Skip to main content

DYING TO KNOW YOU by Aidan Chambers


copyright date: April 2012
primarily marketed for: young adults (14 and up)

Dying to Know You by Aidan Chambers was a book I couldn’t wait to read because of what I’d read about it.  Negative reviews said things about it being narrated by the voice of an older man, an eccentric author.  They said teens wouldn’t be able to relate to his voice.  I was sure that wouldn’t be true.  Positive reviews said things about what a powerful story the book told. 

Having read the book, I have determined that it is definitely not the kind of story everyone would enjoy.  It is a very philosophical story.  If you are not an intellectual sort of reader, this would not be the book for you.  However, if you are the kind of person who wonders about his place in the world, about why people act the way they do, about his purpose in life, then the is most definitely the book for you.  You will be as charmed by Karl as I was. 

Karl’s story is largely told through the voice of an author who his girlfriend admires.  Karl seeks out the author in an effort to convince the author to help him write his thoughts and feelings in a manner that would impress his girlfriend, who has no idea about his dyslexia. 

The eccentric, aged author narrating the story does not move the focus from Karl’s story to his own story, but rather provides a wisdom in looking at Karl’s situation that we wouldn’t get as readers if the story were told in Karl’s voice, from his point of view.

As the author helps Karl find ways to express his thoughts and feelings for his girlfriend, he ultimately helps Karl deal with loss and find his purpose in life. 

This is not a light read by any means, but it is the kind of story that will stick to your ribs and fill you up. 

Reading Threads:
Notes from the Dog by Gary Paulsen
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Although this is not a reading thread, I have to mention that this book reminds of the movie Finding Forrester (one of my favorites)
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ONE FOR THE MURPHYS by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

copyright date: May 2012 primarily marketed for: intermediate readers (5 th grade and up) I sort of expected One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt to be one of those overly sappy books with unrealistic, sickeningly sweet characters.  However, although the storyline might make it sound sappy, the characters are realistic and dynamic.  After a traumatic incident that lands both she and her mother in the hospital, Carley Connors is taken away and placed in foster care with the Murphy family.  The only life Carley has known is one of put-downs, food scraps, and shopping for clothes in Salvation Army drop boxes.  Until she meets the Murphys.  The Murphys are too good to be true: Julia, the mom, happily makes home-cooked meals for her three boys and firefighting, sports-loving husband.  In fact, Julia isn’t even rattled by Carley’s rough around the edges attitude.  At first, Carley despises the Murphys and the way they make he...
4 comments
Read more

ALL THESE THINGS I’VE DONE by Gabrielle Zevin

copyright date: September 2011 primarily marketed for: young adults (8 th grade and up) I wish I would’ve known this was the beginning of a series before I started this book.   Then again, I might never have picked it up if I thought I might be committing to multiple books… At any rate, this is not a story I will be sad to return to this fall when the sequel is released.   Anya’s story takes place in New York City, in the future.   Around the time you will be old enough to be grandparents. This is a sort of post-apocalyptic, dystopian kind of book in a mild way.   Basically, the United States has self-destructed, and yet life seems to go surprisingly similar to the way we live nowadays.   Except that water and paper are costly and hard to come by.   Chocolate is prohibited.   Caffeine is an illegal drug.   Which is all to say that the setting alone is intriguing. Add to that setting, the fact that Anya is the oldest daughter of the ...
3 comments
Read more

THE BIG CRUNCH by Pete Hautman

copyright date: January 2011 primarily marketed for: young adult (8 th grade and up) The Big Crunch by Pete Hautman is a book of rare quality.   It is one of the very elite books that could give any John Green book a run for its money.   That is high praise.   This story of Wes and June opens, “The first time Wes saw June, he thought she was kind of funny-looking.”   Aren’t you charmed already?   The Big Crunch is a love story with universal appeal.   It is one of the few books I would call a romance for guys.   And he gets inside the head and heart of both Wes and June in equal doses.   Although I still sense that Wes is the protagonist here—it is more his story than it is June’s.   I am confident Hautman got Wes’s character right because he certainly wrote June accurately as a female teen in love.   I continuously found myself wondering how Pete Hautman could possibly know exactly what went on in my mind when I was her ag...
1 comment
Read more