Status Updates From This Boy's Life

50s casual misogyny in young adolescent boys. boys being discouraged from sharing their feelings and emotions so they pretend to watch mickey mouse club for the sexy lady they have a crush on but they take the show seriously in silence. interesting themes.

The titular boy just tried to commit check fraud and rip off an innocent old lady, only to be found out and run away. Then we're just on to the next vignette. No self-reflection at the time, no self-reflection from an adult perspective, just endless unrelated situations where the adolescent Wolff acts like a sociopath. Hard to believe a book about such an awful kid is also dull as dirt, but here we are.

Halfway into the book, something that might've been vaguely interesting almost happened in Wolff getting a chance to move to Paris. This American Boy's Life in Paris might've had something to care about, so I knew it wasn't happening because nothing interesting ever happens in this book. It failed to pan out and immediately switched to a pointless anecdote about Wolff's stepfather claiming to have met Lawrence Welk.

there are so many words on a page it throws me off with the tiny font but OH BOY am i excited to get into this one. I LOVED the movie