Common Sense Note
The language is inventive and funny, with a wide-ranging vocabulary. Though the book presents Steve's pot-smoking as self-destructive, it also portrays his heavy underage drinking as a high school norm. The writing-assignment structure isn't very original, but the antics of the G.O.D. group and the treatment of timeless adolescent issues give this its freshness and power. But even for young teens this has some pretty raw scenes.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Cindy Kane
A little bit The Breakfast Club, a little bit Animal House, this funny how-I-survived-high-school novel reveals tender truths between hilarious one-liners. On the surface, nothing that happens in Steve York's life is terribly credible, starting with the fact that his father was "the third or fourth man to walk on the moon." Supposedly a group of artistic, hip nonconformists, Steve's high school club, G.O.D., includes everyone from the requisite jock to the editor of the school paper, the lead in the school play, and the best-looking boy in school.
And yet the central relationships in Steve's life--with Doug, the founder of G.O.D.; with Dub, his first love, who relieves him of his virginity and breaks his heart; and with his father, "the astronaut" -- all change in entirely believable ways. Friendships do mature; first love isn't always (or even often) forever; and parents don't fit into tidy pigeonholes. Whether Steve is at his most annoyingly self-pitying, as in the opening chapters, or at his funniest, as in the description of G.O.D.'s homecoming float, the story is always moving toward these truths. And however over the top the plot may seem, Thomas's original language makes it seem real. As a twelve-year-old (who grabbed and read the book before her mother could preview it) said, "Steve spares no details. He tells us every conversation in his life, and you feel like you're living it."
From the Book:
By order of the principal, I was shuffled off to DeMouy, a UC Berkeley product reputed to be an earth goddess-worshipping, bee pollen-eating, swimming-with-the-dolphins New Age flake. I braced for descent into a touchy-feely hell presided over by a lisping sage who would suggest I give myself a big hug.
Plot Summary:
Given an assignment to write a 100-page paper in order to graduate, eighteen-year-old Steve York retells his high school career -- from delirious fun with a group of happy misfits to a decline into bitterness and alienation, and a hopeful recovery.
In Houston, straight-A high school student Steve York's biggest problems were getting along with his famous astronaut father and asking out the girl of his dreams -- a fellow member of a group of intellectual nonconformists called the Grace Order of Dadaists (G.O.D.). In San Diego, where he has fled to live with his remarried mother after a disastrous junior year, Steve is a certified "stoner," an alienated pot-smoker and class-cutter. .
How did Steve get from there to here? Alternating between past and present, Steve narrates his high school history in the form of a writing assignment for Jeff DeMouy, a sympathetic guidance counselor willing to give Steve another chance to earn the English credit he needs in order to graduate. There unfolds a story about how high school relationships can shift and change -- sometimes irreparably, sometimes for the better.
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Sexual ContentOne graphic scene of heavy petting and one extremely explicit sex scene. |
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LanguageFrequent and extreme. |
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Social BehaviorTeenage sex, parental infidelity, a teenager's affair with a teacher |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoSteve and his friends do a lot of recreational underage drinking; later, he is a heavy pot smoker. |
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