Tuned Out

by Maia Wojciechowska

A teenaged boy's life is turned upside down when his older brother returns from college with a drug problem.

Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, Drugs, Childrens

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Maia Wojciechowska was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1927, and later lived in France and England. Eventually, her family moved to the United States.

A writer of books for young readers, in 1964 Maia Wojciechowska wrote the book "Shadow of a Bull", which was named the Newbery Medal winner in 1965.

In 2002 she died of a stroke in Long Beach, New Jersey. She was seventy-four years old.

Reviews

[Majenta · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Hell's just a barbeque pit," I laughed. "And all those big shots are nothing but a bunch of phonies dressed in Halloween costume rejects." (p.40)

This breaks me up. I mean you feed her information and she responds like an IBM machine. She would never be shocked by anything because she really didn't exist in this day and age. She is a passenger on the Mayflower and it is still at sea. (p.83)

Old St. Mark's looked really stupid. Some of those crummy old houses were being remodeled, and where there used to be all those Polish and Jewish stores they now had these phony boutiques. (p.84)

The thing that got me about him was that he probably had no one to run to. Or maybe he did. Maybe he had God. But that's not enough if you're living among people. (p.81)

Jim can't wait for his older brother Kevin to come home from college for the summer. After all, he never came home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter, and he's hardly ever written, although Jim has been writing him all the time (paper-and-envelope letters--this is the mid-1960s). Despite the 3-year age difference, the brothers have always been close; in fact, Kevin has been Jim's hero.

But when Kevin finally does come home, Jim can't believe how much he's changed, or the cause of it all. Desperate to understand, he agrees to Jim's shocking request. And since the book is written in diary form, you'll be right there with Jim on his very own frontline.

Thanks for reading.

[Hiba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this one, it's one of those books that you stumble upon, books you didn't know of before but that you end up loving.

I started it without having any expectations because I never heard of the book, never heard of the writer, and I enjoyed every bit of it.

The story is about Jim whose idol is his older brother Kevin, he waits for him to come back home from college and plans so many good and fun things to do with him. Alas, Kevin is no longer the one who left home two semesters ago, he has changed, for the worse and Jim doesn't seem to be able to deal with the new Kevin and tries to save him.

It's funny how I connected with Kevin, who was expected to be everything everyone else expected him to be except for himself. And that pretty much screwed him up.
Fortunately, he comes out of that pit he was driven into with the help of others.

[Rachel Brown · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cover copy: In Jim’s revealing journal, which is the substance of this moving book, we share the experience of that terrible summer – the LSD and marijuana, the hippies, the disillusionment, the helpless confusion and fear. It is all recorded frankly, to the final horror of Kevin’s freaking out and the shaky beginnings of his redemption.



The freaking out silhouette is even more detailed and hilarious in real life.

Written in 1968 by a very square author determined to plumb the horrifying depths of drugs she clearly never tried herself, this novel is regrettably only intermittently amusing: one part Reefer Madness to three parts unconvincing teen angst.

Sixteen-year-old Jim idolizes his nineteen-year-old brother Kevin to a rather disturbing degree. This is how the novel opens:

One day I ought to find out how it is with other kids. I don’t think I’m abnormal or anything for sixteen, but I don’t think that there are many guys my age who are still crazy about their older brothers. They might actually love them, but I just don’t think they are crazy about them. […] It’s not that I’m ashamed of it or anything like that, but how do you explain that Kevin is not just a brother to me? Besides being the greatest guy I know, he’s someone I’ve got to have. I mean it’s very important to me to have him.

Fandom! Stop making me go to the bad incest place!

Jim goes on and on and ON about Kevin for the entire rest of the chapter. He offers to be Kevin’s “Boswell” and follows him around writing down everything Kevin says to preserve it for posterity.

He is important.For one thing he never says ordinary, cruddy things. When he speaks he almost always says something really brilliant.

[…]

I really want his opinions on these things so they can become my opinions too.

Then, at the end of an entire chapter of that: I’ve been re-reading these last couple of pages, and I do sound sort of creepy.

Yes. Yes, you do. I’m going to go out on a limb and surmise that the author wrote this entire thing as a first draft and never re-wrote, but rather added in stuff like that as she went along.

Kevin comes home from college, and he’s become a marijuana fiend! He giggles maniacally, flaps his hands, hallucinates evil circles, and demands that Jim smoke pot (“You know. Tea. Grass. Marijuana.”) with him. Jim does so, despite his a Public Service Announcement’s worth of reservations. What follows is certainly the most unique pot high I’ve ever come across in fiction. While Kevin freaks out over the circles, Jim experiences ecstasy, hilarity, and then is visited by a devil who is out to get Kevin’s soul and an angel who urges Jim to save him. The angel-devil-Jim dialogue goes on for pages and pages and pages. Then Jim comes down and pukes his guts out. But lo! The angel is still there! The angel is real! Jim’s soul really is in danger from the Demon Marijuana!

The angel takes off, having convinced Jim that pot is bad. Kevin then hauls Jim out to score LSD, which Kevin has never tried before. They meet naked, dirty hippie chicks in a filthy squat, and nice adults who warn them of the terrors of “freaking out.” Kevin trips and – all together now – “freaks out.” This is disappointingly tame: he thinks the circles are attacking him, breaks a mirror and goes catatonic.

Kevin is taking to a mental hospital, where a nice psychiatrist fixes him up. He and Jim swear off drugs, and Jim resolves to try to get some of his own opinions. The end!

Oh, forgot to mention: No one in the history of humanity has ever taken heroin and not become addicted, and it is impossible to ever get off it. If you take heroin, you are DOOOOMED.

View boggled reviews on Amazon: Tuned out; a novel

[Xenophon Hendrix · Rating 2 out of 5]

teen novel, unintentionally humorous

[Stephanie A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This 60s story of dealing with a drug-experimenting older brother rang extremely true for me. Not in the sense of having experienced anything like that, but in the sense that it seemed incredibly authentic, as opposed to someone from today's perspective trying to write a quasi-historical novel about drug experimentation/addiction set back then.

[Lucy Fifield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tuned Out is an insightful book in which younger brother Jim watches his amazing, special older brother's struggles with drugs such as pot, LSD acids, etc. I thought the description of its effects was very vivid and down-to-earth. Not my usual genre, but I enjoyed this book.

[Cat Conner · Rating 4 out of 5]

16 year-old Jim's lifestyle, morals, and perceptions are about to be challenged by the most unlikely source of all: his older brother, his hero. Jim hasn't seen his brother for almost a year because he has been away at college and mysteriously doesn't come home for holiday. As Jim anticipates Kevin's arrival with delight and optimistic prospects of summer fun, Jim never imagines that his brother just might not be as perfect as he remembers. Within the first few hours of their reunion, Jim learns of his brother's new hippie philosophies and affinity for marijuana. Jim is crestfallen because all Kevin wants to do is sit in his room and get stoned. Kevin even talks Jim into getting stoned, despite Jim's aversion and "square" ideals. Jim's comically tragic introduction to weed entertains the reader and lets him or her down off of Jim's high with nauseating realism.
The duration of the novel depicts Jim's struggle to please Kevin and stop him from obtaining acid. Though Jim openly opposes Kevin's addiction, he does not do anything short of admonitions when Kevin goes to Manhattan in order to purchase LSD. Wojciechowska's description of drug use takes the reader on a "trip" of his or her own and sheds light on both the appeal and hell involved in the 60s drug scene.
Though the outdated vernacular counters the readability of the novel, Jim keeps the reader going with his insightful commentary on Kevin, his family, and those "hippies" involved in the New York drug cartel. Despite Jim's youth, he extrapolates on subjects well beyond his years. Anyone reading "Tuned Out" will discover the growing up that many children of this era had to deal with whilst struggling with the budding effects of hardcore drug use in America.
Wojcicechowska's imagery sets the novel on fire. Any stylistic incompetence (overuse of exclamation points, for example) is made up for in strides with the experience the reader gains in seeing what a drug trip actually feels like. The reader gets sick with Jim, worries with Jim, and experiences the frustration and joy that Kevin feels in his addiction.
Though hard to chew at first, "Tuned Out" gains insight that is seen in few novels on the same subject. Original in cast and voice, this book was an alarming and probing literary meal.

[Edy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tuned Out is the story of a 16-year-old boy trying to save the 20-year-old brother, whom he idolizes, from the clutches of drugs. But it's more than that. It is the traumatic portrayal of Jimmy's growing up processes. He can no longer cling t his older brother and pretend that he belongs to him alone. He must let Kevin be the person he actually is and not expect him to be the superhuman genius he wants him to be. Through an unpleasant encounter with drugs, Jimmy has decided that this is not the way to make his social scene. When the going gets terrifying and hard to understand and when the possibilities of the future are too horrifying, Jimmy revives the childlike faith in God which he has dismissed with adolescence. Jimmy is skillfully characterized as a 16-year-old complete with vascillation from childhood memories and the desire to cling to them for an eternity to anticipated emancipation from his parents and complete independence. Kevin's character is well-developed, e.g., a very visible "growth" occurs in him as he find himself and establishes a favorable relationship with his little brother, his parents, and society. The largest portion of the novel is descriptive, but is not tedious reading because of the clearness of the language and the reflections of that summer which Jimmy presents. The themes in the novel include drugs, maturity, God, parents, and family relationships.

(I read this book and wrote this critique in the 70s.)

[Robert Jr. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, this is drug war propaganda before the war was formally declared, it even has the infamous Ronald Reagan quote about hippies in it. The protagonist is a self-confessed conservative that regularly attends mass and has an unhealthy obsession with his older brother. "...All I understand is that he used to belong to me and he doesn't now." - pg.123. What a way to endear him to the reader.

It is also evident that the author had no experience whatsoever in "taking" marijuana. The first time the protagonist smokes it with his brother he hallucinates about devils and angels telling him to do things. The rest of the book is definitely not subtle at all about the "drugs are bad" message and "God" with a capital "G" is plastered and uttered all through this thing. I did enjoy a bit of this book though despite the anti-drug pro-religion dumpster fire that it is.

The second third of the book mostly involves a trip with both brothers through the streets of New York trying to score some acid. I enjoyed the brothers wandering the streets talking to people the older brother thought were in the know. I especially liked their trip through a strangely desolate hippy den. This was the most interesting and energetic part of the book. The rest of it sucks as I mentioned previously.

This YA screed was a quick read, I read it in about an hour, so there is that. Would I recommend this book to anyone? No, I would not.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book when it was 3 years old (1970), and I loved it. I bought a new copy recently and enjoyed it once again. It is very dated, but that is part of what makes it a fun read now.
It is about a 16 year old boy who idolizes his older brother, who returns home and is different than he was before he went to college. The older brother introduces the 16 year old to LSD. After a fearful bad trip, and an excursion to Greenwich Village, the 16 year old has experiences that would change his life forever.

The book is a bit preachy and moralistic, but it is a good depiction of the time in the late sixties.

[Shelby · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars
I can definitely relate to this book in many ways. It is about a teenage level kind of reading. I would say that if you teen and older then you could relate to this book and understand what they are talking about. The book is about teens and drugs and how some are involved in drugs and cannot quiet because they are addicted. This book has a great lesson for teens and I wish more people would read it. I would definitely read this book again just because it is really good. I would definitely recommend this to anyone.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most heart-wrenching books about watching someone destroy themselves with drugs I can even imagine reading. If you liked "Go Ask Alice", this is the story from the outside in the form of a young man's idolization of his older brother who is back from college. His discovery that his brother is spiraling out of control on LSD and marijuana is told with intense insight. This is one of the first books I recommend to teens, especially those with problems.

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

1968. This book was pretty good. It's about a kid who freaks out on acid and recovers. A little moralistic, but cool scenes in the Village and on the subway. Hippies and the Digger's Free Store. Pleasingly dated. They make the scene and say groovy.

[Kenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good book. Glad it won the Newbery Medal in 1965.

[Itisme]

read this in the sixth grade. It really affected me. I have memories of reading this on the floor between two bookcases in the library of our "open-room" elementary school.









read in the 70's.

[Bridget · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another gem from the college library. This book really wanted to be Go Ask Alice but ended up more of a satire.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was a good, quick read. I liked how it was a pocket book and had green edges. I found it randomly at a library book sale. This would have been a very interesting read for my younger self. Now I have gone through all these phases so it wasn't as interesting or shocking as it could have been, but was still a good read. It was interesting getting a little insight into what life was like at this time.

The only I didn't like was how at the end Kevin concludes that psychedelics are mostly bad. There isn't much hard evidence that they can actually cause psychosis, at least any more than other substances such as caffeine or alcohol. I do believe if used right they can be therapeutic.

[Mark O'Leary · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this when it was new. It was in my Catholic school library--I was maybe 12 at the time. The nuns actually encouraged us to read it, thinking it would keep us from trying drugs. It worked in my case, until much later when I discovered how much I had been lied to.

Looking back at it today, I howl with laughter at the descriptions of the experience of being high on marijuana. The reality, of course, is nothing like the book, and it's obvious the author has no firsthand experience. This belongs in the laugh-out-loud category along with Reefer Madness. Take a gummy and crack this book open for a good chuckle.

[Joshua Sprinkle · Rating 3 out of 5]

First book of 2023 was an Afterschool Special-y drug story told through the eyes of a Holden Caulfield-esque narrator as he watches his brother succumb to the horrors of "grass" and LSD. Not bad, just dated, and a quick, easy read.

[Schuyler Topping · Rating 5 out of 5]

At 15 I purchased this book at the Scholastic Book Fair, the copy with the psychedelic cover. It was like reading the story of my life. Impacted so much, I still have my copy and will never get rid of it.
This book is definitely the truth about a family torn by drugs and the turbulent 60s.