Lamar Kerry, Jr., is an unlikely hero. At twenty-seven years old he can't dance unless he's had more than a few drinks. His wardrobe is uninspired,...
read full description
reviews
May 06, 2008
Mark
rated it: 
Irony is alive and well in upstate New York. This is an amusing and entertaining tale that comes off sounding like the wise-ass little brother of Jernigan by David Gates. Lamar Kerry Jr. does not know pain, and even goes as far as to get himself beaten up, because he feels that he deserves it. He is an "ordinary white boy", who is not happy with his ordinariness. By the end he's more comfortable with being ordinary, but he has learned a few things along the way, like humility and the v
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
May 18, 2011
Anna
rated it: 
An ordinary story about a very ordinary (read: boring) white boy.
There were some bizarre dialogs that I enjoyed in this book.
But Lamar... sigh. Nowhere as fascinating as the do-nothing Peter Gibbons of Office Space (who at least did something). I guess it's as well some interesting descriptions of some of the smaller places in US - too small to live in, and that Lamar seems to get too. For most of the book I was internally screaming "get out of there and get a life" More...
There were some bizarre dialogs that I enjoyed in this book.
But Lamar... sigh. Nowhere as fascinating as the do-nothing Peter Gibbons of Office Space (who at least did something). I guess it's as well some interesting descriptions of some of the smaller places in US - too small to live in, and that Lamar seems to get too. For most of the book I was internally screaming "get out of there and get a life" More...
Jun 02, 2009
Djrmel
rated it:
I forever will think of this book as "Wordy White Boy", rather than its given title, because no matter what else this book has going for it, that is what I have taken away from it. Clarke takes his main character on a journey from slacker to ...well, I'm not convinced that he ever actually arrived anywhere. There's lots of talk, both inner dialog and between characters, as Lemar Jr acknowledges his ordinariness and attempts to go beyond that (and I do mean LOTS of talk), but is there
More...
May 13, 2011
Darrin
rated it:
The Ordinary White Boy was set near where I grew up. The main character even ends up in the county where I was born & raised in NY state for a chapter or two.
I could relate to the main character just a little too much for my own comfort. While I found the book to be generally well written I felt the ending was a bit limp. It almost felt as if Clarke got bored of writing it so he just ended it abruptly on the fly. Despite hitting a little too close to home at times I did enjoy i More...
I could relate to the main character just a little too much for my own comfort. While I found the book to be generally well written I felt the ending was a bit limp. It almost felt as if Clarke got bored of writing it so he just ended it abruptly on the fly. Despite hitting a little too close to home at times I did enjoy i More...
Sep 24, 2007
Greg
rated it:
Very early in The Ordinary White Boy one thing becomes clear: the protagonist, Lamar Kerry, Jr., regards himself as anything but ordinary. Contrary to his claims, he sees himself as the one extraordinary person trapped in a very ordinary town. So why not move? Maybe he secretly enjoys his perceived superiority. He regards just about everyone in the town, girlfriend and family included, with condescension. To him, they are a variety of uneducated, racist, ridiculous characters to be analyzed
More...
May 18, 2009
Yeti
rated it: 
Reminiscent of "Lucky Jim" and "A Catcher in the Rye." Here you have an ordinary white boy, fresh out of college, still unsure of what he wants out of life (which basically means he doesn't yet know what life expects of him) so he does the one thing that comes natural for him - he runs away rather than become embroiled in a small town race war. The end result is a compassionate, and honest account of people settling for what they have as opposed to always wondering what they
May 24, 2009
Zack
rated it:
Well--this book was okay, but all throughout, I kept revising and condensing all the paragraphs and sentences. Clarke falls prey to the (unfortunately predominant) bad habit of over-elaboration, and keeps (in my opinion unnecessarily) switching from past to present to future tense--like he'll tell you everything about a topic, then introduce a character who tells him "everything I just told you" instead of just letting it happen--for sake of what? But for all I know, this was the edito
More...
Aug 15, 2010
K.J.
rated it:
I kept thinking - I'd never act like this. I'd get frustrated with the narrator. To make it worse, the narrator seemed to feel the same. It kept my interest until the end - enjoyable, but not great.
Nov 17, 2011
Jes
rated it:
The book went somewhere, but not very far. Very slow, prolonged, and unnecessarily wordy. If you've already started reading it, I'm sorry. If you were thinking about it, don't.
Nov 08, 2007
Russell
rated it:
blah. The book is as about as exciting, interesting, and insightful as its title suggests.
Mar 01, 2007
Anna
rated it:
This book was pretty good, but nothing too special. All in all, pretty forgettable.
Feb 05, 2012
Feb 04, 2012
Jan 03, 2012
Oct 24, 2011
Oct 12, 2011
Oct 07, 2011
Oct 02, 2011
