false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174490630m/406564.jpg 406564 2 Leah Hager Cohen has produced a slim little book that proves a point: in the novel, milieu is everything. <I>Heart, You Bully, You Punk</I> (and what a title it is) tells the story of Ann, a math whiz at a private high school in Brooklyn, and two people who loom large in her life: her father, Wally, who owns a restaurant called Game in Manhattan, and her teacher, a quietly mysterious woman named Esker. When Esker and Wally begin to fall in love, Cohen gives us a story that's immediate and elegant, characters who are lovable and maddening, dialogue that's silly and serious and wonderfully human. But what makes this small novel really terrific is its choice of venues: the school and the restaurant. Both locales are wonderfully novelistic, crowded with characters and lousy with rituals recognizable to anyone who has haunted such joints. Ann quizzes her classmate Denise on whether or not she thinks Esker is poignant. "Denise remained unconvinced. 'She's just eerie.' 'Eerie' is a big word this year at The Prospect School, where its connotation is not derogatory; it's a catch-all for anything enigmatic or unplumbed." Likewise, Cohen nails nice little details of the emotional life of a restaurant, like Wally's ritual of having a nightly cocoa with his maitre d', Nuncio. "They've had little manly crushes on each other for seven years; they always will." Cohen launches her characters into the waters of heartbreak, but these small noticings keep the book grounded, funny, and always very alive. <I>--Claire Dederer</I> 395896 2003 Heart, You Bully, You Punk total:86|5:9|4:29|3:34|2:13|1:1| 86 290 133 13 2 1 false false Mon Sep 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 04 12:26:02 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 07 18:25:46 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 10 07:21:46 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 13 20:08:04 -0700 2007 Train Go Sorry), so I've long been meaning to try out this novel of hers. It's not bad -- chockablock with vivid details, so the imagining is easy and the characterization superb -- but I wasn't wild about it.more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Oct 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 12 19:21:24 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 12 19:25:09 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 2 false false Fri Jun 27 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 11 09:46:52 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 27 18:25:18 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Fri Mar 20 22:57:37 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 20 22:58:08 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Fri Apr 15 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Tue Feb 24 10:00:22 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 24 10:01:03 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Tue Aug 18 06:09:23 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 18 06:10:28 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Mon Dec 24 20:58:19 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 26 04:53:07 -0800 2007 2 0 false false Wed Jun 18 07:51:27 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 18 07:53:42 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Thu Jan 22 01:08:55 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 05 03:08:15 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Sun Apr 06 21:54:10 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 23 20:13:53 -0700 2008
chick-flicky in nature, but interestingly written, with full characters and a very realistic lens.]]> 4 0 false false Mon Aug 20 12:17:59 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 20 12:17:59 -0700 2007 3 0 false false Fri Jan 30 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Dec 08 08:24:47 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 30 07:17:15 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Mon Nov 16 16:51:55 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 16 16:51:55 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Thu Oct 29 11:51:53 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 29 11:51:53 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Oct 25 04:08:57 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 25 04:09:00 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Oct 17 09:45:15 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 17 09:45:15 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Oct 12 21:09:49 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 12 21:09:49 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Sep 15 16:49:36 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 15 16:49:36 -0700 2009 1 0 false false Thu Aug 13 11:58:46 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 13 11:59:24 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=406564