The Spectacular Now

By: Tim Tharp

Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews

"So, my beautiful fat girlfriend, Cassidy, is threatening to kick me to the curb again, my best friend suddenly wants to put the brakes on our lives of fabulous fun, my mom and big sister are plotting a future in which I turn into an atomic vampire, and my dad, well, my dad is a big fat question mark that I'm not sure I want the answer to.

"Some people would let a senior year like this get them down. Not me. I'm Sutter Keely, master of the party. I'm your man when it comes to cranking the wild times. But don't mistake a midnight philosopher like me for nothing more than a shallow party boy.

"Just ask Aimee, the new girl in my life. She saw the depth of the Sutterman from that first moment when she found me passed out on the front lawn. Okay, so she's a social disaster; but that's where I come in. Isn't it my duty to show her a splendiferous time, and then let her go forth and prosper?

Y"es, life is weird, but I embrace the weird. Let everyone else go marching off into their great shining futures if they want. Me, I've always been more than content to tip my whiskey bottle and take a ride straight into the heart of the spectacular now."

©2008 Tim Tharp (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Lulled into believing he is happy in spite of his father's abandonment and his mother's emotional neglect, Sutter is an authentic character, and his unsteady sense of himself, as well as his relationships with his friends, will strike a chord with teen readers." ( Booklist)

Sutter is deep, shallow, and charming at the same.

Sutter is a high school senior who is wise beyond his years. He is heroic in many ways, but tragic in even more ways. His compulsion to pursue a good buzz and a good time prevents him from making the deep and lasting relationships that he yearns for. He knows that to love and be loved is what's really important in life but that would require him to have a sense of the future. The present is the only thing that has any real meaning for Sutter and he fears that he will never be worthy of the love he desperately seeks.

Great story and voice.

This had a great voice along with the story. High recommend this story to all.

Spectacular!

This book was fantastic. The voice of the main character is so authentic, so strong, that I felt like I was right along with him for this whole crazy, and at times emotional ride. I didn’t know whether I wanted to be his best friend, hug him, or shake him. But I know I didn’t want to stop listening to his story. The narration was also outstanding—absolutely perfect for this character and the others in the book. Highly recommend.

Story not the most uplifting

MacLeod Andrews performs this novel quite well. My only issue is that I just could not get into the main character. Sutter Keely is a fun loving, crazy, self-centered, emotionally wounded, drunk--and all of that at age eighteen. This kid is in need of serious intervention. While the concept of the anti-hero became popular after "The Catcher in the Rye," this protagonist lacks depth. His characterization does not change throughout the book. Instead, the writing repeats strung together descriptions such that they become clique at the end of the novel.

In the end, Sutter does not change. The message is that some people will never get it. Not sure that is what Tim Tharp intended, but the effect of this story is tragic on the minds of young readers.

A big let down at the end.

very interesting take on addiction.

it was great, Sutter is the guy everyone wants to be , except this story shows you what the cost of being the life of the party costs. I will recommend it to everyone.