Fiction & Literature

This is a wonderful book, full of knights, chivalry and magic. What I didn't expect is how funny it is. It made me giggle several times.

I'm not satisfied to be a passive listener. I want to get everything I can from any book I read. So I did a little research into the life of T.H. White. He was an English scholar and writer. He left Britain for Ireland during World War 2. He strongly objected to the war and didn't want to be involved in it. So, where other reviewers see wordiness, I see a window into the writer's mind. The first 4 books are wonderfully detailed and captivating. The fifth requires a little more patience and thought. It's as if White set up characters to have a dialog that he was having with himself. Why do men kill each other? How can we stop it? Should we, or can we, stop it?

Give it a chance. You'll love it.

The format of this book is pretty original. The main character, Charlie, is writing very personal letters to someone he doesn't know. It starts out during the summer break between grade school and high school, and is set in the early 1990's. He tells the person he's writing to that he's writing to them because he knows they are the kind of person who wouldn't sleep with someone at a party just because they could, and because he knows somehow that they will understand him and not judge. He tells the unknown person the details of his life, starting with a story about his closest friend committing suicide. He talks about starting high school and how he is ok with not having any friends, even though he would like to have some. He also talks about his English teacher taking a special interest in him and giving him extra assignments that the other kids don't have. This leads him into talking about his analysis of the books he reads. I love that part of this book. Then he randomly meets 2 people that change his life. This could be just like some cheesy 80's high school movie, but it's not. Sure there is the normal 'boy pines for girl that is waaay out of his league', but there's more, and you might not even realize it until the end. First, there's a bit of mystery about why Charlie is the way he is, but because we can only see things from his point of view it's hard to get a handle on exactly what it is. Then there is the depth of the character. He is complicated, yet easy to understand. We can all relate to the crazy stuff we all did in high school, and how it felt to be in the in-between phase of life. We can also understand the desire to be liked and have friends, while still trying to figure out who we are. But what makes this all together different from any teen book or movie is the end. It is not all wrapped up for you. That is to say, the boy doesn't get the girl and they don't live happily ever after. Or do they? You'll just have to figure that out for yourself.