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Looper: A Coming of Age Novel
Life Sucks. Big time. Fourteen-year-old Ford Quinn has read The Outsiders, Robert Frost poems, and knows the song lyrics to every single Springsteen song. As he heads into high school, star-gazing poet Ford has fallen hard for an Egyptian princess and become a caddy at an exclusive country club. With an amazing summer ahead of him, what could go wrong?
Everything.
His family can't afford life in the affluent Detroit neighborhood of Kensington Hills, and his dad's get-rich-schemes are getting as old as his mother's fervent self-improvement pop psychology. To top things off, his chances of gaining entry into the popular Lund Gang appears as far away as the stars he sees through the telescope in his bedroom.
Will Ford's quest to earn a caddy scholarship change the soundtrack of his life? Or will his encounters with cruel foils shatter his dreams and ruin his summer of firsts? This quirky, nostalgic coming-of-age novel will take you back to the time of Space Invaders, Rubik's Cube, mixed tapes, and Iranian hostages and immerse in the wonders of growing up in the summer of '80.
Everything.
His family can't afford life in the affluent Detroit neighborhood of Kensington Hills, and his dad's get-rich-schemes are getting as old as his mother's fervent self-improvement pop psychology. To top things off, his chances of gaining entry into the popular Lund Gang appears as far away as the stars he sees through the telescope in his bedroom.
Will Ford's quest to earn a caddy scholarship change the soundtrack of his life? Or will his encounters with cruel foils shatter his dreams and ruin his summer of firsts? This quirky, nostalgic coming-of-age novel will take you back to the time of Space Invaders, Rubik's Cube, mixed tapes, and Iranian hostages and immerse in the wonders of growing up in the summer of '80.
424 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 18, 2018
17 people are currently reading
25 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 5, 2019
LOOPER: A COMING OF AGE NOVEL by Michael Conlon takes place in a suburb of Detroit in the summer of 1980. Ford Quinn is about to start high school and takes a job caddying at an exclusive PGA country club in the hopes of winning a college scholarship or being discovered by a movie producer. In fact “looper” refers to a caddy and his number of assignments around the golf course. While Ford is caddying, his father’s get-rich-quick schemes are driving the family further into poverty. There is a predicted similarity with this novel and other works in the humorous coming of age genre (think of the current Goldbergs TV show meets the movie Caddyshack). The characters and era are well-drawn and heartfelt. Conlon is talented at explaining a tension-ridden game of golf, which could mean professional life or death for the main character, to readers who know nothing about the sport. Those readers who came of age around the same time as Ford Quinn may feel the strange urge to hold lighters up high in the sky as if they were again attending a Jethro Tull concert.
June 5, 2019
Looper is a great book that's fun to read and hard to put down. It takes place in the early 1980s and anyone old enough to remember that time will find themselves taking quite the trip down memory lane. It's packed with references to those years, and I even found myself looking up some of the things that I have forgotten. They certainly added an extra layer of fun to the read, but the downside is that anyone too young might not understand them.
The characters are all great, the story is well written, and we all probably have had experiences very similar to those of the protagonist.
I enjoyed it!
The characters are all great, the story is well written, and we all probably have had experiences very similar to those of the protagonist.
I enjoyed it!
June 16, 2019
If you're an 80s child, you'll love the trip down memory lane. Ford Quinn is the teenage protagonist who is trying to navigate the summer between 8th grade at Holy Redeemer Catholic School to 9th grade in the public high school. He wants to make some changes this summer and get into the "cool" kid pack. He meets a girl, and gets a job at the local golf course, hoping to earn a college scholarship. Of course things don't quite go as planned, and Ford learns that sometimes, the things you don't plan turn out better than you could have imagined.
June 28, 2019
This is a charming coming-of-age story, packed with nostalgia. Nostalgia not only for the 80's but for those universal feelings experienced by every teenager. A fun and bittersweet read, it's enjoyable for adults and I think would also be enjoyed by readers close to the age of the protagonist. The backdrop of the game of golf and how it plays an essential role in the story is unique and offers a fresh twist to a story filled with classic themes. You'll find yourself getting wrapped up not only in the details of the game, but just how it effects Ford and propels the story.
May 31, 2019
This was such an enjoyable read. Coming of age novels are always my favorite, but it's refreshing to read one that's as fun and lighthearted as this one. It's goofy and honest, with all the important nuggets of poignancy and compassion that every coming of age story should have. Conlon has a great way of connecting with the characters and making them seem real and genuine. I'm looking forward to reading more from him.
June 9, 2019
The tale of Ford Quinn and the summer before he starts high school will make you relive every cringe-worthy feeling you ever had as a teenager growing up: the angst of unrequited love, raging hormones, a desperation to fit in, family drama, being grounded... and I absolutely loved it. Set against a banging backdrop of classic tracks, Michael Conlon's wonderful descriptions bring every moment to life. Excruciating to live through for real, it was a nostalgic treat to revisit a few decades later. A lovely, warm story that made me pine for mix tapes.
July 3, 2019
Profanity!!!
I thought I'd scored a good read but like so many wanna be authors the profanity started on page 143. End of story for me.
I thought I'd scored a good read but like so many wanna be authors the profanity started on page 143. End of story for me.
October 28, 2019
Wow!
I love the story. Full of great characters. The whole book is totally fun to read. The ending was great.
I love the story. Full of great characters. The whole book is totally fun to read. The ending was great.
July 21, 2019
“Looper” is not quite what I was expecting, but rather a pretty laid-back, inoffensive affair, telling the tale of a teenager who spends his 1980 summer break caddying on a pro golf course. Although the tagline suggests this is a “coming of age” tale, I think perhaps the main character Ford is a couple of years too young to be described as that. There are none of the usual puerile high-jinks which often accompany such a genre, and to be honest that is refreshing; Ford and his friends seem generally quite good kids, and with the exception of one incredibly harsh lesson for Ford, late in the book, it makes a pleasant change to see a light-hearted tale about American teenagers, without being subjected to their usual slapstick pursuit of girls and hedonistic boozing. Ford and his group seem far more interested in golf and their academic future, than any of that stuff; “Caddyshack” this certainly isn’t, and I liked that about it.
Focusing on the nostalgia, the author Michael Conlon definitely knows this era well, and the book reads as much a love letter to the music of the time and chilled out middle-class lifestyle of this group of friends, as any other aspect. It is not a comedy as such, though humorous at times, nor is it particularly a sports book, even though golf features extremely heavily, and Conlon definitely knows a thing or two about the pro game. I think, in all, if I were to define “Looper” it would be a romantic tribute to another life in middle America – think “Happy Days” on a golf course, without the canned laughter and featuring a wonderful soundtrack.
Conlon is a good author, and the book is very professionally created and well written. Although not particularly dramatic in any way, and not easy to categorize, I enjoyed this book, perhaps because of its calm ambiguity. I will be honest and say that, for a book with such a relatively low-key action storyline, I did find the word count a touch long, and perhaps would have enjoyed it a great deal more were I a keen golfer. That said, I like Conlon’s writing style, and it is difficult to find anything not to like about “Looper”.
Focusing on the nostalgia, the author Michael Conlon definitely knows this era well, and the book reads as much a love letter to the music of the time and chilled out middle-class lifestyle of this group of friends, as any other aspect. It is not a comedy as such, though humorous at times, nor is it particularly a sports book, even though golf features extremely heavily, and Conlon definitely knows a thing or two about the pro game. I think, in all, if I were to define “Looper” it would be a romantic tribute to another life in middle America – think “Happy Days” on a golf course, without the canned laughter and featuring a wonderful soundtrack.
Conlon is a good author, and the book is very professionally created and well written. Although not particularly dramatic in any way, and not easy to categorize, I enjoyed this book, perhaps because of its calm ambiguity. I will be honest and say that, for a book with such a relatively low-key action storyline, I did find the word count a touch long, and perhaps would have enjoyed it a great deal more were I a keen golfer. That said, I like Conlon’s writing style, and it is difficult to find anything not to like about “Looper”.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews