Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You

by Peter Cameron

book data

787 ratings, 3.79 average rating, 277 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		25%
4		39%
3		24%
2		8%
1		1%

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published

September 18th 2007 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

binding

Hardcover, 240 pages

isbn

0374309892 (isbn13: 9780374309893)

description

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 s...more

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02/14/08

Emily rated it:

Read in January, 2008

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 ar...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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11/10/07

James rated it:

bookshelves: fiction

Read in November, 2007

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 alo...more

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12/20/08

Ryan rated it:

Read in December, 2008

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

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05/11/08

Jennifer Wardrip rated it:

bookshelves: gold-star-award, trt-reviews

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 th...more

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01/31/08

Edward rated it:

bookshelves: teen-town

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: Really Smart and Moody Teens and the Adults who wish they were teens like James.

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...more

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11/13/07

Jessica rated it:

bookshelves: here-is-new-york, leetle-boys, wee-ones-and-bored-teenagers

Read in February, 2008

recommended to Jessica by: ginnie
recommends it for: precocious disaffected teenagers; immature disaffected adults

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 th...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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01/05/09

J. C. rated it:

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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04/21/08

Kathleen rated it:

Read in April, 2008

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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12/29/08

Jan rated it:

bookshelves: teenbooks

Read in December, 2008

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.

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

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01/23/08

elissa rated it:

bookshelves: glbtq, my_00s_reads, owl, youngadult

Read in March, 2008

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

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05/16/08

Kerry rated it:

Read in April, 2008

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 qui...more

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10/04/07

Sarah rated it:

bookshelves: queerlyphrased

recommends it for: people who liked "speak," "hard love," "mike harte was here," and "animal dreams"

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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04/16/09

Andrew T. added it

Read in April, 2009

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...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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03/30/09

Kathleen Houlihan rated it:

Read in March, 2009

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...more

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01/20/09

Billy Cryer rated it:

Book publishers are sneaky people. They contrive the cleverest ways to get people to pick up their books. Such is the case with 'Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You,' by Peter Cameron. Namely, it's the book cover. At first glance, it appears innocent enough. Only after I had opened the book and read two chapters did I realize I had been manipulated. But I'll get to that part later.

First, the premise. James Sveck is a teenager living in New York, and, like most teenagers, is strug...more Book publishers are sneaky people. They contrive the cleverest ways to get people to pick up their books. Such is the case with 'Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You,' by Peter Cameron. Namely, it's the book cover. At first glance, it appears innocent enough. Only after I had opened the book and read two chapters did I realize I had been manipulated. But I'll get to that part later.

First, the premise. James Sveck is a teenager living in New York, and, like most teenagers, is struggling to come to terms with life and where he fits into it. Having just graduated from high school, James is poised to begin his journey through college. Only, James is not certain he wants to attend college. In fact, he would rather not. He dreads the idea. He does not like to be around kids his own age. His experience is that they are generally all the same: immature and shallow. James also--like many young people--is still exploring issues of identity. Torn by many internal conflicts, James sifts through each one in order to discover himself and the life spread out before him. And he does so with wit, unflagging intelligence, and irresistible humor.

'Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You' is a surprisingly good novel. The characters are real. They crackle with life. The dialogue is superlative, and reading James's many barbed observations is sheer pleasure. It's a book to celebrate--as good as any coming-of-age story. And at its heart it's a striking reflection on the 9/11 horror. I haven't read a novel with such strong, compelling characters in a good while.

But how does the book cover ensnare the reader? What’s the secret recipe? It’s a combination of a snappy title and a unique cover design. The title is quirky and helps to set the tone of the story. It’s a phrase we all grow up listening to from our own parents, so we immediately relate. There’s a connection from the beginning. The cover design also draws in the reader. It's merely an image of a teenager with his left hand clapped over his face. But subconsciously we as reader—ever inquisitive—want to know what is hidden beneath the hand—what that person looks like, to get an idea of who he really is, so we open the book and begin reading. In the end I'm glad I was hoodwinked. Otherwise I'd never have met James, or traveled down the same winding path with him, to experience the world in his own unforgettable perspective.
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01/11/09

Jaemi rated it:

bookshelves: ya-fiction

Read in December, 2007

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 worr...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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11/24/08

Powells.com rated it:

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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06/30/09

Pam rated it:

When eighteen year old James Sveck announces that he will most likely be forgoing his upcoming entrance to Brown University to instead pursue a piece of land not yet purchased in the Midwest, his well heeled New York City family protests. His flighty, thrice married, thrice divorced mother is only interested to the point of insisting that he subscribe to the services of the family shrink. His Partner’s Club dinning father, voices repeatedly that he will be throwing his life away by shirking hi...more When eighteen year old James Sveck announces that he will most likely be forgoing his upcoming entrance to Brown University to instead pursue a piece of land not yet purchased in the Midwest, his well heeled New York City family protests. His flighty, thrice married, thrice divorced mother is only interested to the point of insisting that he subscribe to the services of the family shrink. His Partner’s Club dinning father, voices repeatedly that he will be throwing his life away by shirking his academic responsibility. His older sister, halfway through Barnard and dating a married man, lectures him on his stupidity. His therapist, recommended by his mother, simply parrots the wishes of his family. His only solace is found in his feisty grandmother and an older coworker at his mother’s gallery.

Peter Cameron’s Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You is an elegantly crafted tribute to the ever-growing stack of quarter-life crisis accounts in American literature. While the theme is not new (the book has received some serious flack for drawing on the likes of Catcher In the Rye), it is far from a mundane, rehashed storyline. Written from a teen view but not necessarily the voice of teen aged America (in fact, James will tell you that his position is exactly the opposite) the book superbly articulates the fluidity and uncertainty affixed to coming of age.

I found myself cringing when I read other reviewers’ descriptions of James’s deep queries as “too adult”. I find that young adults are often far more elegant in their searching than we give them credit for, perhaps because of, not in spite of, their youth. As we age, much like the secondary adults in Cameron’s tale, we lose the ability to question, to act out, to rise above or sidestep authority.

While it is billed as a young adult novel, the story touches on points that are relevant throughout life making it accessible and agreeable to a wide reading audience. If more young adult literature followed Cameron’s lead, I think I would find myself a bigger fan of the genre. Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You may be small in size but its impact is nothing less than powerful and is one that should, without a doubt, make its way to your summer reading pile.(less)

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06/03/09

Michelle rated it:

(review of isbn 0312428162)

bookshelves: 12thgrade

Read in November, 2008

The way the author write his book is very unique. An example would be how h describes the weathr outside. “The sky went dark in a weird green swampy way that gave me a creepy end-of-the-world feeling." The way he dscribes a feeling or a emotion is very descriptive. “I ... just let everything go, turned the net of myself inside out and let all the worried desperate fish swim away.”

James Sveck is the main protagonist and narrator. He is 18 and it is hard for him to make conn...more

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06/03/09

Christina rated it:

bookshelves: realistic, ya_glbtq

Read in April, 2009

Perhaps because I listened to it on audiobook, or perhaps because it just wasn't what I thought it would be, but I just couldn't get into this book. (I finished the whole thing, though, just in case it got better. It didn't.) Eighteen year old James lives in a New York City apartment with his divorced, art gallery-owner mom and his sarcastic annoying college student sister. It's the summer after graduation. James may or may not be gay, he kind of has a crush on his mom's gallery manager, but he'...more

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quotes from this book

"I don't think I could ever work in such a blatantly hierarchical corporate setting. I know that everyone in this world is not equal, but I can't bear environments that make this truth so obvious." More quotes...