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Facing It
Assuming a new name for a summer job as a camp counselor in order to put his problems behind him, a college student finds that decision regrettably complicates his relationship with a girl who has a secret of her own.
- GenresYoung Adult
230 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
26 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 23, 2018
Euch, it's like if Holden Caulfield decided to be a camp counselor. The rambling! The pointlessness! The unnecessarily complicated phrasing and thought processes that half the time I just gave up on trying to decipher and skipped over until I found a comprehensible paragraph! Also, dude could not seem to go 30 pages without crassly talking about sex, so in that respect he's worse than Holden.
I only stuck it out because a) small portions of camp life were kind of fun to read about, and b) I REALLY wanted to know what Kelly's Mysterious Secret was, dangit.
Meanwhile, the dude I'm gonna go ahead and call Randy Caulfield also feels this immediate, weirdly intense "brotherly" love for a 12-year-old camper -- like he is full on convinced they might be brothers, since Randy is adopted and doesn't know who his birth parents are -- and I'm sorry, he can keep insisting he doesn't mean love "like that" all he wants, it doesn't stop dude's fawning from being extremely alarming and uncomfortable to read. Like, if I were David's mom and heard this random 21-year-old camp counselor was trying to make plans to stay in touch with and/or hang out with my son after camp, I'm pretty sure I would rightfully be going, "Oh, hellllll no," and calling All The Police and Lawyers.
I only stuck it out because a) small portions of camp life were kind of fun to read about, and b) I REALLY wanted to know what Kelly's Mysterious Secret was, dangit.
Meanwhile, the dude I'm gonna go ahead and call Randy Caulfield also feels this immediate, weirdly intense "brotherly" love for a 12-year-old camper -- like he is full on convinced they might be brothers, since Randy is adopted and doesn't know who his birth parents are -- and I'm sorry, he can keep insisting he doesn't mean love "like that" all he wants, it doesn't stop dude's fawning from being extremely alarming and uncomfortable to read. Like, if I were David's mom and heard this random 21-year-old camp counselor was trying to make plans to stay in touch with and/or hang out with my son after camp, I'm pretty sure I would rightfully be going, "Oh, hellllll no," and calling All The Police and Lawyers.
March 9, 2024
The first Julian F. Thompson I read was The Grounding of Group 6, decades ago, as a teen. They just keep getting weirder. (Well, okay, sending your kids away to have them killed is plenty weird.) And yet, I still keep seeking out his books out of nostalgia.
This one is sloooow. I read the first half waiting for the story to start--so much camp lore and minutiae-- and eventually I realized, this is it. This is the story.
Things that bothered me (not an exhaustive list):
The portrayal of Running Bear. Or, at least, the way he's spoken to, with all the dated offensive stereotypes about fire water and all that. And then later
Everything to do with Kelly, a dancer and dance teacher, being fat. She describes herself that way. Randy thinks her body is solid and beautiful. She says she's going to "get back in shape." She diets and exercises for five or six days and apparently she's back in shape now? SO MANY 80s books are centered on a girl needing to lose weight. Most of the cover art shows people we would not think of as overweight today. And even if they were fat isn't bad.
The whole "David might be my brother" story. They connected deeply with each other right away. I have no problem with young adults feeling a connection with younger kids, but this was on a whole other, very strange, level.
Randy himself bothered me, in an equal measure with how much I liked him. There's a scene where he's talking himself out of going up to a girls' campout to talk to Kelly, because there are a bunch of 12-year-old campers there who might be changing or skinny dipping. And I thought, how thoughtful and respectful of him. Then the very next sentence is something like, not that I wouldn't like to be invisible and watch. Um. No. The adult counselors, sure, the child-campers, no.
Then Randy and Kelly themselves. Partly, I don't feel like there's enough interactions between them to make their love for each other believable. Then I remind myself that it doesn't take much to feel like you're in love with someone. So fine. But what a weird ending. The *entire* story is the reader waiting for Randy Duke to tell the girl he loves the truth about who he is. And then How unsatisfying.
But, I give it two stars anyway because there's just something about these 80s authors, coming out of the 70s and writing it like it is. Mixed-up emotions, figuring out who you are. I think this story contains about the right amount of swearing and drinking and references to sex and pot. Especially because the protagonist is 21. Only kids in junior high carry condoms in their wallets, don't you know? Randy is practically over all that kid stuff. (Not the sex, obviously, but the partying).
Always, there are lines like these that make books like these worthwhile: "It was hard to tell where Harlan stood on 'good times.' Some place between wildly curious and scared-to-death, the same as most people, I guess" (87).
I mean, feeling someplace between wildly curious and scared-to-death about life? That is exactly right.
This one is sloooow. I read the first half waiting for the story to start--so much camp lore and minutiae-- and eventually I realized, this is it. This is the story.
Things that bothered me (not an exhaustive list):
The portrayal of Running Bear. Or, at least, the way he's spoken to, with all the dated offensive stereotypes about fire water and all that. And then later
Everything to do with Kelly, a dancer and dance teacher, being fat. She describes herself that way. Randy thinks her body is solid and beautiful. She says she's going to "get back in shape." She diets and exercises for five or six days and apparently she's back in shape now? SO MANY 80s books are centered on a girl needing to lose weight. Most of the cover art shows people we would not think of as overweight today. And even if they were fat isn't bad.
The whole "David might be my brother" story. They connected deeply with each other right away. I have no problem with young adults feeling a connection with younger kids, but this was on a whole other, very strange, level.
Randy himself bothered me, in an equal measure with how much I liked him. There's a scene where he's talking himself out of going up to a girls' campout to talk to Kelly, because there are a bunch of 12-year-old campers there who might be changing or skinny dipping. And I thought, how thoughtful and respectful of him. Then the very next sentence is something like, not that I wouldn't like to be invisible and watch. Um. No. The adult counselors, sure, the child-campers, no.
Then Randy and Kelly themselves. Partly, I don't feel like there's enough interactions between them to make their love for each other believable. Then I remind myself that it doesn't take much to feel like you're in love with someone. So fine. But what a weird ending. The *entire* story is the reader waiting for Randy Duke to tell the girl he loves the truth about who he is. And then How unsatisfying.
But, I give it two stars anyway because there's just something about these 80s authors, coming out of the 70s and writing it like it is. Mixed-up emotions, figuring out who you are. I think this story contains about the right amount of swearing and drinking and references to sex and pot. Especially because the protagonist is 21. Only kids in junior high carry condoms in their wallets, don't you know? Randy is practically over all that kid stuff. (Not the sex, obviously, but the partying).
Always, there are lines like these that make books like these worthwhile: "It was hard to tell where Harlan stood on 'good times.' Some place between wildly curious and scared-to-death, the same as most people, I guess" (87).
I mean, feeling someplace between wildly curious and scared-to-death about life? That is exactly right.
August 9, 2016
I enjoyed this, but it's no The Grounding of Group Six. Lots of meandering thoughts from Randy, which were mostly interesting but not central to the story. I'm glad to have read it during the summer, and it was fun to compare the camp descriptions and counselor perspectives with those of a kid I know who is at camp right now.
The Kelly story was very interesting, especially given the 1983 publication date, but it felt somewhat crammed into the book. David was too good to be true.
The Goodreads cover shown here is from the 1989 edition and does not depict the dopey-and-delightful early '80s photo cover.
The Kelly story was very interesting, especially given the 1983 publication date, but it felt somewhat crammed into the book. David was too good to be true.
The Goodreads cover shown here is from the 1989 edition and does not depict the dopey-and-delightful early '80s photo cover.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews