Wayne Johnston (1) (1958–)

Percy was born with FSS (Famous Someone Syndrome), where his hands, feet, and lips are all oversized; he also has an extremely large wine-red/purple “stain” on his face. He lives in St. John’s, Nfld with his beautiful single mom and her boarder, who also teaches at Percy’s school. A frequent visitor to their house is his mom’s friend, Medina. He also realizes there will never be a girl/woman who will love him or have sex with him; he figures his only hope is his mother. The story follows Percy from about 5 years old to 15.

Ok, as distasteful as that is, the story itself wasn’t bad. Initially, it reminded me of John Irving. It was pretty slow, though. It did pick up for me as I continued on, so I temporarily thought I might rate is just a bit higher, until something at the end of the book brought my rating back down to “ok”. It was apparently set in the 1950s and 60s, but I don’t recall if that was explicitly stated in the book. There was some humour and plenty of criticism of the Catholic Church.… (plus d'informations)

I don't know what I just read and I don't know how I should feel about it. I don't even know if I really want to give three stars or if I want to give no stars at all. This story has me so confused. I feel embarrassed, ashamed, dirty, sad, angry. So do I give more stars since it made me feel so much? I just don't know. I hate this book. But sometimes I love this book. Most times I hate it.

I read this novel for a book club I belong to and the other night we all met online with the author. I hadn't finished reading the book at that point so I wasn't entirely sure how things were going to end up but I had a feeling it wasn't going to be good. I was going to comment on what a great job he, the author, did at creating such unlikeable characters but thankfully I didn't! I had no idea this novel is based on true events in his life! Now that I know, this story just seems even more terrible. The things that some people live through......I have no words.

I disliked every character except Wade. They all completely sickened me to the point where I got very angry. That evil son of a bitch Hans.....don't even get me started on him. Thinking back, I guess the characters were incredibly real to me since they elicited such a feeling of detest which is what the author was going for I suppose.

The poetry was maddening. I would read the poem in the chapter and then I couldn't get myself out of the rhythm. I had to keep reading and rereading just to make sense of it all. Did I mention that I hate poetry? This novel certainly was a journey!

I don't know if I should recommend this novel or not. It is not for the faint of heart. I guess you'll have to read it and see what you think. It is full of evil people and events and the poetry almost makes a mockery of it all. This is the hardest review I have written. I don't even know how to end this, so here it is.....I'm done. The end.

… (plus d'informations)