October 2013-Boy's Life--Roll Call/ Initial thoughts

[carol. , Senor Crabbypants]

Led by Mike (the Paladin!)

[Lucinda]

I'm looking forward to this book. I had read everything by Robert McCammon up to this book... but I don't remember why I stopped reading his books.

[Stuart]

Will probably read at some point

[carol. , Senor Crabbypants]

I ordered from the library. It looks interesting.

[Kimberly]

This is my first introduction to this book. I had not heard of it before. It looks interesting so I'm going to try to join time allowing.

[carol. , Senor Crabbypants]

I'm about three-fourths through. Hopefully later tonight, I'll post a section from the first few pages. It's quite lyrical. More in the line of mythic fiction. Has a feel like Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine.

[carol. , Senor Crabbypants]

From page 2:

"When people get weepy at movies, it's because in that dark theater the golden pool of magic is touched, just briefly. Then they come out into the hard sun of logic and reason again and it dries up, and they're left feeling a little heartsad and not knowing why. When a song stirs a memory, when motes of dust turning in a shaft of light takes your attention from the world, when you listen to a train passing on a track at night in the distance and wonder where it might be going, you step beyond who you are and where you are. For the briefest of instants, you have stepped into the magic realm."

[carol. , Senor Crabbypants]

Anyone reading? It is a very well written book, conducive to chapter reading more than a sit-down devour.

[Lucinda]

Carol. [Director of My Own Shelving] wrote: "Anyone reading? It is a very well written book, conducive to chapter reading more than a sit-down devour."

True! This is one that will take me another week to finish - just because it doesn't demand that I turn the page. I'm reading two other books that seem to make me want to finish the next chapter and so Boy's Life never gets my undivided attention...

[Mike (the Paladin)]

sorry guys...lost track of the days. You may all cast paper mache stones at me.

[Mike (the Paladin)]

I loved this book and it was one that my late wife and I both liked. That wasn't 'real common" as she was more of a straight horror fans. Beside that I found my brother liked it. He and I never agree on anything.

I think one reason I identified so closely with it from the first was that when I "grew up" (the late '50s and '60s) a bike was a kids primary transportation. I traveled all over 2 counties around our farm till I was 13. Then we moved to Dayton OH and I used it to travel all over there. I identified quite strongly with his/their feelings about bikes and dogs.

Enjoy.

[Andreas]

Most people have shelved this as "Horror". How heavy on the horror side is this?

[carol. , Senor Crabbypants]

Not at all, Andreas. There's a 'mystical' element that could potentially be a boy's active imagination. Any more might be spoilery, but I wouldn't call it that at all. In fact, I shelved under magical realism and literary fiction.

[Mike (the Paladin)]

It is to some extent horror....but there's far more to it than that. I hate to use cliched words like "magical" but in this case I think it really applies. The horrific element hangs over it all but doesn't overwhelm the story.

[Mike (the Paladin)]

I see we answered about the same time Carol. Agree with your take. The only book that comes to mind I might say has the same type feel is Something Wicked This Way Comes.

[carol. , Senor Crabbypants]

That's exactly the sense I had, Mike!

[Lucinda]

Andreas wrote: "Most people have shelved this as "Horror". How heavy on the horror side is this?"

The author wrote many "horror" books and was, for a long time, known as "the poor man's Stephen King" - I think that is why this gets put on the "Horror" shelf.

So far, this book reminds me very much of King's "The Body" novella (made into the film "Stand By Me").

[Mike (the Paladin)]

There's more of a supernatural story line here though. There's also a good deal of the "magic of youth" motif I guess that's where you're going with the comparison?

[Lucinda]

Mike (the Paladin) wrote: "There's more of a supernatural story line here though. There's also a good deal of the "magic of youth" motif I guess that's where you're going with the comparison?"

Yes...both evoke the "halcyon days" of youth and, for lack of a better comparison, remind me of sepia tinted photographs- Warm color, just not "living" color.

[Mike (the Paladin)]

If you haven't read it you might try Something Wicked This Way Comes.

[Lucinda]

Mike (the Paladin) wrote: "If you haven't read it you might try Something Wicked This Way Comes."

Yes, I love Bradbury. The October Country and From the Dust Returned are my favorites.

[Mike (the Paladin)]

Just wondered if anyone would like to go into what they like and don't like here. I identified quite strongly with the young protagonist. Anyone else?

What did you think of the parental relationship? How did all that effect the overall story? Were other relationships catalysts or side issues?

Just throwing out some thoughts.

[Andreas]

Thank you for your answers and the comparison to the Bradbury novel; I don't know the latter one - from the description it sounds a little bit like It.

I asked, because I don't like horror at all. I don't have problems with horrific atmosphere, just with horror actions - e.g. the drowning scene in The Ocean at the End of the Lane nearly let me lem the book.

[Mike (the Paladin)]

This book is definitely atmospheric and has clear horror elements but it revolves around the young protagonist and his relationships.

[Lucinda]

Mike (the Paladin) wrote: "Just wondered if anyone would like to go into what they like and don't like here. "

So far, the biggest complaint I have is that it has no plot. It is a Novel-by-way-of-vignettes. And that is not a necessarily a bad thing- but it makes me think that McCammon is trying to make each scene earnest instead of honest.

For example: The post monster movie sleep-over very early in the book. The sequence of the episode: boys see a monster movie that upsets them because the evil martians "change" people. Moms get concerned and decide to let boys have a sleep over. They watch a meteor fall and the boys think its martians. Ben's dad goes out with friends to find the meteor and Ben tries to stop him, making a scene about his father coming back "changed". His father goes out anyway and comes back "changed" by alcohol.

This whole episode is just so the author can write the following paragraph:

There are things much worse than monster movies. There are horrors that burst the bounds of screen and page, and come home all twisted up and grinning behind the face of somebody you love. At that moment I knew Ben would have gladly looked into that glass bowl at the tentacled Martian head rather than into his father's drunk-red eyes.

It is Earnest. But it is not Honest. Why would I think that? Because, instead of it being an honest narrative of an event and letting the reader form the obvious conclusion from what happens, McCammon has to beat the reader over the head with it a couple of times on subsequent pages:

He (Ben) must have known this was going to happen, I realized. Ben had known when his father went with Donny Blaylock, he would come home changed not by Martians but by th home brew in that flask"

This was not Mr. Sears talking, not really; this was the voice of what the flask flayed raw and bloody inside his soul...

Ben had known...long after midnight, the invader who wore his father's flesh would be in the house."

It is almost as if McCammon purposefully set out to write a book that could be easily dissected by a high-school lit class. I'm at the halfway point and I really have to force myself to read on because the prose is so very heavy-handed.

[Mike (the Paladin)]

Well, each novel will hit each reader in a different way...so that's how you experience it. The book begins with the father's "experience". This begins the process of realization that goes on throughout the book and each of the experiences with his friends (Johnny, Davy Ray, Ben, etc.) add to this. (view spoiler)[ Evil in the town, under the surface and the development it all entails (hide spoiler)] come together to make an overall narrative plot.

[carol. , Senor Crabbypants]

Hmm, interesting points. You know, I could see it, that some stories were just so he could make a particular point or phrase. I would also interpret the earnestness as self-consciousness, and you are right, it does seem like he is trying very hard to write a Novel. That said, I did enjoy it far more than many of my reads, but I think reading in very small doses help.

[Helen]

I've been reading this over the week but read the last 40% today. I can't class it as either fantasy or horror, it has an element of each but not enough to warrant the label. I enjoyed it and have even attempted a book review beyond stars, not on GR.

[Erin *Proud Book Hoarder*]

I thought it was horror pre-reading it, but after reading it find it more of a drama. Great book.

[carol. , Senor Crabbypants]

Agree, Erin.

[Practical Mike]

It's been a while since I read this book. Close to six or seven years ago, and it was the first McCammon book I read. I wouldn't put this story under horror at all. Drama with a mystery to revolve around. This book just hit me right on all levels... and I'm not much of a drama guy. Give me Harry Dresden or something by Larry Correia and I'm a happy camper.

Even when Boy's Life got "weird" and I wasn't sure if I was following what was happening (view spoiler)[like when he's floating through the sky on his bike (hide spoiler)]... I think I'm remembering that part right... but even when it was weird, it was still connecting with my mind's eye. I still remember parts of it vividly after hundreds of other books read.

Not only that, but it had me crying like a baby at the end. That simply does not happen with me and books. The ability to evoke real emotion as a writer is a wonderful talent. McCammon had that in this book. My wife loved this book too... and that's another thing that doesn't happen very often... her liking a book that I like.

Coincidentally... I (view spoiler)[ am from Fort Wayne, Indiana originally (hide spoiler)] which figures pivotally in the story... It's just a nice coincidence and really didn't affect me one way or the other while reading it. If anything it kicked me out of the narrative at the time.

Great Book.

[Mike (the Paladin)]

This was one both my wife and I liked, my brother and I both liked it (we never agree). McCammon's work is always a mixed bag for me. I like some a lot and some not at all. This is one of my favorite books.

[Practical Mike]

Yeah... I've read a few other McCammon books and this one stands out as his "Aegis Fang" to me.

For those unfamiliar with the reference: http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki...

It was said that every dwarf smithy had one magical creation in them, that once they created it, that they could never achieve that level of magnificence again...

I am literally afraid to read this book again lest I not like it as well as I did the first time.