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Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You

3.68 of 5 stars 3.68 · rating details · 4,454 ratings · 771 reviews

It’s time for eighteen-year-old James Sveck to begin his freshman year at Brown. Instead, he’s surfing the real estate listings, searching for a sanctuary—a nice farmhouse in Kansas, perhaps. Although James lives in twenty-first-century Manhattan, he’s more at home in the faraway worlds of Eric Rohmer or Anthony Trollope—or his favorite writer, the obscure and tragic Dento...more

Hardcover, 240 pages

Published September 18th 2007 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) (first published May 9th 2007)

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Mar 02, 2012 Giulia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Tutti possono partecipare al test qui proposto, anche chi non ha ancora letto il libro in questione. Si tenga bene in mente il fatto che esso non ha alcuna validità scientifica.

E TU SEI JAMES, O L’ADULTO CATTIVO E ROMPIBALLE CHE EGLI UN GIORNO POTREBBE DIVENTARE?

Domanda 1: Quante volte nella tua vita ti sei sentito/a dire: “Ma perché non esci a giocare coi tuoi amichetti?”, “Ma perché stai sempre solo/a?”, “Alla tua età bisogna uscire, farsi delle amicizie, godere della giovinezza?”? E quante vo...more

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May 31, 2011 Mike Puma rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: glbt-fic, 2011, ya

4-4.5 stars if reviewed as an adult title.

5 stars if considered a YA title.

I recently watched the film version of The City of Your Final Destination and liked it enough to pick up my copy of this book, by the same author, which has been gathering dust here for a couple months. For whatever reasons, the description on the cover just never seemed compelling enough to pursue the content, and while I could kick myself for putting it off, I find that I’ve now read it at the right time, and like so ma...more

4-4.5 stars if reviewed as an adult title.

5 stars if considered a YA title.

For STPWIBUTU, I prefer bildungsroman, or foundational novel, because neither implies the formulaic limitations found in many YA coming-of-age novels. But calling this a YA novel might be hasty. In this case, even the publishers (FSG Books for Young Readers for the hardcover and Picador for the paperback) seem at odds as to whether the novel is YA or not. The Picador version is clearly not marketed to the teen reader, and that’s as it should be. Often reviews will say something like “appropriate for young adults” or something to that effect, which can imply both a high interest level and a vague sense of appropriateness (i.e., not too much ‘adult’ language or content). This definitely has the high interest level (for some), language like you’d expect in any high school hallway, and NO sex. Yeah, that’s right, no sex—so what makes this a gay novel? Well, like it’s YA status (or lack of it), it’s also not exactly a gay novel either. It might be.

The description on the GR title page is adequate to give you a sense of the story, although ‘devises a fake online identity in order to pursue his crush on a much older coworker’ overstates both the protagonist’s intent (pursuit?) and the ‘much older’—ness of the coworker. This is a fast, funny read with a memorable protagonist whose woes aren’t those of typical YA fiction and presented without the angst that makes them tedious. Equally suited to adults and older teens. I like what the Horn Book review said of this title: a spare, spacious, quietly dazzling book for teens and former teens.It will satisfy any mature reader.

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Feb 02, 2013 Sergsab rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Decir que ha sido una grata sorpresa es quedarse corto. Muy corto. El personaje de James es un gamberro sofisticado, un misántropo high level, un Holden Caulfield que sabe navegar por Internet y entender los entresijos de la familia disfuncional en la que le ha tocado vivir. Pero que, a diferencia de su homólogo salingeriano, no tiene la posibilidad de la huída.

A través de esos días muertos del verano neoyorquino vamos desgranando sus miedos, su identidad, su rechazo hacia un mundo del que teme...more

7 likes · like · see review

Jun 24, 2011 John Egbert rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: annoyed-after-reading, could-have-been-so-much-better, cute-prose, oh-mah-god, you-did-it-rite

You know, this book is kind of one of the ones that you're more excited about reading than you are after actually having read it. James is one of the most frustrating protagonists ever. He hates everything. His peers, his parents, his life, college(he hates Stanford more than Brown, by the way), his life...did I already mention that? Well, he hates it double.

In fact, one of the only things he doesn't hate is his boss, John, who he has a crush on. Well, no, of course he doesn't say or even acknow...more

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Nov 20, 2012 Cristina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mi piacciono i diciottenni "disturbati".
Fa un po' sorridere James, il simpatico diciottenne protagonista, gli si muove attorno una sorta di famiglia allargata, che si potrebbe eufemisticamente descrivere come "una gabbia di matti". Muoversi nelle maglie di questi rapporti così bizzarri, sembra essere la cosa più naturale del mondo e James lo fa con una massiccia dose di ironia inquieta e malinconica e con tanta delicatezza, tanta quanta ne sa esprimere il suo personaggio.
Insomma mi sembra che...more

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Nov 20, 2012 Stefania T. rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Leggere "Un giorno questo dolore ti sarà utile" ed ascoltare la (breve) storia di James è stato come tuffarsi nel più recente passato e leggere le proprie memorie da principiante adolescente.
Nessuna rivelazione, nessuna originalità, ma se spesso tali mancanze confluiscono nella banalità, questa volta mi hanno fatto sentire a casa: Peter Cameron ha la capacità della semplicità e dell'essenzialità. Un fiume in piena di sfoghi e sensazioni che se non hanno il dono della genialità, hanno senz'altro...more

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Dec 02, 2009 jo rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: all my peeps on GR

Shelves: queer, kids, psychic-pain, 9-11, books-i-teach

such a lovely book, and such a quirky and interesting look at the pain of adolescence, which is the same as the pain of being human except less covered by layers of fake adaptation (as the book itself points out at some point). james, the protagonist narrator, is barely more adjusted to living in the-world-as-is than christopher of the curious incident of the dog in the night-time , but the novel deftly and lovingly avoids pathologizing his difference. in fact, the only thing we know for sure ab...more such a lovely book, and such a quirky and interesting look at the pain of adolescence, which is the same as the pain of being human except less covered by layers of fake adaptation (as the book itself points out at some point). james, the protagonist narrator, is barely more adjusted to living in the-world-as-is than christopher of the curious incident of the dog in the night-time , but the novel deftly and lovingly avoids pathologizing his difference. in fact, the only thing we know for sure about james is that he's really, really unhappy. his unhappiness is so deep, he can't be bothered to articulate it. he can think about it, but talking, well that's another matter altogether. for one, words betray the purity of thoughts -- a delightful recognition on cameron's part of a very adolescent way of finding that one's (new) emotions dwarf one's linguistic endowment. for two, thinking and speaking are two very different processes that happen at very different times and require very different skills. for three, talking is just so damn exhausting.

cameron captures beautifully the hopeless sense of uniqueness ("there's no one in the world like me") of the teenager who has had limited exposure to the comforting similarity of other strange and unique people.

there are no explanations of and no investigations into the roots of james' pain, yet the character seems so alive, and with such a rich past, it's as if the writer had it all figured out but felt like keeping it from us, out of consideration for his character.

the novel pivots around two main set pieces that are aching and beautiful. one is pure despair, the other is pure desire. in the latter, james is so little in touch with the good things in him that his desire is invisible even to himself. he sublimates it in net searches for a perfect house in the midwest, away from the wonderful dreariness of the city, a place to which you can belong so profoundly, it makes you feel like you don't belong anywhere else -- not even inside yourself.

some painful scenes in a therapist's office. like many fictional and not fictional therapists, the woman believes in the sly bullying of her patients. james, though, seems to be able to thaw even this most determinedly entrenched mental health professional into being human. good on him. (less)

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Nov 06, 2012 Jennifer Wardrip rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: trt-posted-reviews, trt-gold-star-award-winner

Reviewed by JodiG. for TeensReadToo.com

James Svek doesn't really fit in. He isn't interested in the same things as other eighteen-year-old guys, doesn't even like people his age, and even keeps his family at a distance.

Nobody could blame James for being detached from his family. His father is a bit self-absorbed and seems to feel obligated to spend the little time he does with James. James' mother owns an art gallery and has just returned early from her honeymoon. Her third marriage has ended a...more

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Feb 14, 2008 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars

Everyone compares this one to Catcher in the Rye, which is interesting to me because I haven’t read Catcher, and I think I would hate it, and yet I completely see why the two books are compared, and I loved Someday This Pain…

James has too many advantages to have the problems that he has. His family has money, an apartment in Manhattan, a part time job at his mother’s gallery, and he’s been accepted to Brown for next year (though not Harvard, Yale, or Columbia). His parents are divorced (though w...more Everyone compares this one to Catcher in the Rye, which is interesting to me because I haven’t read Catcher, and I think I would hate it, and yet I completely see why the two books are compared, and I loved Someday This Pain…

James has too many advantages to have the problems that he has. His family has money, an apartment in Manhattan, a part time job at his mother’s gallery, and he’s been accepted to Brown for next year (though not Harvard, Yale, or Columbia). His parents are divorced (though whose aren’t, these days?); unfortunately, his mother has just seen the end of her third marriage after a disastrous Las Vegas honeymoon. And James himself is not doing too well. The narrative voice has a kind of iciness to it, so it takes a while to understand just how sad and frightened and lonely James is; but you see him searching for old houses in the midwest. He does not want to go to college. He wants to sit in his old midwest house and read novels. And, more than anything, he wants to correct people on what they say. It’s what he spends the entire novel doing. They misuse words; they’re not precise enough. His father asks him whether he’s gay. His mother asks him whether he’s gay. He debates the nature of the question with them until, defeated, they accept a change of subject.

James is gay. He deigns to tell us this on page 192, of 228. His fear of intimacy is so great that it extends even to us, the readers.

However, this isn’t a novel about being gay. That may have something to do with how sad and frightened James is, but as James himself admits, he is so far from approaching another human being that his sexuality is two hundred percent theoretical. If anything, it seems symptomatic; James cannot face anything about himself.

This seems to me like the kind of novel I should be ready to criticize for being whiny and emo. Yet somehow it isn’t. I want to use those words they say book critics should never use, like delicate and luminous. James’s voice is stiff and awkward enough that it never reaches that emo-whiny level; you can see the clever swagger on the surface, and you can also see the sadness lurking underneath. And at the same time, there are these moments of description that go way beyond a mere insightful detail; they bore right through to James’s state of mind.
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Nov 19, 2007 James rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

This is a lovely book. The only thing that bothers me is that James is not concerned about money beyond how he would afford a house in the Midwest; it's hard for me to relate to someone so well set up.

But that allows us to focus on what makes him an interesting character (in my opinion, at least). He's so self-aware that he's naive at times--his internal life rich, his external life vacant. I adore him, want to talk him through some of his problems, realizing that I wouldn't get along with him...more

5 likes · like · see review

Dec 27, 2008 Ryan rated it 2 of 5 stars

Periodically, I read reviews from the New York Times book list and pick out likely candidates. The reviews are often the best thing about the book, though, so I'd recommend the review in this case. This is a well-written book - I finished it and I do not suffer through books that I find un-readable. But I felt it would have improved the book if the main character had killed himself or if I had been able to beat him up. I don't think wealthy kids are any less likable or have any fewer problems, b...more

13 likes · like · see review

Jan 24, 2013 Rafa rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Le sobra más de lo que le falta, y tiene el beneficio de una lectura fresca y entretenida.

2 likes · like · see review

Mar 26, 2010 Jen Knox rated it 2 of 5 stars

I loved the title, but the story was disappointing. Or maybe it was the writing style I didn't like. Cameron's novel feels like a long, drawn-out short story. There are a few insightful moments, but not enough. What bothers me most are the wasted words, which, if pulled out and transfered to a blank document, would probably fill about twenty needless pages.

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Jan 31, 2008 Edward rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Really Smart and Moody Teens and the Adults who wish they were teens like James.

Shelves: teen-town

Peter Cameron’s Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You is being touted by some critics as a modern Catcher In The Rye, which in, and of itself, is heady praise, but sells the book short. This book is a pitch perfect literary gem, with a comic precocious hero, James Sveck who is better read than most adults twice his age (this one included). The story spans the James’s summer before admission to Brown University, an event which he is loath to contemplate, and is distracting himself from by house...more

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Feb 19, 2008 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: precocious disaffected teenagers; immature disaffected adults

Recommended to Jessica by: ginnie

Shelves: here-is-new-york, wee-ones-and-bored-teenagers, leetle-boys, hagging-out

So far -- a few pages in -- I am not really enjoying this, however (a) it's got a great title; (b) Ginnie praised it highly; (c) I waited forever to get it from the library and (d) it's not difficult reading, so I'll persevere a bit longer, and see....

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HAH! This got really good: my first laugh-out-loud laugh was on page 33, and from there on out I was pretty much delighted with this quick YA read, though the ending didn't feel satisfying, and just in general I felt the last quarter-or-so of...more So far -- a few pages in -- I am not really enjoying this, however (a) it's got a great title; (b) Ginnie praised it highly; (c) I waited forever to get it from the library and (d) it's not difficult reading, so I'll persevere a bit longer, and see....

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HAH! This got really good: my first laugh-out-loud laugh was on page 33, and from there on out I was pretty much delighted with this quick YA read, though the ending didn't feel satisfying, and just in general I felt the last quarter-or-so of the book lost its structure and didn't deliver enough finally as a satisfying whole. Whatever: a short period of getting-acquainted time and less-than-amazing ending are forgivable sins in a special and enjoyable book that takes just an afternoon to read. If this had been a greater time investment, the lame ending would've been a problem, but as it was I didn't feel owed anything, and sensed I'd already been more than adequately reimbursed for my trouble.

This story is about a smart, cultured, snotty, fussy, wealthy eighteen-year-old boy who lives in the West Village, whose family actually seems to be fairly decent (if New Yorkily self-absorbed), as far as families go, and obviously not everyone wants to read about a kid who reads Proust and Trollope, whose big dilemma hinges on having to head off to Brown in the fall. But somehow the voice here was unique and funny and affecting enough to overcome this reader's initial unwillingness to empathize with such a character, or to read descriptions (very funny, actually) of his therapy sessions... I know, based on all that it sounds pretty terrible! But it was actually very good.

It's a little weird reading first-person narration from a character who supposedly hates talking, but in general it worked, and I really absorbed a sense of this kid's deep dread at having to interact with other people, which was so well executed because the author simultaneously (a) evoked the common, almost universal feeling of alienation that goes along with being an adolescent/human, while (b) extending that so that the reader got a sense of what it would be like to feel perhaps pathological social anxiety and isolation from others. For an afternoon, I was in this kid's head, and it was an interesting and illuminating place to visit (wouldn't want to live there).

All in all, a very quick and absorbing portrait of a "disturbed" young man, which made me laugh out loud several times on the train.(less)

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Jan 05, 2009 J. C. rated it 2 of 5 stars

Quickly came to realize the main character just needed to get over himself, which made reading the rest of the book tiresome. He's clearly a good writer so I finished it, but can't say the book lived up to the hype it's been getting.

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Jun 16, 2010 Ariel rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, summer-2010

The first half of this book drove me kind of insane-it got (throughout the book, but especially in the first half) very Poor Little Rich Boy, the narrative voice was really, really hard to take ( I hope if someone does talk that way, out loud, I do not meet this person. No one should talk in the tone of a 20-year-old dude talking about Nietzsche or Joyce all the time), and the characters are the kind of New Yorkers that make me want to move back to California as soon as possible. But I found the...more

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Apr 21, 2008 Kathleen rated it 4 of 5 stars

James is a character that kept me reading. Cameron knows how to twist and turn a good tale about an adolescent with such glorious details. James' relationship with his grandmother was so profound, especially when he goes to see her at the end of the book and he fixes her a drink and turns on a record she will like and he feels like she is not judging him. The other members of his family were so knowable. The time with the therapist felt so typical of a teenager who was only there since his paren...more

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Dec 29, 2008 Jan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: teenbooks

An absolutely wonderful coming of age novel, with a memorable and witty anti-hero who will appeal to any intelligent teen with a sharp eye for the absurd.

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 23, 2008 elissa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: youngadult, my_00s_reads, glbtq, owl

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 07, 2007 James rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

This novel displays a unique adolescent voice in the narrator, James Sveck. I'm not sure I will ever understand his particular type of angst since his actions often seemed irrational to an extreme combined with an inexplicable predilection for misanthropy. The difficulties of teenage life living with a divorced mother are ratcheted up almost to the breaking point. However, his close relationship with his grandmother was an anchor both for the narrator and the reader. Overall the book was more th...more

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May 16, 2008 Kerry rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book is odd, but nonetheless intriguing. Take 1 NYC teenager who keeps to himself, works at his mother's art gallery and likes to surf the internet looking for houses in the Midwest. I guess I found the main character intriguing because he seemed so opposite of myself. He is reluctant to go to college and identifies with people much older more. On the other hand, his life in NYC with therapists and an odd parent dynamic seems really unusual to me. The book held my attention and was a quick...more

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Nov 08, 2007 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who liked "speak," "hard love," "mike harte was here," and "animal dreams"

Shelves: queerlyphrased

I just finished this book and I'm still worried about James. I want to put my arms around him. This book is alternately hilarious and haunting. Peter Cameron does an excellent job of conveying the agony and mundaneness of loneliness and unnamed depression. That said, this is not a depressing book; I don't read depressing books. I had to stop reading it while my students did independent work because I would repeatedly burst out laughing. This book is poignant, and it makes you want to read it aga...more

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Apr 16, 2009 Andrew T. added it Recommends it for: Anyone

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Peter Cameron's "Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You" explores a concept that most other novels dare never to lay a finger on. It compels the reader into looking at the social "misfits", arranging an extensive array of ideas within the novel at once. Cameron had written this book with not just the lives of lone wolves everywhere in mind, but how it affects us, the average reader.
The diction of the novel was much required for the reader to acknowledge such an obscure presence. Much of it was...more Peter Cameron's "Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You" explores a concept that most other novels dare never to lay a finger on. It compels the reader into looking at the social "misfits", arranging an extensive array of ideas within the novel at once. Cameron had written this book with not just the lives of lone wolves everywhere in mind, but how it affects us, the average reader.
The diction of the novel was much required for the reader to acknowledge such an obscure presence. Much of it was quite colourful; keeping readers from closing it, allowing them to venture into the depths of the quirky mind of James Sveck, a "loner" from New York City, once implied as "James Sveck: Missing Misfit." The extensive, precise narration of otherwise perverted thoughts could only have been adequately explained through the first person. This is how the author chose to write his novel. The spontaneity of James' mind to some of the smallest details of his life is highly noticeable among readers. When James, for example, learned that he was to see a therapist known as Rowena Adler, he thought "it's a tad Teutonic", already aware of the upcoming formation of another turbulent relationship, just like the ones he had formed with his “capricious mother”, “self-absorbed father”, and “mordant older sister.” Compared to other characters in other books, James seems to be relatively elaborative on his thoughts, so much that his own footnotes have dragged on for multiple pages. And yet, readers are still heavily inundated to read on, especially when there exists a panoply of punctuation, including quotations, brackets, and even capitalization. The novel even ends with rhetorical questions and a cliffhanger, asking the readers “How [does he:] know what [he wants:] in [his:] life?” and “How does [he:] know what things [he:] will need?”
The theme of the novel was rather significant as well to forming the plot of the story. After reading this novel, us readers will realize that there exists a bit of James in all of us. In fact, every character in this novel each has their own abnormalities. Aside from James and his dysfunctional family, we also spot James’ friend John searching through a dating website in contrast to him also having “perfect SAT scores” from high school and attending “Harvard on a full scholarship”, and Rowena Adler, a professional (in our perspective) therapist whom had helped James much less with his dilemma than his grandmother. We all want to be ourselves, but we are all too afraid to admit it, lest our feelings become misunderstood, ridiculed and/or ignored. In this case, all James wanted was a life of his own, without any interference from society, his family, and his therapist.
Having read this novel, I too had also schemed on escaping society’s woes on us, starting a fresh new life, maybe even as a hermit. I believe many of us would like a life more or less the same as such. By reading this novel, we can express our own feelings on life’s challenges more confidently.
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Mar 30, 2009 Kathleen Houlihan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was recommended this book by Margo Rabb when she visited our library for a bookclub book:Cures for Heartbreak). It was a great and very quick read. The story follows the main character in his summer of freedom between high school and his first semester of college. Except he doesn't want to go to college. Primarily because he doesn't want to be around a bunch of people his age. He finds them dull, dreary, and uninteresting. In this transitional summer - on the cusp of adulthood - he ponders his...more

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Jan 11, 2009 Jaemi rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya-fiction

James Sveck is not happy. And that's really the least of his worries. After realizing he felt separate, alone as in not a part of this species, life took a bad turn for James.

It all came to a head with the whole America Classroom debacle. He doesn't like to think about it. He doesn't want to talk about it. And so for weeks he plays avoidance games, silence games, power games---pretty much any and every game---with his therapist.

His parents are worried. His sister is worried. James is just annoye...more James Sveck is not happy. And that's really the least of his worries. After realizing he felt separate, alone as in not a part of this species, life took a bad turn for James.

It all came to a head with the whole America Classroom debacle. He doesn't like to think about it. He doesn't want to talk about it. And so for weeks he plays avoidance games, silence games, power games---pretty much any and every game---with his therapist.

His parents are worried. His sister is worried. James is just annoyed.

He doesn't have much use for people, especially those his own age. Which makes college an extremely daunting proposition. He can't see any point. He doesn't want to be in that kind of environment, considers it an appalling waste of money, and would really rather just skip it and learn from books. To him, the idea is brilliant. To his parents, not so much.

And then there's the whole sexuality debate. Suddenly, both of his parents become keenly curious as to his interests. As if knowing he were gay would suddenly answer all questions, solve something, allow them to help him. As if it were so simple.

And he's alienated one of his only friends. John, who works at his mother's gallery, and is one of the few people James feels he can talk to, liked to surf the web at the front desk, and wasn't so good with covering his tracks. After stumbling upon John's profile on a dating site, James creates John's ideal mate. Anyone else would have realized, more than likely, what a bad idea this was, but to James it was just fun. A joke. Not to be taken seriously. To John, when James shows up in place of his date at a party, it's nearly unspeakable. And it leaves James out of a job; fired by his own mother.

His college, or lack thereof, plans are falling to pieces, no one seems to understand him, everyone is hounding him, and now James has only Nanette (his Grandmother) to turn to. Luckily, Nanette is very good with both listening and advice. And she's right about John coming around. The very next day James gets his job back. And faced with a pleading mother and sister, he even picks up the phone to speak to his future roommate, unsure what else to do.

There might just be hope after all.(less)

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Nov 24, 2008 Powells.com rated it 5 of 5 stars

James Sveck doesn't like people his own age. He has just graduated high school, but instead of listening to his parents and going to Brown University, he would rather buy an old house in the middle of Kansas. Like most eighteen-year-olds, James is incredibly self-involved, but somehow his precociousness makes him endearing as well. Although every other book jacket on the planet claims to have found the modern-day successor to Holden Caulfield, James Sveck is the closest we've come across so far....more

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Jun 14, 2013 mika rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book is hard to review because I both liked and disliked it at the same time. The writing style wasn't the problem with me, it was James and his way of thinking of things. I guess that I should really be looking at it as a boy who doesn't know what he wants and is confused with his life, but still his actions really just got to me. Not only twisting feelings around for those close to him, he ends up saying things and doing things that really just don't add up to me. I think the reason why I...more

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May 12, 2013 Salomè rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american

Quando leggo libri di questo tipo, mi perdo spesso in una fantasticheria: mettere in una stanza James di "Questo dolore ti sarà utile" (mo' speriamo, ci aggiungerei io), Charlie di "Ragazzo da parete", Holden de "Il giovane Holden" e tutti gli altri protagonisti dei romanzi di formazione più o meno tormentati scritti finora, poi sbirciare dal buco della serratura e vedere se almeno fra loro riescono a capirsi.

Nello specifico, James ha diciotto anni, ama i musei e odia le persone. Attraversa un...more

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Apr 08, 2013 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Se non avessi già amato Holden sarebbero state sicuramente cinque, le stellette. Purtroppo James per me è e resterà sempre e solo una "brutta copia". Non male come personaggio eh, non sto qui a negarlo, ma il cacciatore nella segale me lo sarei anche sposato alla fine del libro, con questo non ci avrei preso neanche un caffè, magari non avrebbe voluto lui poi, visto che è orso.
D'altronde non era proprio facile confrontarsi con un genio della letteratura come Salinger, affrontandolo nel suo terr...more

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About Peter Cameron

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Peter Cameron (b. 1959) is an award-winning novelist and short story writer. Born in Pompton Plains, New Jersey, he moved to New York City after graduating college in 1982. Cameron began publishing stories in the New Yorker one year later. His numerous award-winning storie...more

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Quotes from Someday This Pain Will...

“What if she was meant to be, or could have been, someone important in my life? I think that's what scares me: the randomness of everything. That the people who could be important to you might just pass you by. Or you pass them by. How do you know...I felt that by walking away I was abandoning [them], that I spent my entire life, day after day, abandoning people.” — 152 people liked it

“People who have only good experiences aren't very interesting. They may be content, and happy after a fashion, but they aren't very deep. It may seem a misfortune now, and it makes things difficult, but well--it's easy to feel all the happy, simple stuff. Not that happiness is necessarily simple. But I don't think you're going to have a life like that, and I think you'll be the better for it. The difficult thing is to not be overwhelmed by the bad patches. You must not let them defeat you. You must see them as a gift--a cruel gift, but a gift nonetheless.” — 103 people liked it

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/235466.Someday_This_Pain_Will_Be_Useful_to_You?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1317065024l/235466.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/235466.Someday_This_Pain_Will_Be_Useful_to_You?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron[/url]

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You

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