that is just not ok!
Posted by: Jenny at July 11, 2007 11:28 AM
I will have to agree with you on Catcher--not one of my favs, but I have always likes LOTF. Really does make me wonder!
Posted by: Jennifer at July 11, 2007 12:59 PM
I've never understood why everyone made such a fuss about Catcher in the Rye. I did not find it life-changing or amazing. I didn't hate it, but that's about all I really thought about the book.
Posted by: bad penguin at July 12, 2007 07:36 AM
I LOVE Lord of the Flies. One of my all-time favorites. Some of Golding's shorter stuff is great, too.
Posted by: kerrianne at July 15, 2007 12:24 PM
So you will not be naming your kid Holden I take it.
Posted by: Sarah at July 16, 2007 05:07 PM
Heh. I thought the same thing about the Kid reality show. It also seems a bit exploitative to me, but I'll have to watch and see.
I wanted to say congratulations on your pregnancy! I've been sort of out of it lately with blog reading. I hope your hormones are settlng in and you're feeling better.
Posted by: TB at August 4, 2007 05:51 AM
i hate to say "i told you so," but i believe a long time ago i did mention that you should avoid reading "catcher in the rye," because it was so annoying. :-P
but at least you've read it now!
Posted by: Lara at July 11, 2007 11:19 AM