If Jack's in Love

by Stephen Wetta

Every neighborhood has that The one with the broken down cars in the front yard; the one where the father is always out of work and starting fights with other dads;the one no one wants to go near. Twelve-year-old Jack Witcher lives in that house.

And that’s just where his problems begin.

It is 1967 and Jack’s father has lost his job, yet again. The war in Vietnam is perpetually on the news, and Jack is in love with a girl named Myra. But Myra’s family is the opposite of Jack’s. Her father is well dressed and well spoken. Her brother is the town’s golden boy. Jack schemes to win Myra’s love with the only person in town who will deign to be his friend, the town jeweler and sole Jew. But when Myra’s brother goes missing, Jack’s pot-smoking older brother becomes suspect number one...

Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, Coming Of Age, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Book Club, Summer Reads

368 pages, Paperback

First published September 29, 2011

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this novel. The main theme of this story is that you can't choose your family. Jack is a Witcher, a family known for being trashy. His dad is unemployed and likes to cause fights, his mom is "sweet but ugly" and his brother is a hippie who also has a volatile personality. When a local teen is murdered, Stan, Jack's brother is the main suspect. The book is part murder mystery, part character study. The characters are well fleshed out and memorable, from the jeweler Gladstein, to the token black character Snead. I enjoyed the style of writing and felt as though I would read other books by this author. The plot moves along briskly and doesn't make one lose interest quickly. I especially liked the "love" story between Myra and title character.

[Jasmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read books anytime their blurb mentions nick hornby... no joke

stephen wetta is the guy I hung out with in high school. that's a lie he's the white collar version of the guy I hung out with in high school, see the guy I hung out with is like the guy in his book except he got arrested for attempted murder not suspected of murder, and his victim (his father) refused to press charges (and i believe denied it had actually happened) so in the end they could only hold him on drug possession. wetta only managed tax evasion. mine wins :P. and that's one story of many the long version of that one is just the most fun. (Not to mention I had a guy who was mid/late twenties try to convince me (when I was 15 or 16) to date him because he had beaten up said friend in jail (boys are weird) the teen years are fun) the point being basically I understand the conceptual background this story is coming from. I mean yes it's set in the old days (sixties) but that's not that different from the current "backwoods" (I know in my case it was an island deal).

But let me clarify, My family was not white trash, my mother was very direct about this, this is IMPORTANT "white trash" is a mindset. My friend whose parents spent more on cigarettes a year than my mom made were white trash, my friend in high school whose mom was a lawyer was also considered white trash (I know mean right his mom was super nice too), my boyfriend in high school whose dad owned a tow truck company... well it depended who you asked, my uncle who live across the street from us when I was in the third grade. We were just "outsiders" my uncle "trash" he had a washer in his front yard for a while that made you part of the community and trash although where I'm from it wasn't scorned like in this book. I mean it was in other towns but being a "backsider" sort of equated if you were from a "frontside" town, especially southwest they were all poorly thought of, it almost makes you feel bad. I don't know maybe being trash in a rich town was more of a big deal than in a town where everyone had lobster traps in their front yard.

basically though I grew up as a spectator in this book. I saw the drugs, the murder, the harassment, but I wasn't any of the main players.

I think one of the interesting things about this book is the sides the family is on pop and stan are trash, mom and jack are clearly not but as long as they are a unit it's like when the salad dressing attacks the burger all of it is untouchable. This isn't really about the murder it's about the town and it's about how small towns and families interact. When I started high school I was given the Principal as my adviser because I was seen as a "PROBLEM STUDENT" because I had an older brother, less than 50% of my advising group graduated by senior year only like 4 of 10 were still enrolled we had the worst stats of any group. I also got out of almost everything I had to do to graduate by not being the problem people expected me to be, but how I slept through physics is another story for another book. The fact is what we see in this book it's real and it's awkward and this book captures it well, I'm just not sure if it's actually something that interests people and there appear to be some glaring spelling errors... just saying.

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wetta has written that rare novel that can truly be called a “crossover,” in the sense that it speaks to adults just as it speaks to teens. It raises questions that are not really resolved, and speaks to the nature of fiction itself. If we change just one thing in one’s life, does that make all the rest a fiction?

Jack presents us with two alternate histories: one in which his brother is transgresser, and one in which his brother is transgressed upon. In the first history, his father is a rough and a cad, while in the second, he is vulnerable yet protective of his sons. The fact that alternative histories are presented tells us something about Jack’s ambivalence, though one of the histories lay on the cutting room floor at the end of the novel.

I remember those days of childhood when one begins to perceive the outlines of “truth;” when another person’s truth is not precisely as we ourselves have observed it to be. We begin to suspect those others; we begin to suspect ourselves.

This is a book, I guess, about love. But it seems more a book about a family (“Families live on loyalty more than love…”), or perhaps just a young boy: a young boy just discerning the truth about people, about his family, about his neighborhood, about black people and Jewish people, about policemen and villains.

It is a story of a stiff-spined boy who grew into a stiff-spined man. He claims to have had a brother and father who taught him forgiveness could be weakness. He was saved by his mother, a kind woman, though she recognized some failing in him: “You’ll be a lot harder than your father or brother ever were. You’ll never do anything wrong, not you. But my God you’re going to be hard.” Jack may have thought that was a good thing—a carapace of steel should save him from the vagaries of love and loyalty.

Jack Witcher begins his story when he is thirteen and “already tragic.” Exceptionally imaginative, he has a hard time sorting truth from fiction, and creates an alternate universe in which the haunting experience of finding a corpse in the woods merges with the perfectly normal wish for an older brother to get his come-uppance and his parents’ divorce explained. “Maybe I might have killed him.” Jack is uncertain exactly how to deal with an unruly older brother, but one thing is clear. He’ll create a story in which that brother is dealt with severely. How much is truth and how much is fiction? That is where we will differ.

Sometimes when I am confused about something, my head feels filled with white noise; Jack’s confusion produces a cacophony and Wetta captures the mind-buzz perfectly:

”I started thinking about the hot shack and the pissy mattress and the cicadas. I saw myself lying in all that stink with a knife in my chest. Meanwhile the gnats and the mosquitoes and the bees and the flies and the wasps kept buzzing. Add to that the airplanes and the jet fighters leaving vapor trails and the helicopters and the lawn mowers on Lewis Street and the vacuum cleaners and the other appliances and the fans and the air conditioners and the traffic north on Cherokee and the traffic south on Matson and the trains on the tracks beside the river and the chemical and pharmaceutical plants next to the interstate pumping pollution into the air and the barking of neighborhood dogs and the frogs croaking along the banks of the creek and the snapping and buzzing from the satellites circling the earth and the cicadas in my mind that never stopped singing." (p. 298)

This may be a good book to carry on the family vacation this summer. It has clever observances that make us laugh out loud, it raises social issues, and it plays with our sense of reality. It might make for good conversation around the campfire or dinner table.

[Valerie Esposito · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every so often a reader comes across a book that changes them forever. It alters their lives so that they are just a little bit different after reading that book, and it is bound to become one of their life long favorites.

Today, this book was added to that list for me.

Stephen Wetta's debut novel about a boy growing up in the tumultuous South during the sixties is not only touching, but an experience for anyone reading it who's ever been thirteen and confused about who they are. Jack Witcher doesn't know how to deal with the fact that his brother may be a murderer, that the whole neighborhood and thinks his family is trash, and that he has just fallen in love for the first time with a girl named Myra (oh, and she just happens to be the sister of the boy his brother may have murdered).

The novel touches on many issues. First of all, Jack is forced to deal with loss of innocence. Like anyone at that age, he has begun to see the world as it truly is, and that the world is not all good. He begins to understand that he will always be looked down upon in his neighborhood because his father isn't an educated man. He doesn't have a steady job. His mother is a quiet woman. And his brother has been a bully since his days in kindergarten. The neighbors will never think well of him, but Jack wonders if this is fair. He isn't like his father, his mother or his brother. He's smart and courteous, but he'll forever be known as one of the Witcher boys because of blood relation alone.

Not that being a Witcher is necessarily a bad thing. Wetta raises the question of whether or not the Witchers really are the trash that the neighborhood thinks them to be, or if they are just a product of the society they've been put in. If they weren't so looked down upon, would Stan Witcher be such a bully? Would Jack Witcher have to fight to date Myra, a girl far above his social station? Would Mr. Witcher be able to control his temper and keep a steady job if the world wasn't already setting him up to fail? There are so many questions to be answered, and it leaves the reader wondering who should be looking down upon who. Social status doesn't determine the goodness in people, and Wetta makes that very clear.

And what about race? Does that determine the goodness in people? Are all the white folks good and the blacks living in the next neighborhood over bad? The Witchers aren't a racist family, but is it a coincidence that when Mr. Witcher is contemplating robbing a jewelry store that he enlists the help of a black man? Is it okay that Mr. Pudding, an accepted and well liked member of the community is a member of the KKK? When you get past the realizations about social status, you realize the same truth applies to race. People shy away from Mr. Gladstein because he's Jewish, but he's one of the more lovable characters in the book. Snead is a nice enough guy, but because he is black he is of course looked down upon by everyone. Jack has to learn to see past race here too, realizing he can't change the minds of everyone but that he doesn't have to be a racist himself.

And what about first love? In a somewhat Romeo & Juliet-esque story, Jack falls in love with Myra Joyner, a girl who he couldn't possibly be with but wins over because he is really just as good as she is, no matter what anyone in the neighborhood might think. But is there really a way to be together when you are so young and so many obstacles stand in your way?

I could go on and on, but to sum up, this is an absolutely fantastic debut for the author and I look forward to the possibility of more work from him in the future.

[Jessica J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Growing up in southeastern Ohio, I was surrounded by rednecks. Not Jeff Foxworthy, backwoods-hick rednecks, but legitimate, honest-to-God rednecks who wore tight Wrangler jeans to school, belonged to FFA and 4H, and skipped school on the first day of deer season. That was kind of the norm, and rednecks weren’t looked down upon – they often mixed well with the popular kids. However, we had a derogatory term for people who were considered too low-class to even be a redneck and it was the ultimate insult when I was in elementary and middle school – we called them “rutters.” I have no idea where the term came from, and I had no idea until I went to college that no one outside of my area used the term. It’s a variation, I suppose, of being called white trash.

If Jack Witcher had gone to my elementary school, he probably would have been called a rutter.

In small-town Virginia in the late 60s, the Witchers are simply considered white trash. There’s rusted cars and broken toilets in their front yard. Pop can’t hold a job and challenges the other fathers in the neighborhood to fistfights over dogs. Mom is ugly and works as a cashier at the grocery store. The oldest son, Stan, is quickly following in his father’s footsteps – he’s a bully for no other reason than he doesn’t know any other way to defend himself. Twelve-year old Jack, though, is different. He’s smart, he’s thoughtful, and he just wants to fit in. He’s a good kid judged by his unfortunate lineage.

Jack’s only real friend is Mr. Gladstein, the town’s lone Jew who owns a jewelry store and protests segregation by moving into a rough black neighborhood. Mr. Gladstein helps Jack out by giving him a ring to woo Myra Joyner and encouraging the boy to believe in himself. Jack tries to take Gladstein’s advice, but his social status gets in the way – Myra likes Jack but won’t be his girlfriend because of his last name.

Things go from bad to worse for Jack when Myra’s brother, Gaylord, goes missing and the cloud of suspicion falls on Stan. Jack wants to believe in his brother’s innocence, but there’s a part of him that is frightened by Stan’s violent instincts and the holes in his story.

This book is so well-written, and comparisons to To Kill A Mockingbird are much-deserved. Like Scout, Jack struggles with the loss of his innocence in the face of violence and injustice in his small-town environment. Like Harper Lee, Wetta has somehow managed to capture a child���s innocence with such a genuine voice. There’s something about Jack, though, that is much more pathetic than Scout. He is a boy so punished by his circumstances, who desperately wants to understand things that are bigger than him. He’s smart and he’s perceptive, but he’s still a kid and Wetta never seems to forget that. Even when he’s using vocabulary beyond a normal twelve-year old’s lexicon, the reader is reminded that, while Jack sees tension and he wants to be able to explain it, the situation is often just beyond his ability to do so.

My only complaint about this book is the pacing. There's a slow build-up, then it's rushed as soon as we hit the climax - sort of as if Wetta just wanted to be done and couldn't figure out how to finish it. The result is less than fully satisfying, but only slightly so. There are so many levels to this book, so many ideas that are explored – class, race, faith, morals, justice, young love, obligation to family vs. obligation to community – and all of the plotlines carefully reflect these themes. The more I think about it, the more I fall in love with it. This is a book that I wholeheartedly recommend to everyone.

[Mme. Monique · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truly, what impressed me the most-is the writer was 55 when he wrote, "If Jack's In Love", and it was his first novel! Goes to show you, it does not matter who you are, where you come from, what age you are or rather or not others think you can write or not... but it is knowing that if you have a talent for writing, just do it! Who cares what others think, just do it! What matters the most is what ones writing means to them. Stephen Wetta grew up in an environment with various types of people with unusual personalities that became a milestone to his achievement of a good novel. Once he realized all he had to do was to gather those experiences and put those memories on paper and the magic was on. He realized with some encouragement and resources he finally, managed to get it out there. I must say that I do not understand why, Stephen Wetta, the author did not receive a standing debut from the press like other novelists this year. Who died, gave them a crown and made them King? It was fascinating though, how I had to search every local bookstore in one of the most top 10 cities in the US to find a copy! Go figure! Thank goodness, otherwise I would not have had a piece of his wonderful work added to my collection of books.

Like, after reading this fictional story, I found pieces of scenarios that Jack experienced similar to when I was a young teen. So typical, were some of the characters in the writer's book. Kinda made you angry how stupid people really can be when confronted with the truth. Especially when they are bias and do not acknowledge it. Just throwing prejudice attitudes out there like there was no tomorrow. On top of all of that, having the audacity to throw it at you as though you were yesterdays trash and going on about their business like it never happened. Go figure again, lol!

Although this novel was written during a very controversial time in American history. I appreciate the writer's bravery to use candid outburst in the story yet at the same time, knowing when to inject subtle approaches so as not to offend the reader. He makes the reader lol because it is funny and sometimes dark with a little thrill of suspense to keep you from putting the book down. I love the wonderfully short chapters and his deep passion. Good to know that people can still find courage just from reading a book. Definitely, a family story and GoodReads :)

[Jean V. Naggar Literary · Rating 5 out of 5]

If Jack's In Love is a coming-of-age story with a bite. Your proto-typical coming-of-age story tells of a child who is a bit weird and perhaps not accepted by his/her peers or society at large, and throughout the story explores themes of growing up such as: loss of innocence, learning what kind of person you want to be, and eventually finding your place in the world. If Jack's In Love has elements of all these themes, but the execution is what makes this book insanely readable and fresh.

Jack Witcher lives in a prejudiced small town where his family is considered white trash and are maligned by adults and children alike. A sort of double-inversion exists in this book where the Witcher family is the black sheep family of the town, and Jack, in turn, is the black sheep of the Witcher family. This leaves Jack very much alone in the world. Jack is by far the smartest and, when the book starts, the most even-tempered Witcher, his brother and father both being some shade of bully and his mother being perpetually stretched too thin by her responsibilities. Jack's personality makes him more similar to his peers than any of them are willing to admit, and family ties and the caste-like system of suburbia are major themes throughout this book.

Then, when the brother of Jack's love interest goes missing, Jack's antagonistic brother is the number one person of interest in the case.

Wetta uses the complex familial and social dynamics in Jack's life to explore ideas and questions of atavism, prejudice, and loyalty. How are we shaped by our families and genetics? What do we owe our families, if anything? How do we rise above the seemingly intractable biases of small-minded people? If Jack's In Love is engaging and challenging, and the character Jack provides a unique narration that walks us through his story as he tries to make sense growing up and the heartbreak and anger that come along with it.

-Reviewed by Jake Lavelle Summer 2012 Intern

[Debdanz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't know whether I'm going to be able to force myself to finish this one. Narrator is supposed to be a 12 year old boy- terribly unbelievable and very repetitive-- am only on page 75, yet if he's told me once, he's told me 20 times that his father is a bad, lazy, abusive slouch, his mother is ugly, and his brother is headed down the road to ruin as a bad seed.
Blech- forced myself to finish- waste of time, nobody likable in the whole book, pretentious author- ugh.

[Marleah (marleah_a) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess I'm the minority, but I felt bored with this book. Yes, Jack's voice is fairly original, and I did read the whole thing, so there must have been some appeal. I kept waiting for it to get amazing (considering the high ratings here), but it just didn't happen for me.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twelve-year-old Jack is a Witcher. His family is at the bottom of the social ladder in their 1960s Virginia neighborhood. Their yard is full of junk, his dad is often unemployed, his mother is homely, and his older brother is a delinquent. In other words, they're "white trash," barely above the sole colored family on the edge of the neighborhood. Even though Jack is a straight A student and an all-around good kid, only one pudgy neighborhood kid will hang out with him. When Myra Joyner, the smartest girl in his grade, starts paying attention to him, of course Jack falls in love instantly. Unfortunately, Myra's brother and Jack's brother are sworn enemies, and when Myra's brother disappears, Jack's brother is the logical suspect.

The Romeo and Juliet parallels are obvious, with the Witcher and Joyner clans having several confrontations. Instead of Friar Lawrence, Jack is counseled by an obese Jewish jeweler (who was a little too creepy for me at points). But this story was so much more than that. Jack doesn't seem to fit in anywhere. His father and brother expect him to act like a Witcher, which means fighting and keeping their secrets no matter how illegal or immoral, because "Witchers ain't snitchers." The rest of the neighborhood lumps him in with his family, even when he follows all the rules of conventional society.

Wetta brings both Jack and the setting to life. I felt Jack's struggle, fear, and frustration. I felt the 1960s muggy summer heat and the racial tension. The writing often reads more like a college professor (which Wetta is) than a teenage boy, but Jack is telling the story from some unknown point in the future, so he very well could have become a professor himself. One example of this language is his repeated reference to the sagging family sofa as "carmine," never red or even dark red, but always carmine. As odd as it occasionally sounds, it's the vivid professorial description that really brings the story to life. The dialogue is much more earthy and entirely believable for the characters.

This ended up being an interesting companion piece to The Death of Bees, which I read just before IJiL. Both focus on outsiders coming of age, but are clearly intended for adults. (IJiL has language and violence that some parents may find objectionable, but isn't as gritty as DoB. Jack is much more sheltered than DoB's Marnie, partially because his family isn't nearly as depraved as hers, and partially because he's more the counterpart of Nelly. If Jack's older brother, Stan, had a voice in this novel, it would be a much nastier novel.) Both question the meaning and importance of family bonds. Both start slowly and end a little too conveniently. And both are fantastic reads.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really a 4.5 star review.

Twelve-year old Jack has the misfortune of belonging to the Witcher family – the lowest family on the totem pole in the small Virginia town where he lives. His father is frequently out of work, leaving his overworked mother to provide for the family. Jack’s older brother Stan is the town bully.

Jack’s world gets even worse when his brother is the primary suspect in the disappearance of the son of one of the pillars of the community. Jack happens to be in love with the missing boy’s younger sister, Myra, who is not allowed to be seen with Jack. Jack enlists the help of his only friend, Mr. Goldstein, the town’s Jewish jeweler, to win Myra’s heart. Can Jack overcome all the obstacles stacked against him?

This novel is another great offering from Amy Einhorn Books. Jack is such a realistic and authentic character that I instantly connected with him. I was rooting for him throughout the whole book. Wetta’s writing is wonderful; he was able to incorporate scenes with humor, suspense and heartbreak equally well. If Jack’s In Love is a gripping, moving coming-of-age story that I thoroughly enjoyed.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't get into this book. I wonder if it was partly because I couldn't get into Stan's head.

[Vicki Vass · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had this book on my shelf for quite a while. Finally picked it up and really enjoyed it.

[Jennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't expect to like this as much as I did, honestly. I picked it up because the premise sounded semi-interesting, but I wasn't expecting much. I was had. Wetta's compelling prose hooked me by the end of the first couple of chapters, and by that time, it was a race to the finish two days later.

I give it 5 stars. Wetta's characters are unbelievably raw and real, he breathes life into the nuances of the individuals -- never stereotypes -- of the people populating his insular small town in the midst of all the upheavals of the '60s. Jack Witcher, his twelve year-old protagonist, is extremely well developed. I typically hate books told at the perspective of anyone under the age of 18, because I've found that most authors have a terrible time trying to capture the despair, angst, self-involvement, and confusion of kids on the cusp of puberty. Not so with Wetta's Jack, who is in turn hilariously naive, achingly self-conscious, youthfully reckless, and completely unforgettable. I haven't read such a memorable child in fiction since To Kill a Mockingbird! His family are all developed with the same mastery -- his brutish brother, his complex and troubled father, and his self-restrained, demoralized mother. Likewise, the neighborhood Jack haunts bursts off the page in full color, with all the ideology and politics of the 60s. There's hippies, racism, antisemitism, atheism, John F. Kennedy, poverty, drugs, cigarettes, GTOs, and "white flight", all mulled over through the eyes of 12 year-old Jack.

There's enough sub-plots to keep any reader interested: a robbery, a fight, some mystery, young love, one boy versus the prejudice against his family, and a murder. All of which tie together to form a cohesive whole that is never jumpy, poorly developed, or cliche.

This is really fantastic fiction, and a work of startlingly deep thought on dilemmas that still plague the world, fifty years after the '60s. Highly recommended!

[Tevia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, first things first. I broke my bad language reading rule in reading this book. I didn't stop, and I really should have. For this reason, I won't recommend this book to anyone wanting to staying away from books with major f-bombs.

Second, I've never read a more interesting, forthwith author bio than the one on this book cover. It was surprising to read that the author, Stepen Wetta, was a high school drop out, did drugs, served time in prison, but ended up with a PhD and a published book amidst all that. (this was his first novel)

I had a hard time trying to decide what to rate this book. It was better than OK, but I didn't really like it like. It made me feel sad. I read it pretty quickly, however, considering the content.

Basically the story is about a family, the Witchers, who are ostracized by the community they live in due to their low class status. The family is then despised even deeper after a boy in their neighborhood goes missing and the eldest Witcher boy,Stan, is accused of killing the missing boy. It was sad and frustrating reading this book. Although the story is fiction, it was still disturbing to read about how awful people could be to other people in a "normal" setting. It's one thing to read about horrible tyrants taking over the world, but is a wholly different experience reading about regular citizens treating others so horribly.

I'm not naive. I know that the would is full of people that treat others horribly whether intentionally or ignorantly. I guess I just tend to avoid reading things like this because I don't really like reading sad things like this. It does, however, make me want to be even that much nicer to those who are less fortunate or downtrodden because of circumstances that I don't know about. Maybe I will just stick with my sci-fi and fantasy genre...

[Emi Yoshida · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved reading this funny book, set in 1967 suburban Virginia, and everybody in it, even the nasty people doing and saying awful things. The Witcher lawn is littered with junk, there are screens missing from the windows, and the family car is a bit of a hoopty. The Witchers are ostracized by their judgmental better-to-do neighbors, and their standing plummets further when the elder Witcher son Stan is implicated in murder. The main character, younger son Jack, is an honest, straight A student whose only friend (after being abandoned by fellow social pariah Dickie Pudding) is the town's 50 year old Jewish jeweler.

In the author's notes Wetta explains, "The (Witchers) of the world serve a cautionary purpose. There's something sacrificial about them. They perform a social function. They set a bottom, a defining limit, to what we dread and fear about ourselves, and reassure us that we haven't reached it yet."

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author's flippant and self-deprecating bio on the dust jacket of the book hooked me. This book was suggested to me by a reader at our library. It's a coming of age story set in the Richmond, VA suburbs of the 1960's. The author is a year older than me and I grew up 100 miles north in the DC suburbs. So those factors also clicked in my selection. It's great writing and you're immediately hooked by this humorously and darkly told tale of first love and family violence. I read it in less than a day. They ought to read this one in the schools.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I expected too. It spoke to both adults and teens.

[Ansate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just didn't enjoy it at all. [return][return]Jack is in a terrible situation, and I should at least be able to muster up some pity for him, but I can't even do that. He's too flat, too boring, too whiny.[return][return]The best I can say about the book is that it successfully made me uncomfortable at points where I think that was the goal. [return][return]There's no mystery. There's almost no suspense. It's just a grim slog.[return][return]Oh, and the tone was much more "To Kill a Mockingbird" meets "The Wasp Factory" than any hint of "About a Boy"

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this book a high rating simply for the way this author writes. The subtle, dry sense of humor and easy flow throughout the story made it difficult for me to put down. The attention to detail allowed me to imagine myself in the daily life of the 1960s through a 12 year old’s eyes, but as an adult. The book itself was fairly predictable and somewhat anticlimactic, but still a fun read. A good author to further explore.

[Chanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is classified as YA, but it reads also as adult material. Jack’s summer catapults him into adulthood, and the events are adult like, but it’s more than that. The writing itself reads more like adult fiction. Jack is also an admirable character struggling to understand those around him as they deeply fail him. The book is worth the read. 3.5

[Maggie Aldrich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really, really enjoyed this book. It was poignant, yet humorous at the same time! LOVED the character of Jack and the author's style of writing. Good stuff. Highly recommend to mid-older teens and adults.

[Michael Van Kerckhove · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked up a used copy at McKay's in Nashville when I lived there for a bit. I enjoyed the coming of age aspect, the Southern setting, the family and class issues, and the time period. Particularly loved the passages when Jack describes the sounds of his surroundings. A good summer read.

[Rebecca Hemphill · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good read, nostalgic. I love books set in the past.
It could have a stronger more suspenseful ending, but that would be my only complaint.

[Brian O'Leary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good coming of age book disguised as a mystery.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had read this book, and it is a page turner. The character development is great.

[Robin K · Rating 4 out of 5]

An easy read about a 13-year-old boy growing up in a very difficult family in a small town, carrying the family reputation on his shoulders.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amy Einhorn Books excels at finding debut novelists with unique voices- Eleanor Brown's The Weird Sisters, Alex George's The Good American and most famously, Kathryn Stockett's The Help. All of these books draw the reader into another world with strong characters and writing.

Add to that list Stephen Wetta with his debut novel If Jack's In Love. Set in a Virginia suburb in 1967, Jack Witcher is a twelve-year-old boy with a gifted intellect and a difficult home life. His mother is a kind woman burdened with a husband who cannot hold a job, fights with the neighbors and holds his intelligent son in disdain. Jack's older brother Stan follows in their father's violent footsteps, drinking, smoking pot, fighting and getting in trouble with the law. Needless to say, the Witcher family is not a popular one in the neighborhood.

Jack has a crush on beautiful Myra who responds to Jack's sweetness. But when Myra's brother, the high school football hero, goes missing, Stan is the prime suspect after having a fight with the boy. Once again, Jack's family has hurt him.

Mr. Gladstein is the owner of a local jewelry store and Jack's only friend. The man tries to help Jack woo Myra, and he is one of the few people in town who show Jack's plain mother any type of kindness or interest. Jack's father comes up with a plan to rob Mr. Gladstein, and Jack must thwart the plot without his father finding out.

Jack is a wonderful character, and watching him try to survive and thrive in a home where his intellect is stifled and mocked is difficult. His poor beaten-down mother does her best, but she is no match for her physically powerful husband and other son.

The book grabs you from the opening line:
"I'll never know for sure whether I'd have fought my brother or not. Maybe I might have killed him. The day came and I made the decision. But I will never know."
How can you resist reading on?

The author's take on the complexities of love and family intrigued me. Jack's mom explains why she married his dad this way:
"I knew he'd never get it in his head he was too good for me. He has an inferiority complex a mile wide. Most people can't see that, but I saw it right away." Jack "went to (his) room and meditated on the mysteries of women, deeper that all the philosophies of humankind put together."
On families, Jack thinks:
"Families live on loyalty more than love, and it wasn't fear that made me keep my mouth shut. I could never forget that Stan bled for me. And yet I was terrified of him."
If Jack's In Love is a book written for adults, but there is much here for teens to appreciate. Jack is an outsider, torn between his love for his mother, and yes even his father and brother, and his desire to have a different, better life. His feelings are no doubt shared by many adolescents, and this book would be a great one for high school English classes.

[Jenn Ravey · Rating 5 out of 5]

What it's like to be Jack Witcher: like running through a field full of land mines.

It's 1967, and Jack is a smart kid, but he comes from the kind of family where his dad wants to fight the neighbors, his brother is the "bad kid" no one wants his or her daughter dating, and his mother isn't all that pretty. The Witcher family is the house in every neighborhood where the residents leave broken chairs on the porch and piles of trash on the side of the house, a beat-up car left with its hood up at all times. If that's not bad enough, Jack Witcher is in love with Myra, whose brother Gaylord is missing and who everyone suspects met trouble in the form of Stan, Jack's brother.

Jack fits nowhere, not with his family, not with the kids at school. In fact, the only person who really pays attention to Jack is Mr. Gladstein, a Jewish jeweler who is also a bit out of place, and for some reason, Jack divulges his love for Myra to Gladstein, who gives him a trinket to win the heart of his girl. Myra doesn't seem to be anything special, though she sticks up for him once or twice, but as Jack says, "Myra was everything to me, probably because there wasn't much else."

When I first opened this book, I was waiting for my Nook upgrade at Barnes & Noble, so of course, I was picking up books every chance I got [Hm. I wonder if this was their ulterior motive]. If Jack's in Love was on one of the tables, and I flipped to the first page, and then (as there was some trouble with my Nook), kept flipping until my low back began to hurt and I desperately began missing the nice armchairs that have gone in lieu of some crazy toy area. By the time my Nook was ready, I was hooked.

This is no typical coming-of-age novel. Jack is in a truly precarious position, not only in terms of age, but also because of the family dynamics. Witchers ain't Snitchers, his dad and brother menacingly warn him again and again, and Jack is party to too much knowledge. What do you do when you're 13, your dad is planning to commit a crime and your brother already has? Witchers ain't snitchers. Is loyalty worth more than right? There are moments when Jack is genuinely afraid his father or brother may try to kill him because they know Jack's just not like them. He is frightened of and for his own family, an alcoholic, violent father, a pot-smoking, sadistic brother, and a mother who has checked out.

If Jack's in Love is a glimpse into that rundown house, that family who yells at one another and can't control their kids, and it's pretty petrifying. Now imagine being one of those kids.

Jack - and I - were simply waiting for the moment when one of those land mines would explode.

[Mike Cuthbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a combination coming-of-age, romance and mystery set in rural Virginia in 1967. Jack is 12 when it starts, 13 when the action ends and he is definitely in love for most of it. Jack, however, is on the wrong side of the tracks from the Joyners, Myra and Gaylord. Myra is Jack’s age and the most beautiful girl in school. He is a Witcher with a thug of a brother, Stan, who loves to beat people up while doing a reasonable job of defending Jack. Stan is 18 and throughout the novel is under the eye of the law as a suspect in a murder case: Gaylord Joyner. The two families have never gotten along and the alleged murder seals the deal except the Myra and Jack are more or less in love. “You’re the smartest kid in our class, next to me,” Myra rationalizes. The story is made more delicious by the meddling Mr. Gladstein, a jeweler who has a thing for Mrs. Witcher. He gives Jack a good price on a “diamond” ring and says it has magic properties but only if Jack kisses Myra. Jack, being clever, manages that, but little else goes his way. At times it seems that Jack and Myra are older than 12 but that is part of the charm as they defeat both sets of parents to have their puppy love moments. We never, unfortunately, get to meet the Joyners other than a fast shoving match between fathers. The enmity the Joyners feel toward the trailer trash Witchers prohibits proper social intercourse. Pops Witcher’s temper keeps him out of jobs and at home, watching soap operas, and attempting to serve as a role model for his boys. Precious little luck at that! This is a winsome novel, made slightly less so by the possibility throughout that one of the Witchers is going away for a long time. We sense that Jack is destined for better things, though Myra maybe not; she is too hung up on her own charm and intelligence to go far in the outside world. It’s a good novel to fit in before the heavier lifting of the fall season. I picked up T.C. Boyle’s 915 pages of “Stories II” today and that looks like a more substantial project!