Citrus County

Aug 06, 2010 karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: littry-fiction

i blink and suddenly i have read two of the buzz books of the summer!

this one i have mike to thank for - i would have just bought it (like i did the author's first book) with good intentions, and it would have sat around until lord knows when, but his review made me read the first three pages right there at work and say - "oh, yes, i will read this soon". and look at me following through!

this man writes just the way i like - he has a story to tell and he tells it, with very few literary pyrotec...more i blink and suddenly i have read two of the buzz books of the summer!

this one i have mike to thank for - i would have just bought it (like i did the author's first book) with good intentions, and it would have sat around until lord knows when, but his review made me read the first three pages right there at work and say - "oh, yes, i will read this soon". and look at me following through!

this man writes just the way i like - he has a story to tell and he tells it, with very few literary pyrotechnics. i love a lack of bullshit in contemporary writers. this is a book that grabs you right from the beginning (lgm). it opens with a scene of littering and verbal cruelty to a child and escalates into more serious crimes by the end. but it is not, strictly speaking, a crime novel; it is more about restlessness and the emptiness of rebellion.

mike was so restrained in his review w/r/t concrete plot elements that it makes me want to follow suit.

overall, it is a very sad story. his characters rattle around like pinballs, slamming into each other, affecting each other's lives in ways both criminal and tender as they discover the limitations of their criminal capacities and their capabilities for strength and survival through crushing disappointments. it is about two kids trying to find themselves and an adult who suddenly realizes he forgot to keep looking. (i write the tag lines for movie posters)

mr. hibma is a fantastically-wrought character. his slow dawning realizations are a perfect contrast to the two teenagers testing each other's boundaries and discovering their own. (see?) he is the "cool" and unconventional teacher who chose where he would teach based on the throw of a dart. cool, right? well, no. and this is why he ends up where he does, a little bewildered and watching his life drag by with no goals or agency. as great as shelby and toby's stories are, this is the one that hit a little close to home, and i loved watching his struggles.

here is something lovely:

"the afternoon hours were the flattest. they were like citrus county itself, fit only for ambush. shelby wanted to get higher or lower. there were no basements, no second stories. her house had no attic. shelby didn't want to keep walking on the same ground. she was on a dumb plank of land where nothing would roll away. everything stayed right where it was and festered. shelby had been reduced to silly fantasies - visions of her and her dad moving off and working a farm somewhere, visions of going to stay with her aunt dale in iceland, of having aunt dale show her how to be a rigid, invulnerable woman. shelby wanted something more dramatic, more honest. she wanted a crashing ocean instead of the wash of the gulf. she wanted weather that could kill you. she wanted respect from someone who actually knew how to judge."

if that doesn't just sum up adolescence perfectly...

i strongly recommend this, even if you hate dave eggers. mcsweeney's fiction list has overall been excellent, even though their foundation (eggers) is a self-aggrandizing douchebag. sold?(less)

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Sep 10, 2011 Mariel rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Citrus County, lock up your little girls

Recommended to Mariel by: Florida swamps that have forgotten their fireflies

I wish that I had read the same book that other members on goodreads read. I don't come from this place. I don't live in Citrus County. I want to live different places, know different people. I want to tell myself about stuff that happened and people that the things happened to. It doesn't have to be a mantra, maybe a sign of life or a reminder to feel something I'd forgotten. I want to sing along, you know? Some company would be really nice. I find that I can let myself go if I'm not the only o...more

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Jul 19, 2010 oriana rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2009, read-for-work

Oh. God. So. Good. I love love John Brandon anyway, back from the painfully spectacular Arkansas, and this one gives you that same sinking feeling in your stomach once you get into it, once you know that there is just no way this will get better or go well. Toby and Shelby, the main characters in this one, are just amazing and so so real. (I hope I never get too old to ache and squirm when I read about teenagers falling messily and awkwardly and terribly for one another.) John Brandon's writing...more

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Sep 30, 2012 Jamie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, the-dirty-south

With John Brandon, get ready to spend time with criminals. But get ready too, to strip away everything that defines them as criminals, to write in everything that makes them whole, interesting, broken, fun, doomed, ordinary, earnest, cruel, largehearted people. No one gets written off, no one gets cut any slack. We spend time in the woods and get just what was promised: the subversion of expectations, the wild incongruities of humanity, the cigarette before the firing squad shoots you down. It’s...more

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Jun 14, 2010 Kathy rated it 1 of 5 stars

I'd like to give this a 2.5. It was better than "OK," but I can't say that I "liked" it. In fact, the more I think about it, the less I like it.

There's no way to talk about what's really wrong with this book without spoilers. The best I can do is to say that Brandon's efforts to make us accept and support the protagonist (he's quirky! he's amusing! he's an orphan!) just can't overcome the morally reprehensible things the character does.

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Aug 22, 2010 Lee rated it 3 of 5 stars

A generous three stars, more like 2.5 for me. An admirable short novel that seemed to do what it wanted to do just fine, I guess. Mid-level misanthrophy. One minor LOL for me re: the girls basketball team. Occasionally precious A+ "creative writing 101" descriptions ("she smelled like freckles"). Felt like an overextended short story? Monotextured (<-- that's a really wonky way of saying it maintains a similar tone/pace/approach throughout). A "terse novella" maybe would have worked better? S...more A generous three stars, more like 2.5 for me. An admirable short novel that seemed to do what it wanted to do just fine, I guess. Mid-level misanthrophy. One minor LOL for me re: the girls basketball team. Occasionally precious A+ "creative writing 101" descriptions ("she smelled like freckles"). Felt like an overextended short story? Monotextured (<-- that's a really wonky way of saying it maintains a similar tone/pace/approach throughout). A "terse novella" maybe would have worked better? Synonymous piling up of phrases too often made me aware I was reading contemporary literary fiction? Too often a little too cutesy for me, like it aspired to be turned into a movie by whoever did "Little Miss Sunshine"? Too often, overall, I was aware I was reading fiction, aware of the dynamics of the story, the inevitablility of old-fashioned character change, instead of seeing/believing in the characters? Maybe the characterization needed reemphasizing sometimes? Likability wasn't as much an issue for me as not really believing in the characters or the story because of the prose/tone/syntax? Sort of fell somewhere between Tinkers and Netherland for me in terms of readerly "enjoyment." By which I mean I can appreciate and admire passages, descriptions, scenes, but there's something in the helices of its literary DNA that didn't exactly twine with my readerly genes? Here's a sentence I can pull to support what I mean: "Some kids were just kiss-asses and they couldn't help it, no more than one can help being Samoan or allergic to celery." As a reader, I can't help being sort of like a walrus, whereas this book can't help being more of a manatee. We can swim together in the same waters but can't quite breed, you know what I mean? I can't help prefering another sort of fiction, something a little less "sane" in form and content, something maybe a bit more individuated at a sentence level? Also, I've always had trouble reading about kids. The few books involving young adults I've loved are way crazier than this one, with way more thematic HEFT: The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels, or His Dark Materials Trilogy. This one's not really my bag, ultimately. So I guess I should say something like sorry, it's not you, "Citrus County," it's me . . . you're readable and professionally executed and, physically, a beautifully designed book, plus you include a great line about a sky of clouds like the aftereffect of an exploded sun bomb, but I just couldn't get beyond something in your tone and tactics re: these yearning (<-- default emotion of contemporary literary fiction), confounded, essentially good-hearted yet ultimately mostly misdirected/parentless (or nearly parentless) kids and one of their young teachers etc, and so I wish you all the best in terms of finding a devoted readership.(less)

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Jul 22, 2010 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Edan, Jeff, jo in particular

There are a small clutch of writers* whose prose and plotting is refractory: you slide into a sentence (or the story) with a false sense of security, subject and verb doing what subjects and verbs do, but then suddenly you're upside-down, 30 degrees shy of where you'd expected to end up, split into a variety of tones and hues.

John Brandon can write.

A shopkeeper in rural Citrus County accosts the two early-teen protagonists: "'Please don't steal anything'. . . . He sighed theatrically and returne...more There are a small clutch of writers* whose prose and plotting is refractory: you slide into a sentence (or the story) with a false sense of security, subject and verb doing what subjects and verbs do, but then suddenly you're upside-down, 30 degrees shy of where you'd expected to end up, split into a variety of tones and hues.

John Brandon can write.

A shopkeeper in rural Citrus County accosts the two early-teen protagonists: "'Please don't steal anything'. . . . He sighed theatrically and returned to the back room." A few moments later, he comes back out, "tape gun in one hand," and asks

"What happened?"

Shelby paused. "I zeroed in on the goods I wish to purchase is what happened."

The guy edged closer. When he saw that Shelby had a flag on the counter and cash in her hand, he relaxed the grip on the tape gun and stood up straight.

"Wow," he said. "You two aren't nomadic vandals. You're a nice young couple."

Actually, they aren't. Or, well... they are, but at this moment bad things have been done by one and are being fantasized by both. The "flag" Shelby is buying says "LICENSED HANDJOB ACCEPTANCE STATION," and in a few chapters she will post it on the door of a church, along with a note indicating her own guilt. People do bad things in Citrus County, or obsessively plot to do them, but they're seeking some form of real human contact, even if it's charged with revulsion and fear and judgment.

I loved these characters--even Toby, the "bad boy," and even Mr. Hibma, the scornful mess of a geography teacher. This book is often terribly sad, and there were long moments in the closing stretch where I was frightened, worried, wound up in the sadness that afflicts these characters--and is caused by them. Even as, page by page, Brandon's prose spun that melancholy and dread into sly sweet humor. I don't mean that shlocky woe tinged with whimsy, nor do I mean David-Lynchian eccentricity -- no, this tonal juggling act is tougher. The wit--the often very funny--echoes the existentially very sad yet limns the potential for escape.

Listen, I won't lie: the central event is a crime and it's a dark one, and the novel hinges on a protracted suspense about what will come of that. Many readers will get stuck there, hating these characters, seeing only bleakness. But hang in there. They're not nomadic vandals, and this isn't grim irony. Brandon is a bleakly compassionate writer, with a lovely ear for adolescent emotion. It's a really damn good book.

*said clutch to include Joy Williams, my personal idol Thomas McGuane, Denis Johnson, and the reigning monarch of the form Flannery O'Connor.(less)

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Jun 13, 2010 Adam rated it 2 of 5 stars

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

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Nov 07, 2012 Roberta rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Nella Contea di Citrus in Florida non ci sono lunghe spiagge affollate, ma solo una fitta vegetazione e qualche teppistello... Qui vive Toby, un quattordicenne che all'apparenza sembra come tanti, ma che in realtà nasconde qualcosa di oscuro dentro di se! La sua vita si intreccerà a quella di Shelby, la nuova arrivata e finirà per commettere qualcosa di terribile...

Dark Florida è un romanzo con una trama dura, vera e che non si aspetta di far volare lontano il lettore, regalandogli chissà quale...more Nella Contea di Citrus in Florida non ci sono lunghe spiagge affollate, ma solo una fitta vegetazione e qualche teppistello... Qui vive Toby, un quattordicenne che all'apparenza sembra come tanti, ma che in realtà nasconde qualcosa di oscuro dentro di se! La sua vita si intreccerà a quella di Shelby, la nuova arrivata e finirà per commettere qualcosa di terribile...

Dark Florida è un romanzo con una trama dura, vera e che non si aspetta di far volare lontano il lettore, regalandogli chissà quale avventura. La storia narrata non è divertente, non vuole essere una valvola di sfogo, bensì è la cruda verità, la dimostrazione che spesso la realtà è terribile e non sempre abbiamo occhi per accorgercene, perchè in certi casi è preferibile volgere lo sguardo altrove!
I personaggi principali sono Toby, un quattordicenne problematico che non ha ancora capito bene cosa vuole e distrugge se stesso e ciò che lo circonda in cerca della sua dimensione; Shelby, la ragazza nuova della scuola, diligente ed educata che si ritroverà a fare i conti con una parte di sé che non conosceva; il professor Hibma, un uomo insoddisfatto della sua vita, che inconsapevolmente cerca un nuovo posto nella sua vita.
Tre i protagonisti, ognuno con un animo oscuro, ognuno con delle problematiche da affrontare, ognuno incapace di fare i conti con se stesso e con la propria realtà!
Sarà Toby il primo a dare il via ai primi cambiamenti e dalle sue azioni si scatenerà un processo che coinvolgerà anche Shelby e il professor Hibma, che li trascinerà tutti nel profondo del loro animo ad osservare quel nero che hanno dentro, tirarlo fuori e infine affrontarlo. Toby che dalla vita non ha avuto nulla e che cerca costantemente di mettersi nei guai, che ha fame di qualcosa ma non riesce a capire bene di che si tratti, che non riesce a riconoscere le emozioni e che nulla alla fine gli da piacere o soddisfazione.
Shelby, che in seguito alla sparizione della sorella sente nascere la rabbia dentro di sé, inizia a fregarsene di tutto e tutti, non è più la brava ragazza che tutti credevano, si abbandona ai sentimenti contrastanti che la divorano, si fa coinvolgere da Toby, viene attratta da quel suo essere un ragazzo misterioso e perchè no un pò teppista...
Hibma... un adulto incapace di essere adulto, che infierisce su se stesso facendo vita associale, che come un ragazzino fa tutto ciò che irrita i suoi colleghi solo perchè sa di irritarli, ma non trova piacere in ciò! Hibma fa tutto controvoglia, cerca qualcosa che gli dia i brividi, che lo coinvolga davvero pur non riuscendo ad ammettere che ha bisogno di un qualche tipo di coinvolgimento per riuscire a sentirsi vivo.
Tre vite diverse ma anche così uguali quelle dei tre protagonisti di questo libro, tre esistenze in evoluzione, ognuna percorrerà strade differenti, ma nello stesso tempo si incontreranno intrecciandosi e dando il via a dei cambiamanti forti, radicali e ciò avverrà attraverso azioni accessive.
La lettura scorre lenta, come la storia narrata, come le vite dei tre protagonista: ognuno di loro viene presentato al lettore, studiato e analizzato con precisione. Brandon ha saputo fare un'analisi psicologica perfetta di ogni protagonista, caratterizzandolo e dandogli spessore, in modo che chi legge riesca a scavare nel profondo di ognuno, vedendone chiaramente il lato oscuro e comprendendone meglio le azioni.
Pagina dopo pagina si ha la sensazioni di trovarsi in una di quelle zone aride americane, dove il tempo scorre lento, inesorabile e dove la noia è spezzata solo dal frinire delle cicale, dove il sole brucia e tutto risulta ovattato e soffocante. Nonostante ciò non si riesce a staccar gli occhi dal libro, come un assetato nel deserto che beve avidamente dalla propria borraccia: si ha il bisogno di saperne di più di Toby, Shelby e Hibma, vedere fino a che punto sapranno spingersi, se alla fine si lasceranno andare ai loro pensieri più cupi.
Lo stile e il linguaggio son ben curati e danno alla lettura quella sfumatura dark che rende il libro diverso da tanti altri romanzi. Non aspettatevi una storia che vuol denunciare le brutture del mondo, ma semplicemente una finestra sul mondo, uno spaccato di realtà che può sembrarci lontana, che non ci appartiene, ma che da qualche parte nel mondo vicino o lontano a noi costituisce la vita di qualcuno.
Anche se può sembrare non vi è un vero e proprio lieto fine, si resta smarriti e sconcertati da come va a concludersi la storia... Questo perchè a volte durante la lettura si tende a dar per scontate alcune cose, si crede di esser riusciti a capire ognuno dei tre protagonisti, ma in realtè il lettore si ritroverà spiazzato e sorpreso.
(less)

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Feb 03, 2013 Jill rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

All of the main characters in this gripping novel are lost. Lost in a profoundly human way, just trying to find their way in a cold and ambiguous world. Toby is 14, an orphan being raised by his Uncle Neal, a man so deeply disturbed he brews a pitcher of homemade hemlock every week just to remind himself of his choice to keep living. Shelby is a transplant from another part of the country, moved to Central Florida with her father and little sister following her mother's tragic death. She is unli...more

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Apr 16, 2012 Zach rated it 5 of 5 stars

Citrus County is a story of life at the suburban fringe, where the locals have little and the people who move there have lost much. The story focuses on three such transplants, two middle schoolers and their teacher, as they fall in and out of love and devise and hatch plots for kidnappings and murders. Perhaps the most interesting statement the novel makes is about purpose. All these characters are questing for the same thing, albeit in vastly different ways. They're trying to create a personal...more

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Oct 15, 2011 g rated it 1 of 5 stars

I got to page 32 and was so shocked and horrified by the contents of that single page that I skimmed the remaining 170 or so pages to see if the novel was worth pursuing. The answer? Um, no. Why on earth did we have to go there? I was sort of warming up to this, thinking that maybe I'd wrongly stereotyped McSweeney's fiction catalog in the past. I even LOLed at several of Mr. Hibma's antics and found him a sort of an edgier, funnier, male counterpart to Bynum's wonderful Ms. Hempel. I thought th...more

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Oct 05, 2011 Gayle rated it 5 of 5 stars

If it weren't for Seth, the scruffy lovable book reviewer/employee at Warwick's, in La Jolla, I would never have found this book. He clutched the small tome with its funky retro binding (cover designers can be genius--the laminate looks like a wood cut embedded in the orange linen binding and the hut image captures the intrigue of the woodsy interior story). Seth seemed unsure whether to recommend this book or keep his job, who knows, maybe fearing the wrath of the well-coiffed and surgically be...more If it weren't for Seth, the scruffy lovable book reviewer/employee at Warwick's, in La Jolla, I would never have found this book. He clutched the small tome with its funky retro binding (cover designers can be genius--the laminate looks like a wood cut embedded in the orange linen binding and the hut image captures the intrigue of the woodsy interior story). Seth seemed unsure whether to recommend this book or keep his job, who knows, maybe fearing the wrath of the well-coiffed and surgically beautiful folks crowded around him, hanging on his opinions for the latest books. I could tell Seth was in love with this book, the writer, the voice, and couldn't help himself. He had to recommend it, encourage its reading pleasure. This book is really funny, he said, even though the main character, Toby, is disturbing, does a really, really bad thing. You can't help but care about him or at least ponder the mystery of him and this story. And it was true. I wasn't sure I could get past page 34 as the plot darkened. I'm impressionable, prone to nightmares. But this is not a horror story, more quietly horrifying, literary, Catcher in the Rye-like fiction. Sure enough, I dreamed I was the main character doing the same bad stuff and even in the dream I got scared of my own capacity for evil--I blame this on Brandon's artful, somewhat sympathetic portrayal of his characters, some of whom should not be likable but, dammit, are, no matter what they do or say. Toby, a 14-year-old hoodlumist wasn't "other"--he was me. His geography teacher, an adult, was no more emotionally evolved than the vulnerable, life-addled adolescents he is charged to guide (whom he does his best to misguide). Every character plot parallels a theme of the lucid rationality that comes with utter disaffection and depression with life, but a life here of both meaninglessness and mystery. I laughed aloud, embarrassing myself in public several times, because I took the book with me on errands, unable to put it down, all the way til 1:15 a.m. last night, bang, finished, despite pending 6:00 a.m. alarm clock hell. Shelby, the other adolescent, is way too smart and terribly funny; they all are, whether they mean to be or not. I'm going to read this book again, and if I find anything to criticize, being poisoned by a Master's Degree in English and the kind of crap from petty writers' workshops that would take this book down 1/16th of the fifth star, I really don't care. I rarely read books twice these days. This book reminds why I love to read.(less)

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Jul 16, 2011 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: the smart kids who could of ended up lost

Recommended to Elizabeth by: Powell's staff picks

Shelves: 2011

This book sits on a shelf smirking. You might need to brush up on your vocabulary too before reading it. It would be hard to describe the plot of this book except in a very exoskeleton type way, weird shit happens that is unexpected and it should not be described beforehand.

It takes place in a northern part of Florida, there are middle schoolers, Iceland and wayward teachers involved. A lot of smart people seem to be sporting not only a bad attitude but a fatalistic one. That this is set in Flo...more

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Dec 29, 2010 Caitlin Constantine rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've written before in reviews that I usually do not find most "comic" novels to be very comic. I feel bad admitting this, like it is somehow indicative of some sourpuss-type personality, or like it means I am deficient in the humor category, but the truth is, I just don't find books that try to be funny to be all that funny. A book that makes me actually laugh out loud is GOLD.

Which is why I am pleased to say that I laughed multiple times while reading this book, and almost always at Mr. Hibma,...more I've written before in reviews that I usually do not find most "comic" novels to be very comic. I feel bad admitting this, like it is somehow indicative of some sourpuss-type personality, or like it means I am deficient in the humor category, but the truth is, I just don't find books that try to be funny to be all that funny. A book that makes me actually laugh out loud is GOLD.

Which is why I am pleased to say that I laughed multiple times while reading this book, and almost always at Mr. Hibma, who might be one of my favorite literary characters ever. My only complaint is that there is no way someone can be THAT much of a dour curmudgeon by the age of 28. Maybe if he was 38, I would have bought it, but my experience has been that bitter, sour 28-year-olds are usually fronting, like it's proof of their worldiness and experience.

The comedy of the book was an interesting contrast to the rest of the book, which was actually quite dark and depressing. The story centers around a crime that is, unfortunately, a bit too commonplace, especially in this part of Florida. (The other thing that really attracted me to this book was that it was set in Citrus County, which is not exactly the most literary part of the world, and if you'd ever been there before, you'd know what I mean. But I love Florida, and I love books about Florida, and no one ever writes books about this part of Florida, so even if the book hadn't been selected by the Rumpus Book Club or gotten a write-up in the New York Times, I would have sought it out anyway.) The characters are sad, they suffer a lot, they are depressed and desperate and fumbling around for anything that will give them even a second of human contact. It is not the happiest book I have ever read, and it has the added difficulty of centering the story on a kid who does something that is pretty heinous.

I loved it anyway. I thought the writing was gorgeous, I thought the sensibility was gritty without being overly cynical, I thought he wrote about west-central Florida in a way that resonated with me (and my news station even got a shout-out, too!) and of course, Mr. Hibma was hilarious. (His episodes as the coach of the girls' eighth grade basketball team had me literally shaking with laughter.)

My only complaint was that the ending was way too pat. If you read the book, you'll see what I mean. It was all very convenient and neatly tied up, and I thought it was the weakest part of the book.(less)

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Sep 07, 2010 Krok Zero rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fall-2010

The good kind of contradiction: I would have gladly read an additional 500 pages about Toby and Shelby, the troubled co-protagonists of Citrus County, yet I recognize that John Brandon's concision -- the book clocking in at just over 200 pages -- was the right choice for the story.

This is a great novel, the best new one I've read this year. So much love for this book. I wish I'd purchased it so I could spew lovely quotations at you, but this was a bookstore-loitering read. Don't judge me. I have...more The good kind of contradiction: I would have gladly read an additional 500 pages about Toby and Shelby, the troubled co-protagonists of Citrus County, yet I recognize that John Brandon's concision -- the book clocking in at just over 200 pages -- was the right choice for the story.

This is a great novel, the best new one I've read this year. So much love for this book. I wish I'd purchased it so I could spew lovely quotations at you, but this was a bookstore-loitering read. Don't judge me. I have a lot of free time and not a lot of money.

Hmm, what to say about this? I feel like I should do it justice by writing a powerhouse review that will impress you all, but that's not gonna happen tonight, I don't have it in me. The NYT blurb on the back cover calls it "a great story in great prose" and, as simple a statement as that is, it's really the most important thing to say here, because as readers of fiction what else are we really looking for, at the end of the day? Well, other stuff too, I guess, but it still feels great not to have to settle for either great storytelling or great writing, to have the total package.

There is suspense here, there is a gripping plot, but the story does not unfold as a thriller; it unfolds as a series of small character moments, observations, casually brilliant bits of psychological sketching. Brandon flits between the perspectives of three characters -- the above-mentioned Toby and Shelby, eighth-graders embarking on a tentative romance, and their geography teacher Mr. Hibma, an overgrown slacker-outsider who's drifted into a teaching job for which he feels nothing. All three of these creations are as compelling as any alphabet-rendered humans I've encountered in my reading career. Brandon doesn't bother with a lot of physical descriptions; to an extent, he follows Elmore Leonard's dictum to avoid "the parts that readers tend to skip over." Here's an example of his efficient, practical characterization; young Shelby is introduced through the eyes of Mr. Hibma:

Shelby knew a lot about stand-up comedians. She had memorized the acts of Bill Hicks, Dom Irrera, Richard Belzer--nobody new, just stand-ups from years ago. She knew where these guys had gotten their starts and what jokes they were known for. She knew a lot about a lot of different things--literature, illnesses. Also, Mr. Hibma had noticed, Shelby seemed to want to be a Jew. She used words like meshugana and mensch and had brought matzo ball soup for ethnic food week and the days she missed school with a cold or stomachache were always Jewish holidays. Shelby lived with her father and maybe a sister in a little ranch house a stone's throw from the school. Her mother had died a couple years ago.

Do you see how that makes us instantly know and understand something about Shelby, as opposed to a paragraph describing her hair and eyes and gait, or whatever, and even about Mr. Hibma too, the way he observes his students. I copied and pasted that from an excerpt at Salon, since I don't have the book handy, but I also remember this great line, re: Mr. Hibma: "He wished his life were a terse novella."

Brandon focuses on the hearts and minds of his characters; he knows them; his empathy meter is off the charts. His sentences are mostly simple, but there is a sense of orchestration, of rhythm, of a writer in total control of his voice. He is capable of coming up with the perfect phrase, the one that makes you say yes in recognition of Brandon getting it exactly right. He's unafraid of going to the darkest places, but his story ends up in a place of hard-earned life-affirmation. The youth violence and morality-play vibe amid a landscape of unglamorous Americana reminded me of two favorite films, David Gordon Green's George Washington and its spiritual sequel, Jeff Nichols' Shotgun Stories. I'm just word-vomiting now but this is a great book that did to me what literature is supposed to do, with an ending (three endings, really -- one for each character) that provided the kind of soul-nourishing but unsentimental kick that I basically live for. Tough-minded, sad, funny and profoundly moving -- can I get a fuck yeah?(less)

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Aug 08, 2010 Hood rated it 5 of 5 stars

Bound: Low Rent and High Minds - SunPost Weekly July 8, 2010
http://bit.ly/8Y3htR
Dig the Dirty Realism of John Brandon
John Hood

Back 2008 a book came my way that had all the hallmarks of all the books I dig. It was violent, sure. But the violence was inevitable rather than gratuitous. It was also smart, subtle and sparingly written, in the manner of, say, James Crumley or early Richard Ford, though unlike the latter it stretched further than a short story. More importantly perhaps, it gave face to...more

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Jul 22, 2010 Matthew rated it 5 of 5 stars

After reading the review and excerpt of CC in the NYTimes this weekend, I ordered the book, got it last night via UPS, and finished it by morning. I never do that. Okay, I do, but it's exceedingly rare. The whole time I was thinking, yes, yes, yes, this is what a novel is supposed to do. I didn't want to skip paragraphs. I noticed zero things I would've wanted done differently, or better. I didn't think, jeez, that's strains believability. I was just along for the ride, thankful to hear someone...more

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Jul 09, 2012 Mari rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Lo zio Neal, come chiunque altro, credeva che Toby fosse un bulletto qualsiasi,un adolescente angosciato come come tanti altri. Non sospettava di cosa fosse capace.

Toby McNurse è un adolescente introverso e solitario. Vive in una casa fatiscente con lo zio Neal che sembra sempre reduce da un brusco risveglio, che parla continuamente di suicidio e che tira avanti pulendo cose che nessun altro osa pulire, dai vecchi motori incrostati ai mattatoi abbandonati.
Shelby Register è una ragazzina intelli...more Lo zio Neal, come chiunque altro, credeva che Toby fosse un bulletto qualsiasi,un adolescente angosciato come come tanti altri. Non sospettava di cosa fosse capace.

Toby McNurse è un adolescente introverso e solitario. Vive in una casa fatiscente con lo zio Neal che sembra sempre reduce da un brusco risveglio, che parla continuamente di suicidio e che tira avanti pulendo cose che nessun altro osa pulire, dai vecchi motori incrostati ai mattatoi abbandonati.
Shelby Register è una ragazzina intelligente e non si vergogna di esserlo. Ha perso la mamma e vive con il padre e la sorellina di quattro anni Kaley. Pensa spesso a Toby, anche se sa che tutti lo considerano un ragazzaccio, ma i ragazzi normali sono noiosi per lei, mentre Toby è sfuggente, lontano dagli schemi impartiti dalla società.
Quello che Shelby ignora è che Toby può essere anche molto pericoloso.
Il venerdì sera a casa Register è la serata dei giochi da tavola. Toby non sa di preciso perchè lo sta facendo, ma sa che deve farlo. Approfittando della distrazione di Shelby e suo padre, entra dal retro, sale al piano superiore, rapisce Kaley e la porta nel suo nascondiglio, un bunker nel bosco....
Tutto questo avviene a Citrus County, in Florida, lontano dai surfisti e dal sole però!
Toby continua la sua vita come sempre, collezionando le punizioni che il professor Hibma gli infligge. Shelby cerca di superare il vuoto lasciato da sua sorella aiutando il padre il più possibile e si attacca ancora di più a Toby...
La scuola assorbe gran parte del loro tempo. Il professor Hibma, un frustrato, insicuro e inutile ometto straparla in continuazione di cose inutili, sognando di uccidere una sua collega invece di preoccuparsi di trasmettere qualcosa di buono ai suoi ragazzi.
Una storia veramente amara, con personaggi incredibili, tristi, che vivono ai margini di tutto.
John Brandon è stata una piacevole scoperta, così come il suo libro, Dark Florida pubblicato in Italia da Giano Editore. Una scrittura fluida, semplice, ma vibrante di energia. Toby, Shelby e Hibma. Tre voci narranti. Tre personalità apparentemente diverse eppure legate le une alle altre. Brandon sembra volteggiare sopra le loro teste, seguire i loro movimenti ma senza cercare di analizzarne i comportamenti. Non vedremo mai Toby, ad esempio, scendere in quel bunker, se non alla fine...quel poco che conosceremo sul rapimento di Kaley lo sapremo dai pensieri del giovane sequestratore, e nonostante tutto non riusciremo ad odiarlo, perchè quello che emerge da questa storia non è tanto il male compiuto dal suo gesto ma la desolazione, la solitudine e l'isolamento in cui questi ragazzi vivono e la mancanza di adulti che possano guidarli e aiutarli a crescere.

Voto: 8/10(less)

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Mar 22, 2012 Bob Lopez rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Really wish we could do half stars. This one's 3.5.

Shelby's walk through the woods while she followed Toby is one of the tensest scenes I've read in a long time. The tension was fucking nuts...he's completely unaware she's there, she's completely unaware of what/whom she only moments away from finding, and it all unraveled so naturally, so organically.

Both Shelby and Toby have a somewhat-trite older-than-their-years characterization, which could be cool, but is entirely disingenuous here because...more

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Oct 20, 2011 Erica rated it 1 of 5 stars

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

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Sep 18, 2010 Lisa Cook rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Lisa by: Luis Correa

Shelves: beyond

Reading anything that hasn't been published 50 years ago or more is usually a big deal for me, and I have to say that I was impressed with Citrus County. The characters were fairly well-developed, and the writing though terse, was very poignant. My issues were with the plot. Parts of the story were too fantastical to be believed, and I feel like Brandon was oftentimes forcing too many issues rather than letting his novel develop organically. The novel's final resolution was also a bit of a let d...more

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Jul 03, 2011 Laura rated it 1 of 5 stars

I rarely give a book a one star rating because I rarely finish those books. This I was forced to finish in order to turn in an assignment on time. I found this book deeply disturbing. A lot like walking into Columbine in the head of the gunman. It just felt like a train wreck and the resolution was very unsatisfying.

Toby and Shelby are two teens whose lives seem to be revolving around a disaster course. Toby is a hardened delinquent who plans and commits a horrifying crime. Shelby is a teenage...more

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Sep 13, 2010 Miriam rated it 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars actually; I didn't quite like it, but I think it was better than ok. I think I might really have liked it - as a short story. As a novel though, even a relatively slim one, I couldn't find enough in the characters or plot developments to much care and it felt repetitive. The novel consists of usually short chapters alternating 3rd person perspectives between 3 characters: Shelby, Toby, and Mr. Hibma, and after a few cycles their rather angsty musings not only sounded too much like that...more

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Aug 18, 2010 Jamie Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars

It feels really stupid to put stars next to this one. Hmm, let me take a personal inventory: Close your eyes. Think about the book. Think of how it made you feel. Now translate that to stars? I don't feel stars. I feel like my insides have been chafed. I finished it last night after midnight. Had pretty good dreams. Woke up still raw on the inside the moment I thought about the book.

Also, the author, John Brandon clearly did EXACTLY what he wanted to do. Every paragraph, every sentence, every wo...more It feels really stupid to put stars next to this one. Hmm, let me take a personal inventory: Close your eyes. Think about the book. Think of how it made you feel. Now translate that to stars? I don't feel stars. I feel like my insides have been chafed. I finished it last night after midnight. Had pretty good dreams. Woke up still raw on the inside the moment I thought about the book.

Also, the author, John Brandon clearly did EXACTLY what he wanted to do. Every paragraph, every sentence, every word feels connected to the greater design. Which is not to say the book is complicated and has a big reveal at the end. It just sort of marches forward, like a 7th grader walking through the woods. Where is he walking? You can see up ahead where he's walking. You don't want to go into that swamp. But still you follow him. Once in a while, the ugly sights get to you and you catch yourself daydreaming as you're walking, and you're like, 'Dude, you are stuck in the deep woods. DO NOT DAYDREAM.' And you keep going.

At several points, I was like, 'How in the hell are you going to get out of this one, Mr. Brandon? The ending's going to be really messy, plot-wise.' And then the ending was there, and like the rest of the book it was simple and awful and believable, and I felt redemption and rejuvenation for characters that I thought were long, long, long gone. But it only felt temporary - like, it would all go away sooner or later, and down the road, in adulthood, the characters would find themselves in a big bag of snakes again.

So, 'Citrus County' deserves 5 stars, right? Well, now we're getting into the 'purpose of the novel' here, and I haven't even taken two sips of my coffee. I just have this ragged feeling in me that doesn't want to give anything five stars. At the moment, I don't want to give anything ANY stars. Jesus. So, here's four stars. Just please leave me alone.

More that influenced my reading of this book:

a) I grew up just south of where this book takes place, in Hillsborough County, FL, which has slightly less palmettos and rednecks, but not by much;

b) I went to 7th grade in a school not unlike the school where the main characters went to school in this book. The male 7th grader in this book, Toby, who does something awful: I could totally relate to him. He's completely fucked up, and it's simply not his fault. But he makes bad choices. Really bad choices. Should I be worried for myself, or should I applaud Mr. Brandon's writing? Shelby: Toby's 7th-grade girlfriend that has something awful done to her: I would have wanted to be her friend in 7th grade, and I'm not sure she would have even realized I was there, and not because she's so popular; because she's so smart. And Mr. Hibma: Just the name alone is perfectly drawn. Can't you just tell that he's a weirdo of a 7th-grade geography teacher, just by that name? I think I had Mr. Hibma somewhere back in that Florida 'education' I experienced;

c) I worked in television news in Tampa for a spell, and lemme tell you, when Mr. Brandon describes the news people, I cringed at what I had been a part of. But not because he uses them in the overplayed media tabloid way. They are a small, understated role: A dark fact on a page that won't go away.

And d) I have a 7th-grade daughter. I have to remember that 7th graders are much more complex than we give them credit for. This is frightening, and it is the basis for this book, buoyed by the theme of choosing your destiny or letting someone or someplace else determine it. Mr. Brandon captures this with, most of all, sensitivity and openness and forgiveness. Kids need our support, yo, even more than we realize.

Also want to say that there are a lot of 'Florida writers' out there, and as a native of the state, none of these writers, as talented as they are, at least the ones I glanced at, have captured any Florida that I ever experienced. Mr. Brandon, though, wrangled a Florida I knew and wanted to forget. In short, I don't want to visit his place again, but I will recommend the book to lots of people, including my daughter's Language Arts teacher from last year.
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Jun 24, 2011 Kimberly rated it 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars, really.

A strange, strange story surrounding the lives of three completely unlikeable characters. If it weren't for the beautiful writing that pulls you right into the wooded Florida town and its middle school (which tacked on the extra 1/2 star), I would not have made it past page 2. For starters, the synopsis is misleading, suggesting that there might be something supernatural or else so intriguing the description can be vague.

The man characters are Mr. Hibma, Toby, and Shelby, aka...more

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Jul 14, 2011 Talani rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club

People who are depressed do TERRIBLE things. They have no connection to reality and know nothing of the pain they are inflicting on others. It was hard for me to get into this book because the things the main character did were just so awful. Eventually I did exactly what the author wanted me to do, I stopped paying attention to the details/action and just became a passive reader; accepting what was going on so that I could spend a few more pages in the mind of two total whack jobs.

Telling you a...more

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Aug 23, 2011 Jonathan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: library, paperback-picks

Citrus County is a book set in a small town.

If Citrus County were a movie, it would be one of those indie flicks that makes runner-up at a film festival: long, introspective shots of people standing and thinking, processing; a soulful soundtrack by a guy with a sorrowful and gravelly voice; a cast of fundamentally flawed characters who experience tragedies and grow somehow, or don't.

This book is full of interesting people, but they're all almost the same under the covers. Every one of them is tr...more

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Feb 02, 2012 Joe rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, 2012

Honestly, I can't tell. Did I love this book because it was a universally chilling tale about the madness absorbed through a life of dull suburban routine, or because it was a specifically graphic and moving account of the unique weirdness of Central Florida? Either way, I couldn't put it down. The setting felt real because Brandon conveyed the manner in which the glossy boredom of Florida allows for the details of life in a teeming, diverse swamp to shine through and fascinate the mind. Beauty...more

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Jan 25, 2011 Andrew rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: small-town-suburban-malaise

There is that old adage: "Don't judge a book by it's cover." If one were to judge this book by its cover, they might think it is interesting. The book focuses on three different people, a middle school teacher and two of his students. The teacher parts were the best parts of the book, but they aren't amazing. The kids' parts were pretty bland. This is sort of strange because one of students kidnaps the other student's little sister and causes a media uproar. In many ways the story is interesting...more

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