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Matt

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Thr Human Drama, Vol II

by Jean Elliott Johnson

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Dec 13, 2011 06:43AM

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Girls Like Us

by Rachel Lloyd

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Nov 30, 2011 06:24AM

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Notes from the Midnight Driver

by Jordan Sonnenblick

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Matt said: " Notes from the Midnight Driver by Jordan Sonnenblick is an amusing story that provides a humorous twist on adolescence through the self-narrarated story of a teenager and the unfortunate, awkward, sometimes painful, yet always humorous events that o Notes from the Midnight Driver by Jordan Sonnenblick is an amusing story that provides a humorous twist on adolescence through the self-narrarated story of a teenager and the unfortunate, awkward, sometimes painful, yet always humorous events that occur because of the unusual scenario he is in. Capable of giving the reader a plethora of smiles, and an occasional chuckle or two, the standard of humor established in the beginning of the book proves itself unable to be topped by anything after it. The set-up of the plot begins with a humorous situation that the main character Alex gets into, which more or less involves the boy getting drunk, braking into his mother’s car and accidentally crashing it into a lawn gnome. Unrealistically, but funnily nonetheless, he then gets sentenced to 100 hours of community service at a nursing home, so that he can “learn a lesson”. Regardless of the bad choice Alex made that night, the reader stays on his side, believing that he is just a normal teenager with rational decision-making skills who just happened to do something stupid one night.

Given the humorous nature of what has happened to Alex so far, the reader almost expects for there to be at least one eccentric character a the nursing home that will serve as a major source for the rest of the book’s humor. When Alex first meets Sol, the elderly person whom he was assigned to, the way the old man verbally abuses the boy with phrases in Yiddish sets very high expectations for how funny the rest of the book might be. However, as time goes on, and Alex visits the hospital more often, the expected climactic build of humorous plot is sacrificed for the sake of character development. As Alex gets to know Sol better, the two of them bond with each-other. Alex realizes that just like him, Sol plays guitar, and had a similar car accident due to his adolescent stupidity. We start to realize that the old man isn’t as crazy as he first seemed. So, because of Alex’s distant relationship with his parents, Sol becomes the boy’s predominant word of advice. In fact, being that throughout the book, Alex’s mother and father have divorced each other (one of them running away with his third-grade teacher), fought in front of him, and gotten back together again, it seems that more so than Sol, Alex’s parents are the crazy ones. To help him with all this insanity, Alex’s sidekick and best friend Laurie is there for him. The only odd thing about her is her fighting skills, which are capable of killing a human being. What doesn’t make sense is that somehow, the fact that the two of them are best friends doesn’t stop Laurie from injuring him at random times just because she can do so. Yet, inconsistently, though she is always violent and angry to him, she defends him against others who try to harm him. Meanwhile, as Alex’s character develops, he begins to develop a crush on Laurie. However, the fact that he doesn’t realize this until much later on in the book points out another of its inconsistencies. Although at the beginning of the book, Alex is portrayed as comfortable with driving cars, and drinking alcohol, until much later on, he cringes at the thought of any relationship with a female that goes beyond “just being friends”, and has the same disgusted reaction at the thought of his parents getting back together and kissing. It seems that the reason for this is that because of the author’s inability to maintain the initial level of humor while at the same time, keeping the plot moving, he decides to do the latter and create humor through the out-of-character reactions as the “straight man” that Alex has to situations because they aren’t funny just by themselves. In conclusion, though Notes from the Midnight Driver is an easy read with a highly amusing take on life its weak, cliche, and slow-moving plot fail to maintain the level of humor that the book establishes at its beginning. ...more "

Dec 01, 2011 06:11AM · see review