Skip to main content

BOY 21 by Matthew Quick


copyright date: March 2012
primarily marketed for: young adults

“Someday an opportunity will come.  Think about Harry Potter.  His life is terrible, but then a letter arrives, he gets on a train, and everything is different for him afterward.  Better.  Magical.”
            “That’s just a story.”
            “So are we—we’re stories too,” Russ says.

-from Boy 21 by Matthew Quick


Boy 21 by Matthew Quick was a book that surprised me with its depth.  On the surface it is the story of a basketball player who is challenged when a talented new player, who is used to wearing the same number as him, moves to his school.  However, there are many layers woven into that seemingly simple story. 

Basketball means everything to Finley.  The only thing that comes close to meaning as much to him is his girlfriend Erin.  When Finley’s coach asks him for a favor and requests he keep it a secret, life starts to get complicated.  There isn’t anything he wouldn’t do for coach.  Or is there? 

It is clear from the beginning that Finley’s habit of not talking much means there is something he wants to avoid talking and thinking about.  Coach asks him to befriend a new student who is a talented basketball player.  The thing is, since being traumatized by his parents’ death, the new kid doesn’t play basketball, doesn’t talk about anything other than being sent on a mission from outer space, and insists on being referred to as Boy 21 instead of his actual name. 

As Finley’s relationship with Boy 21 takes shape, his life becomes more and more complicated.  The neighborhood in which he lives is run by gangsters and the Irish mob.  He has to make tough choices to protect his girlfriend, his new friend, his family, and ultimately himself.   

This is a book of substance with a plot containing some action, a focus on basketball, and a story of maintaining relationships under extraordinary circumstances.  It is the kind of story that stays with you long after you close the book.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green

You knew it was coming.  How could I not share?  EVERYONE MUST READ JOHN GREEN’S LATEST WORK OF ART: THE FAULT IN OUR STARS .  Throughout my life (well, at least from 4 th grade, when I was introduced to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl until now, the 7 th month of my 34 th year of noticing the universe) the name ‘Augustus’ immediately evoked an image of a chubby, stubborn, chocolate-loving boy, doted upon by his mother, with the last name of Gloop.  The name ‘Augustus’ made me giggle about this character’s gluttonous follies inside the chocolate factory. Until reading John Green’s beloved new book The Fault in Our Stars . From now on, the name ‘Augustus’ will forever evoke an entirely different image and an entirely different set of emotions.  A casually hot, lean, limping ‘Augustus Waters’ has forever replaced the ‘Augustus’ of the book I treasured as a child—an unlit cigarette held loosely between his lips.  A longing sigh ...
9 comments
Read more

A MONSTER CALLS by Patrick Ness (inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd and illustrated by Jim Kay)

“Every time the monster moved, Conor could hear the creak of wood groaning and yawning in the monster’s huge body.” In her review for the New York Times , Jessica Bruder refers to A Monster Calls as, “A story that lodges in your bones and stays there.”  This, I believe, is an understatement.  I am afraid my words, mere pixels on the screen, cannot begin to honor how truly special this book is. From his words in the Author’s Note, Patrick Ness held me spellbound.  Siobhan Dowd had developed an idea for a book about a monster and a boy whose mom had cancer.  Breast cancer cut her life short and she was unable to finish her story.  Patrick Ness, when asked to craft something from the seed of a story Dowd left behind said, “…the thing about ideas is that they grow other ideas.”  And so, A Monster Calls was born out of Dowd’s seed and Ness’s nurturing. I suppose a book with that kind of conception was bound to be incredible, but I am sure not even ...
7 comments
Read more

EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE by Jonathan Safran Foer

copyright date: 2005 primarily marketed for: adults Extremely Loud andIncredibly Close is the grown-up book that made me fall in love with grown-up books again.   Or, at least made me open to reading them after years of sticking solely to young adult literature (aka Good Literature).    This book arrived on my doorstep as a surprise gift from a friend I’ve known since second grade, which made it that much sweeter.    I can’t decide whether to be excited or disappointed that this book is being turned into a movie now.   Everyone needs to know this story- it is incredible!   I just can’t imagine the movie possibly doing the depth and layers and format of the story justice.   One of my favorite qualities of the book is the way pages of images are smattered throughout the story. The images are jarring the way that they interrupt the story, and yet they are perfect in the way that they enhance the story—deepen my thinking as a reader. ...
6 comments
Read more