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Crazy
A smart, funny, poignant, very modern autobiographical coming-of-age novel, written when the author was sixteen years old. Like Catcher in the Rye, Crazy appeals to the teenager in us all.
Benni himself is partially paralyzed and a serial failure (he's been kicked out of four boarding schools in his short life and has just entered his fifth). So he's a little odd, but he's cool and he finds other strange boys to hang with. Together they set out to experience what they girls, booze, sex, philosophy, drugs, sex, books, music, sex–pretty much everything whatever. And Benni lets us in on "the crazy life" he figures is the only way to deal with the crazy world.
Benni himself is partially paralyzed and a serial failure (he's been kicked out of four boarding schools in his short life and has just entered his fifth). So he's a little odd, but he's cool and he finds other strange boys to hang with. Together they set out to experience what they girls, booze, sex, philosophy, drugs, sex, books, music, sex–pretty much everything whatever. And Benni lets us in on "the crazy life" he figures is the only way to deal with the crazy world.
191 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
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627 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 162 reviews
March 4, 2017
so. story time.
i read this many years ago, and i can't remember much about it. what i do remember, though, is that i found it in the school library in primary. and because i am me, i had read nearly everything, so if there's a book in that library there's a 90% chance i would have read it. (it was a small library.)
anyway. turned out this book should not have been in a primary school library. and thus my 10 year old self read this book of sex, drugs, and plain ol' depravity, and i found the sex scenes hilarious and showed everyone in the class and everyone was in uproar and it was a jolly old time but then the teacher arrived.
everyone fell silent and stared at me, so of course the teacher made a beeline for me and demanded to know What The Fuck Was Going On. (i may have paraphrased that.)
that's the story of how small 10 year old me got absolutely fucking wrecked off the teacher for reading Highly Inappropriate Books and showing everyone instead of alerting the teacher there was an Inappropriate Book in the library. but let's be real, only the most goody-two-shoes-iest of kids would turn it in and i wasn't a loser.
joke's on the teacher tho because i'd already finished it when she confiscated it. take that, you orwellian tyrant!!!
anyway so i rated it 5 stars because this book led to this aforementioned very amusing incident, and i liked it when i read it, but i was 10, so don't take my word for it. but i must have really liked it if i can still remember the author after 8 years, especially as i have the memory of a particularly absent-minded goldfish.
(i also read game of thrones when i was 13. do i have a pathological need to read the Most Inappropriate Books Ever?)
i read this many years ago, and i can't remember much about it. what i do remember, though, is that i found it in the school library in primary. and because i am me, i had read nearly everything, so if there's a book in that library there's a 90% chance i would have read it. (it was a small library.)
anyway. turned out this book should not have been in a primary school library. and thus my 10 year old self read this book of sex, drugs, and plain ol' depravity, and i found the sex scenes hilarious and showed everyone in the class and everyone was in uproar and it was a jolly old time but then the teacher arrived.
everyone fell silent and stared at me, so of course the teacher made a beeline for me and demanded to know What The Fuck Was Going On. (i may have paraphrased that.)
that's the story of how small 10 year old me got absolutely fucking wrecked off the teacher for reading Highly Inappropriate Books and showing everyone instead of alerting the teacher there was an Inappropriate Book in the library. but let's be real, only the most goody-two-shoes-iest of kids would turn it in and i wasn't a loser.
joke's on the teacher tho because i'd already finished it when she confiscated it. take that, you orwellian tyrant!!!
anyway so i rated it 5 stars because this book led to this aforementioned very amusing incident, and i liked it when i read it, but i was 10, so don't take my word for it. but i must have really liked it if i can still remember the author after 8 years, especially as i have the memory of a particularly absent-minded goldfish.
February 28, 2013
Ich hasse dieses Genre, obwohl ich nicht mal genau weiß, was das ist. Jugendbuch? Keine Ahnung, ich dachte ja früher, Jugendbücher wären diese scheußlichen Bücher über zwei beste Freundinnen, von denen eine langsam erwachsen wird, und BHs trägt und mit Jungs redet, und so ein Müll eben, aber dieses Buch hat mich ja wohl eines besseren belehrt. Wichsen, Mädchen, Trinken, super Inhalt. Fürchterlich, ich mein, wer will das lesen? Ist auch keine große literarische Leistung so ein 'Tagebuch', oder was das war, zu schreiben.
Das war definitiv die schlechteste Schullektüre, die ich mir je antun musste und ich frag mich immer wieder: War das nötig? Hätten wir da doch lieber schon mit den Klassikern angefangen, dann müssten wir jetzt nicht alles so gedrängt lesen.
Das war definitiv die schlechteste Schullektüre, die ich mir je antun musste und ich frag mich immer wieder: War das nötig? Hätten wir da doch lieber schon mit den Klassikern angefangen, dann müssten wir jetzt nicht alles so gedrängt lesen.
November 29, 2010
One of the worst books I've ever read.
September 6, 2011
I really didn't like this book. It had no plot, the characters acted like mini philosophy students and they were really pretentious. What is life? What is death? What is literature? Give me a break.
November 22, 2016
Meh, not a very interesting story and not very well written.
March 24, 2022
awful. dnf after first chapter
February 26, 2015
Contrary to many reviews this was one of the best books I have read in a long time. The writing style was genius and the characters interesting and touching. This story wont leave me for a long time and I would highly recommend it.
March 8, 2015
tip voor mn school: geef me geen stomme boeken.
July 19, 2017
Vielleicht habe ich dieses Buch einfach 10, 15 Jahre zu spät gelesen, aber mich haben sowohl die Dialoge, als auch die ganze Storyline nicht wirklich überzeugt. Jugendliche, v.a. Jungen beziehen doch nicht jegliche Unterhaltung oder jegliches Thema, das sie behandeln, auf Gott bzw. das Göttliche. Das war sehr eigenartig, auch wenn der Alltag von Heranwachsenden in einem Internat vermutlich gut hinkommt. Ich bin mir auch im Klaren darüber, dass dieser Roman eine Autobiographie ist und dass man eigentlich die Erinnerungen des Autors per se nicht im Hinblick auf Echtheit oder Authentizität kritisieren kann, aber der ganze Roman wäre ohne diese pseudo-theologische Ausrichtung der Dialoge zwischen den Jungs zu Themen, die für Jugendliche eigentlich eh interessant wären, besser zu lesen.
November 2, 2022
Holden Caulfield, mas pessimamente escrito. Retrato daquela fase jeitosa dos 16/17 anos em que todos somos niilistas in the making. Bocejo prolongado.
May 14, 2022
This is my first 1 star read, and it probably won't be my last but this book has simply crossed the line into meaningless.
We start off with possibly the worst sentence: "So this is where I'm supposed to stay." Not really much of a hook, nor does it really garner any interest. The writing style itself is just horrible. Random, choppy sentences that are simple and short. I suppose there was supposed to be some kind of message put across with the way this was written, but I just couldn't find any meaning behind it. This book tried to get across a message. Key word being tried . I could tell what the message was: that life was meant to be lived, like pretty much all coming of age novels. Except this book simply doesn't really push the message across as well.
Possible spoilers (not like the book even has a plot to spoil anyways):
This story is about a boy, who's disabled, having partially lost use in the left side of his body. I don't know if this was a personal experience from the author, as the boy's name is the same as the author's. This boy is moving to a new boarding school because he absolutely sucks at maths and needs to get his grades up. He keeps getting kicked out of schools due to his bad maths grades. At this new boarding school, he makes a group of friends right off the bat. No real introductions made, they're just friends now.
His friends are very sex positive, joking about being homosexual and straight up 'screwing' the girls at the boarding school. Weirdly enough, the boy - Benni - actual has sex with a girl whilst they're both drunk in the toilets late at night. I know these are teenagers but the sexualisation and definite objectification of the girls was just... unreadable. I cringed at every moment and wanted to just stop reading. Because I hate myself, I carried on.
Benni then decides to visit Troy, one of his friends, and finds out that Troy wet his bed. Troy announces he wants to run away to Munich and stay there. Benni goes, 'we could go for a day and come back.' So they gather the rest of their friends and just leave . They meet some old man who literally invites them over to his house in Munich because apparently these kids just decided to leave the safety of the boarding school without a plan on where to sleep for the night. I question why they even followed this guy, are they not taught about stranger danger? Keep in mind, these boys are sixteen. I'm not sure if they grew up during the book, because there were massive time skips but they weren't indicated so a lot of the time I was just wondering if a week or month had passed or something. But, carrying on, they go with this guy, practically skipping, to Munich. On the train they read a book by Ernest Hemingway and they all cry. They talk about the meaning of life, then they proceed to go to a strip club. Strip. Club.
They're sixteen, and they're at a strip club. Which the old man lives on top of. And he says he goes to the strip club often. Uhm.
So anyway, Benni looks at the ass of one of the strippers and goes, 'I'd love to dive into that, and I know the others are thinking it too.' He even goes on stage as the stripper is pole-dancing and slips a bill into her pants. The other men at the club are like, 'who's f***ing kids are these?' and the old guy says, 'oh they're mine' and everyone just shuts up and continues to enjoy the show. Then, there's another time skip and suddenly it's the end of the book and Benni says goodbye to his friends and that's it.
A strange 'plot' point that was mentioned in the book was that Benni's older sister was homosexual and she would bring him to the lesbian hangouts to vibe with her friends. Benni, I think, mentions that he liked hanging out with them but it doesn't improve his relationship with women in general. I don't know what they were doing with this bit? I think they were trying to be inclusive after making fun of gay people earlier in the book. His sister is actually mentioned more than his parents but nothing is really expanded on except that Benni misses her.
One last thing I have to say is that it didn't seem really fair to completely trash Fat Felix. That's his actual name, by the way. Fat Felix, or 'Glob', is called Fat Felix because there are two Felixes and the other one is skinny, so they make sure to refer to them as either Fat or Skinny Felix. Felix really didn't deserve getting trashed on. Again, I realise they're teenagers, but Benni's bestie - Janosch - makes fun of how he's so fat. There's a little redemption here when Felix stands up for himself and Janosch keeps making the same comments, but tries to be a bit nicer about it. The real injustice was when the author decided to make Felix just obsessed with candy. This is not verbatim, but Felix says something along the lines of, 'I can't live without my candy, I need to bring it with me to Munich' and then Janosch says, 'Well you couldn't have brought a bigger bag? Now everyone's gonna spot us sneaking out.' It's actually kind of disgusting how Felix is treated and honestly them being teenagers shouldn't excuse them from their actions towards Felix. What makes this even worse is that skinny Felix, though he's part of their little friend group, isn't really mentioned at all and he has very few lines. This just makes it seem like he didn't even need to be put in the novel, that he was just put there to distinguish the other Felix as fat and to exaggerate how fat Fat Felix was.
Like I said, they try to talk about life and go all philosophical in this book, but it just doesn't work. At all. There's 175 pages to this book and there's barely any semblance to an actual plot besides them going wacko and going to a strip club to 'truly live'.
I'm genuinely perplexed about what this book was really meant to be about. Life? Having sex? Depression? Feeling trapped? Misogynism? Bullying? Ableism?
I don't even know. All I know is that the cover looks pretty and that's all it's worth.
We start off with possibly the worst sentence: "So this is where I'm supposed to stay." Not really much of a hook, nor does it really garner any interest. The writing style itself is just horrible. Random, choppy sentences that are simple and short. I suppose there was supposed to be some kind of message put across with the way this was written, but I just couldn't find any meaning behind it. This book tried to get across a message. Key word being tried . I could tell what the message was: that life was meant to be lived, like pretty much all coming of age novels. Except this book simply doesn't really push the message across as well.
Possible spoilers (not like the book even has a plot to spoil anyways):
This story is about a boy, who's disabled, having partially lost use in the left side of his body. I don't know if this was a personal experience from the author, as the boy's name is the same as the author's. This boy is moving to a new boarding school because he absolutely sucks at maths and needs to get his grades up. He keeps getting kicked out of schools due to his bad maths grades. At this new boarding school, he makes a group of friends right off the bat. No real introductions made, they're just friends now.
His friends are very sex positive, joking about being homosexual and straight up 'screwing' the girls at the boarding school. Weirdly enough, the boy - Benni - actual has sex with a girl whilst they're both drunk in the toilets late at night. I know these are teenagers but the sexualisation and definite objectification of the girls was just... unreadable. I cringed at every moment and wanted to just stop reading. Because I hate myself, I carried on.
Benni then decides to visit Troy, one of his friends, and finds out that Troy wet his bed. Troy announces he wants to run away to Munich and stay there. Benni goes, 'we could go for a day and come back.' So they gather the rest of their friends and just leave . They meet some old man who literally invites them over to his house in Munich because apparently these kids just decided to leave the safety of the boarding school without a plan on where to sleep for the night. I question why they even followed this guy, are they not taught about stranger danger? Keep in mind, these boys are sixteen. I'm not sure if they grew up during the book, because there were massive time skips but they weren't indicated so a lot of the time I was just wondering if a week or month had passed or something. But, carrying on, they go with this guy, practically skipping, to Munich. On the train they read a book by Ernest Hemingway and they all cry. They talk about the meaning of life, then they proceed to go to a strip club. Strip. Club.
They're sixteen, and they're at a strip club. Which the old man lives on top of. And he says he goes to the strip club often. Uhm.
So anyway, Benni looks at the ass of one of the strippers and goes, 'I'd love to dive into that, and I know the others are thinking it too.' He even goes on stage as the stripper is pole-dancing and slips a bill into her pants. The other men at the club are like, 'who's f***ing kids are these?' and the old guy says, 'oh they're mine' and everyone just shuts up and continues to enjoy the show. Then, there's another time skip and suddenly it's the end of the book and Benni says goodbye to his friends and that's it.
A strange 'plot' point that was mentioned in the book was that Benni's older sister was homosexual and she would bring him to the lesbian hangouts to vibe with her friends. Benni, I think, mentions that he liked hanging out with them but it doesn't improve his relationship with women in general. I don't know what they were doing with this bit? I think they were trying to be inclusive after making fun of gay people earlier in the book. His sister is actually mentioned more than his parents but nothing is really expanded on except that Benni misses her.
One last thing I have to say is that it didn't seem really fair to completely trash Fat Felix. That's his actual name, by the way. Fat Felix, or 'Glob', is called Fat Felix because there are two Felixes and the other one is skinny, so they make sure to refer to them as either Fat or Skinny Felix. Felix really didn't deserve getting trashed on. Again, I realise they're teenagers, but Benni's bestie - Janosch - makes fun of how he's so fat. There's a little redemption here when Felix stands up for himself and Janosch keeps making the same comments, but tries to be a bit nicer about it. The real injustice was when the author decided to make Felix just obsessed with candy. This is not verbatim, but Felix says something along the lines of, 'I can't live without my candy, I need to bring it with me to Munich' and then Janosch says, 'Well you couldn't have brought a bigger bag? Now everyone's gonna spot us sneaking out.' It's actually kind of disgusting how Felix is treated and honestly them being teenagers shouldn't excuse them from their actions towards Felix. What makes this even worse is that skinny Felix, though he's part of their little friend group, isn't really mentioned at all and he has very few lines. This just makes it seem like he didn't even need to be put in the novel, that he was just put there to distinguish the other Felix as fat and to exaggerate how fat Fat Felix was.
Like I said, they try to talk about life and go all philosophical in this book, but it just doesn't work. At all. There's 175 pages to this book and there's barely any semblance to an actual plot besides them going wacko and going to a strip club to 'truly live'.
I'm genuinely perplexed about what this book was really meant to be about. Life? Having sex? Depression? Feeling trapped? Misogynism? Bullying? Ableism?
I don't even know. All I know is that the cover looks pretty and that's all it's worth.
August 10, 2022
Gar nicht mal so gut.
March 26, 2018
Personal Response
I really liked this book because it showed how hard it was to be a 'cripple'. I also really liked that it showed what life is like for teenagers in boarding school. There was a ton of adventure among the boys, like sneaking into the girls corridor and escaping the boarding school. I loved how much their friendship grew throughout the story.
Plot Summary
This book is based on a group of highschool boys from Germany, who are sent to boarding school to further their education. Each boy is very different but they soon become the best of friends. They all break the rules like: drinking, smoking, sneaking out, etc. Soon though, they want a bigger adventure. They sneak out of the school and take a train to a big city and spend their night there.
Characterization
Benjamin is the main character and I think he's the one who grew the most. He started off as a very quiet and shy boy. He thought everyone judged him because of his partial paralysis. After a week of boarding school he already made a group of friends and became much more outgoing. He wasn't as self-conscious because people made him feel comfortable. As the story goes on, he moves into one of the 'leaders' of the group and teaches them the meaning of friendship.
Recommendation
I think anyone would enjoy this book. If I had to pick an age group, I would pick teenagers because the characters in the book are also teens. Both boys and girls would enjoy this book. I think adults could read and like the story, but they won't be able to relate to the characters like teenagers would. If someone asked about a good book to read, I might mention this one.
I really liked this book because it showed how hard it was to be a 'cripple'. I also really liked that it showed what life is like for teenagers in boarding school. There was a ton of adventure among the boys, like sneaking into the girls corridor and escaping the boarding school. I loved how much their friendship grew throughout the story.
Plot Summary
This book is based on a group of highschool boys from Germany, who are sent to boarding school to further their education. Each boy is very different but they soon become the best of friends. They all break the rules like: drinking, smoking, sneaking out, etc. Soon though, they want a bigger adventure. They sneak out of the school and take a train to a big city and spend their night there.
Characterization
Benjamin is the main character and I think he's the one who grew the most. He started off as a very quiet and shy boy. He thought everyone judged him because of his partial paralysis. After a week of boarding school he already made a group of friends and became much more outgoing. He wasn't as self-conscious because people made him feel comfortable. As the story goes on, he moves into one of the 'leaders' of the group and teaches them the meaning of friendship.
Recommendation
I think anyone would enjoy this book. If I had to pick an age group, I would pick teenagers because the characters in the book are also teens. Both boys and girls would enjoy this book. I think adults could read and like the story, but they won't be able to relate to the characters like teenagers would. If someone asked about a good book to read, I might mention this one.
February 12, 2016
Ich war begeistert von diesem Buch, vor allem wenn man bedenkt, dass der Autor erst 16 Jahre alt ist/war. Die relativ kurzen Sätze, die mich in anderen Romane vielleicht gestört hatten, passten hier perfekt. Genau so stelle ich mir die Gedankengänge eines pubertierenden Jugendlichen vor. Und es ist ja nicht so, dass sich der Autor alles ausdenken musste - er schrieb einfach nieder, was er selbst erlebt hatte, inklusive einiger dichterischer Freiheiten hier und da. Sehr gelungenes Zeugnis eines Jahres im Leben eines 16jährigen, behinderten, verliebten Internatschülers.
December 4, 2017
awful. would never have read if i wasn't forced for my german language class. it's probably a good book for someone at an intermediate reading level with german, though
October 7, 2023
Read the first page and had to stop bc it’s just too bad
March 15, 2025
This book feels autobiographical, especially because the narrator shares the author's name, so that the adventures of the narrator and his boarding school friends reflect actual experiences of the author in his youth. The narrator is a partially paralyzed teenager who is also a poor student. His parents send him to a boarding school in a effort to improve his grades. Once there he becomes part of his roommate's gang of misfit students. With no real plot, this book is a record of their adventures and their arguments about the meaning of life, love, and other issues. It was an easy read, and moderately interesting, but not exciting.
June 9, 2022
Ich habe in meinem Leben ja schon einige Bücher in der Schule lesen müssen und dieses gehört definitiv zu den Schlechten. Die ganze Geschichte spiegelt absolut nicht (mehr) das Leben eines*r durchschnittlichen Jungendlichen dar (wenn es das jemals hat) und vermittelt völlig falsche Werte. Das Buch trieft vor Sexismus, Homophobie und Bodyshaming und hat, wie ein*e andere*r User*in schon geschrieben hat, diesen "Pseudo-Philosophie"-Charakter. Des Weiteren ergibt die Geschichte keinen Sinn und ist an vielen Stellen recht unangenehm und nur mit viel Fremdscham zu lesen. Auch sprachlich gesehen ist der Roman keine Meisterleistung. Man wird immer im Lesefluss gestoppt, da die Geschichte hauptsächlich mit Hauptsätzen erzählt wird und Nebeninformationen immer in neue Sätze verpackt werden. Das macht es sehr anstrengend und neben dem absolut (entschuldigt meine Wortwahl) beschissenen Plott recht unattraktiv das Buch zu lesen.
October 16, 2024
..es neesmu jauniešu literatūras cienītājs, bet ja man šajā žanrā kaut kas jāizceļ, tad tas ir šis Leberta darbs, ko latviski lasīju jau 2008. gadā, bet tikko noklausījos oriģinālvalodā audio versijā. atmiņā bija palicis pilnīgi viss, kas grāmatā notika. zemais goodreads vērtējums mani pārsteidz, kaut sāku domāt, ka tas varbūt tāpēc, ka grāmatu izlasa pārlieku daudz meiteņu, kas sevi ar šiem varoņiem diez vai spēj asociēt. bet romānā ir viss, kas 12-16 gadus vecus zēnus interesē un kam būtu jāiet cauri, lai pieaugtu kā nākas. :)
January 27, 2025
i think i prefer coming of age novels when they're not narrated by horny teenage boys...this book felt so pointless. very harsh rating but i hated it. idk whether it was in issue in translation but this book tried so hard to be philosophical and failed miserably
April 1, 2020
So „Crazy“ wie der Titel es verspricht.
May 19, 2024
1.5-2 maximal.
May 23, 2025
Fico estupefacta sobre o poder da publicidade sobre os leitores, ou então devo ter um problema qualquer para achar que este livro é simplesmente inútil em termos de leitura e uma história de adolescentes masculinos a terem sexo fácil com adolescentes femininas, em que só pensam em sexo o tempo todo, só bebem e vão fumando e claro, têm aventuras pela cidade em que só sabem dizer asneiras e falar sobre o quão os adolescentes são uns heróis por quebrarem as regras. WOW É mesmo crazy este livro ter tido tantas edições portuguesas. E eu tentei classificá-lo como um coming of age, mas na verdade, que desperdício de tudo.
Read
April 15, 2025I have 'read' this (using google translate) and watched the film. Which I liked, so I guess 3 stars
August 3, 2017
Wie jeder andere Teenie dieser Zeit, habe auch ich das Buch gelesen und es hatte eine Zeitlang, zumindest während auch der Film parallel im Kino dazu lief, einen Einfluss, wie wir uns damals als Jugendliche gesehen haben. Das Buch porträtiert die Jugend zu Beginn der 2000er ganz schön und wenn man nochmal in das Jahr 2000 eintauchen will, dann ist man mit diesem Buch gut beraten.
August 11, 2022
I love a good “coming of age” story and they’re usually written from the perspective of the author looking back on their early years. Not so with this one, which was written by a 16 year old. Yes it has its flaws (and the translation is possibly responsible for some of that), but what a wonderfully charming, funny and authentic little book.
March 9, 2016
This was just crap.
July 21, 2024
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"Hi folks, my name is Benjamin Lebert and I'm a cripple." is how the author introduces himself to his class at each new school. Castle Neuseelen Boarding School is the fifth, he has failed at four others.
Benjamin has a sardonic voice, at sixteen he has dealt with a lot already. His parents are exasperated and divorcing, and he has partial paralysis on the left side of his body since birth, "a boy who drags his left leg in a suspicious fashion" he is forced to announce to the staff. The other kids don't seem to care - he is just another nerd.
The old school with its wood floors and halls is his new home, and he shares a room with Janosch, a year ahead in grade 10. Sixteen other boys are on the floor, and a tight group of friends quickly forms: Janosch and Benni, Fat Felix, Skinny Felix, Florian from grade 8, and moody Troy from grade 12. They spend their time smoking clandestine cigarettes, talking about girl's tits, crack jokes in sex education class, and hatch a plan to slip out the fire escape to visit the girl's dorm in the night. Janosch has his eye on pretty Malen, and the boys are excited to find the girls are waiting, in their panties, with beers and romantic burning candles.
These friends will discover many firsts together; Janosch is the sensitive leader, Troy is an outcast, and Benni's affliction is not a problem. "You are one of us. A hero," as Janosch would say. "Crazy."
We don't need no education getting right under their skin, they get the idea to escape on an adventure to Munich after the gates close at 11pm. "Has anyone done this before? We were born for wild ideas." His eyes sparkle.
Indeed, they pull off the illegal breakout, taking a bus and then train into Munich, befriending an old man who takes them under his wing, leading them to the safety of a strip club where the young men are treated as honoured guests.
These are no miscreants, they become blood brothers sharing the light of friendship and respect, and showing their sensitive side, too, reading Hemingway to each other aloud.
Wherever these boys are now, they have been immortalized, as this autobiographical fiction is the work of Benjamin Lebert, himself paralyzed on his left side. This was an instant bestseller when it was published in 1999, when the public was shocked to find the hot new author was was only 16 years old. I have kept my copy since then, a translated first American edition. Rereading it now, I am still impressed by the depth and range of observation. A solid novel for any age to write. As a coming-of-age novel, it has naturally been compared to The Catcher In The Rye. Published by Borzoi/Knopf, this had a massive reach at the time, and was made into a hit German film in 2000.
"Hi folks, my name is Benjamin Lebert and I'm a cripple." is how the author introduces himself to his class at each new school. Castle Neuseelen Boarding School is the fifth, he has failed at four others.
Benjamin has a sardonic voice, at sixteen he has dealt with a lot already. His parents are exasperated and divorcing, and he has partial paralysis on the left side of his body since birth, "a boy who drags his left leg in a suspicious fashion" he is forced to announce to the staff. The other kids don't seem to care - he is just another nerd.
The old school with its wood floors and halls is his new home, and he shares a room with Janosch, a year ahead in grade 10. Sixteen other boys are on the floor, and a tight group of friends quickly forms: Janosch and Benni, Fat Felix, Skinny Felix, Florian from grade 8, and moody Troy from grade 12. They spend their time smoking clandestine cigarettes, talking about girl's tits, crack jokes in sex education class, and hatch a plan to slip out the fire escape to visit the girl's dorm in the night. Janosch has his eye on pretty Malen, and the boys are excited to find the girls are waiting, in their panties, with beers and romantic burning candles.
These friends will discover many firsts together; Janosch is the sensitive leader, Troy is an outcast, and Benni's affliction is not a problem. "You are one of us. A hero," as Janosch would say. "Crazy."
We don't need no education getting right under their skin, they get the idea to escape on an adventure to Munich after the gates close at 11pm. "Has anyone done this before? We were born for wild ideas." His eyes sparkle.
Indeed, they pull off the illegal breakout, taking a bus and then train into Munich, befriending an old man who takes them under his wing, leading them to the safety of a strip club where the young men are treated as honoured guests.
These are no miscreants, they become blood brothers sharing the light of friendship and respect, and showing their sensitive side, too, reading Hemingway to each other aloud.
Wherever these boys are now, they have been immortalized, as this autobiographical fiction is the work of Benjamin Lebert, himself paralyzed on his left side. This was an instant bestseller when it was published in 1999, when the public was shocked to find the hot new author was was only 16 years old. I have kept my copy since then, a translated first American edition. Rereading it now, I am still impressed by the depth and range of observation. A solid novel for any age to write. As a coming-of-age novel, it has naturally been compared to The Catcher In The Rye. Published by Borzoi/Knopf, this had a massive reach at the time, and was made into a hit German film in 2000.
September 6, 2018
Yet another German book, which, I understand, I am basically just reviewing for people like me, on the weird off-chance that some person stumbles upon this page and is like "well I toooo am looking for information on the level of German required for reading this book..."
So, that being said, here ya go.
The best thing about this book, which is also a big plus for the guy, is that, like "The Outsiders," this was published when Lebert was 17. I don't know anything about him other than that, so I can't guide you anywhere there. But, one has to assume that it's *mindestens* readable. Which it is. I actually started this book awhile back and then got mad and gave up after like 20 pages or so because I couldn't understand every single word.
And then this week I remembered I rarely understand every single word of anything, and got back into it, and was really truly very happily surprised. Because the good thing about a 16/17 year old author, is you probably know *most* of the words they are going to use, once you're a couple decades older.
I couldn't figure out if this was going to be a Catcher in the Rye type thing for awhile. (It's pretty short, with what I guess would just be long[ish] episodes. But it's that "I'm 16 and in a prep school" type story where you always just assume. And re: the rest of the assumptions that follow, yes, it is pretty much your typical 'man life is so crazy and like, friends are good and also life is crazy' type story. But it's good, and it's readable. And maybe that doesn't say a whole lot, but I don't mean it to be a jab at Lebert. Lord knows if any of you have read my writing, it is whoooolly stuck in the age-range in which it was written. As, one could argue, are most of these "reviews." Have I made it past 17? Jury's out.
Nevertheless, if you are looking for a good mid-range book, definitely check this out. I'm technically ranking it at 3.5. I don't know if I round up or down usually, but if you made it this far you must've read a few of these and accepted the lack of logic, spell-check, or consistency.
Point being, I enjoyed this, more so on the "I can read this!" level than the "Amazing!" level. But if you're slowly swamping through "Im Westen Nichts Neues" or "Schachtnovelle" and thinking "this is not mid-level" (or intriguing, or whatever [from language learning only]) then this is a good one to jump into. The story is decent; the language is doable; the book is short. It's a good project to take on.
So, that being said, here ya go.
The best thing about this book, which is also a big plus for the guy, is that, like "The Outsiders," this was published when Lebert was 17. I don't know anything about him other than that, so I can't guide you anywhere there. But, one has to assume that it's *mindestens* readable. Which it is. I actually started this book awhile back and then got mad and gave up after like 20 pages or so because I couldn't understand every single word.
And then this week I remembered I rarely understand every single word of anything, and got back into it, and was really truly very happily surprised. Because the good thing about a 16/17 year old author, is you probably know *most* of the words they are going to use, once you're a couple decades older.
I couldn't figure out if this was going to be a Catcher in the Rye type thing for awhile. (It's pretty short, with what I guess would just be long[ish] episodes. But it's that "I'm 16 and in a prep school" type story where you always just assume. And re: the rest of the assumptions that follow, yes, it is pretty much your typical 'man life is so crazy and like, friends are good and also life is crazy' type story. But it's good, and it's readable. And maybe that doesn't say a whole lot, but I don't mean it to be a jab at Lebert. Lord knows if any of you have read my writing, it is whoooolly stuck in the age-range in which it was written. As, one could argue, are most of these "reviews." Have I made it past 17? Jury's out.
Nevertheless, if you are looking for a good mid-range book, definitely check this out. I'm technically ranking it at 3.5. I don't know if I round up or down usually, but if you made it this far you must've read a few of these and accepted the lack of logic, spell-check, or consistency.
Point being, I enjoyed this, more so on the "I can read this!" level than the "Amazing!" level. But if you're slowly swamping through "Im Westen Nichts Neues" or "Schachtnovelle" and thinking "this is not mid-level" (or intriguing, or whatever [from language learning only]) then this is a good one to jump into. The story is decent; the language is doable; the book is short. It's a good project to take on.
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