Coming About

Bob Royle is 15, a sophomore, and a new student at Burgess High. His family have moved about a fair bit in his life, so this situation is not new to him. His plan is to not look stupid, be one of the crowd and learn how things work. Bob is definitely not a team joining, stand out in the crowd kind of guy. Then Bob sees Carl, a geeky looking senior, frantically signaling to him. Carl thinks that Bob is an interesting, going places winner. According to Carl Bob can't loose if he runs as class president. Slowly, reluctantly, Bob finds himself living up to his new friend's expectations. This is a story about believing in yourself and not under-rating your chances. It is about trying things even when the job seems large and difficult. It also asks the questions what is normality and what is greatness? Also, does your background, particularly disadvantages, limit what you can be? Another important theme is what is madness? Is there a thin line between intelligence and craziness, or this just a misunderstanding of the low intelligence crowd? Finally, is what we hope for always what we should get? Should we go for everything we desire with our full strength or should we really think about our desires, reasoning out what is best, rather than trusting our impulses? As you can see there is a lot in this book, but I do not mean to imply that it is overly philosophic or intellectual. All the questions arise out of a very interesting story that is quite original. Clements writes in a way that makes you like both Bob and Carl, and care about their lives. Of course life does not run smooth and neither do the events in this book. Of course many, many books are written for teens, but this one stands out as being at the front of the pack. It was first published in 1984 and so it is getting quite old now, but the story is about 'relationships' and 'life goal', which are both timeless themes. The book, indeed, is as relevant today as the day it was written and there are absolutely no cultural references, such as pop songs, to date it. I am so impressed by this book that it gets one of my rare five stars.

Fifteen-year-old Bob Royle has just moved to Oxbridge, New Hampshire, with his mother and is starting his sophomore year at Burgess High School. He has no plans of drawing attention to himself right away, but that plan quickly evaporates when a senior, Carl Riemer, befriends him and encourages him to run for class president. From the beginning Carl is in charge and you can almost see the strings he attaches to Bob.Although Bob loses the election, it doesn't discourage him from joining the tennis team or playing in the school band. He soon falls for Sarah Ott, who at the time is dating a jock (Eric Lombard) and "just wants to be friends" with Bob. Sarah's best friend Renee Webb, however, is interested in Bob. He returns the feelings half-heartedly, but uses her mostly as a link to Sarah."Coming About" mainly focus on Bob and Carl's friendship, if you can call it that. A lot of the time Bob is trying to avoid Carl, and who can blame him? Carl has a strange obsession with Admiral Horatio Nelson and war. He's also a chronic liar, but makes a one-lie policy with Bob; he will only lie once to Bob, which I thought was the lie, but it's not. I won't reveal what it is though, in case you want to find out for yourself.More strange behavior: Once Carl weasels himself into the Royle home, he begins calling Bob's mother "Mom", which I thought was a little bit weird, especially when nobody corrects him. I suppose Carl's "adopting" Ms. Royle was his way of feeling close to an adult since his own home life is so messed up.It took awhile for me to warm up to this book because it skips around quite a bit. However, it's a fast read (short chapters, lots of dialogue, and only 185 pages) and an overall good book.The intended audience is 13 to 15-year-old boys (which I'm not), but I still really liked it and would recommend "Coming About" to anyone who likes reading about teen life, particularly if you have an eccentric friend like Carl.