Huge

Huge is the story of a smart, complicated boy who spends the summer before sixth grade tackling what starts off as a fairly mundane adventure. The encyclopedia brown introduction quickly blossoms into a huge adventure that stretches his character in all directions. We've all been through the challenges of transitioning from childhood to young adulthood. All of that confusion, emotion, angst and yearning are captured in Huge. The author convincingly, with skill and charm, blends the extraordinary with the expected to create a relatable and convincing journey. The plot centers on the vandalism of a sign outside the main character's grandmother's retirement home. The main character, Huge, is tasked by his grandmother with getting to the bottom of this whodunnit. It serves as the perfect vehicle to both explore and expand Huge's captivating personality. The plot constantly drives both action and character development. While the detective story works well as a subtle backdrop to the more significant developments between characters, it's never, even temporarily abandoned. The mature and adolescent themes visited through the eyes of a uniquely sophisticated and heroic, yet immature and obviously inexperienced youth struck a huge resonant note deep within me. Huge is easily the best book I've read this year. I can easily recommend this book to anyone and everyone. However, the vocabulary and content may be too much for some preteens.

I must admit, this book took me back to days long past (the 80's, that is...). Well written (and honest). The ending truly caught me by surprise! I did like it! (And I recommend it!) It will remind some of us of when we were teenagers (no matter the decade), or, more importantly, if you have a teenager, you might want to use this book to show you what you may (or may not...hopefully) be in store for in the not-too-distant future! All kidding aside, this book will entertain you, give Mr. Fuerst's book, "Huge" a try. Five stars!

What a story! I absolutely fell in love with Eugene "Huge" Smalls, a troubled almost thirteen-year-old who, thanks to his nursing-home-bound grandma, has a love for old crime noir like Chandler and Hammett and fancies himself as a rakish Sam Spade type. When Huge's beloved grandmother slips him a ten spot to find the cads who vandalized the nursing home sign, Huge starts out on what he hopes will be the first of only many detective cases in his future. But Huge has issues. Abandoned by his father and raised by an overworked single mother and a loved by annoying teenage sister, Huge struggles with rage and impulse control. He is well known in his school and his neighborhood for his outbursts (hey, he's the scary kid who actually hit a *teacher*). He struggles to find himself and too often listens to his inner voice via Thrash, his strange best friend. Huge is scary smart and if he can channel his powers for good, he'll go far. He just has to figure out where to start. Huge is foul mouthed and defensive. He's also surprisingly insightful for a troubled pre-teen. He loves his mom and his sister, although he doesn't always act like it, and he longs for that one thing that will finally help him to feel like he's "normal." He struggles with the typical issues for a kid his age: frightening but tantalizing sexuality, how to make the leap from boy to man, how to fit in, how to get that girl, how to grab a spot on the football team when he's the smallest kid his age. I had to root for him! Fuerst has created one of my favorite characters in recent memory. Huge is compelling, and I was pulling for him to find his bit of happiness by the end of the story. This novel is funny, touching, edgy, and definitely worthwhile. It's a fun book, and I like to think of Huge riding around on his Cruiser, keeping an eye on things.

This is a really charming book that may easily fall through the cracks; the narrative is a adolescent coming-of-age story, but it's too ribald for the Young Adult market. The plot is structured as a tribute to the hard-boiled mysteries of the 1930's, but the whodunit here is intentionally slight, a problem of no urgency, that nobody cares much about except the brooding protagonist. So, "Huge" gets shelved as "literary fiction," a category with a mostly-older, mostly-female readership. With its affection for the fiction of the 30's and its nostalgia for growing up in the 1980's and its unapologetic, grubby maleness, this book is probably a hard sell to that audience. But the very fact that such an odd book even made it to store shelves speaks to the passion it must have inspired in the agent who represented it and the editors who acquired it. And when you read it, you'll see why. This book puts the reader inside the head of 12 year-old Eugene "Huge" Smalls. Huge is bright and precocious, but he isn't full of the sort of wide-eyed wonderment we usually get in the standard-issue child protagonists. Huge isn't making intricate maps of his internal terrain like Reif Larsen's T.S. Spivet; he's out there punching people, and rolling in dirt and hiding in the closet to peep at his sister's friend in the shower. And he doesn't beg for the reader's affection either. He's clearly disturbed and a kind of creepy, and his reputation as the meanest kid in school is one he earned honestly. But the writing is winning and funny, and Huge's admittedly sideways self-perception as a crusader for decency in a fallen world is ultimately redeeming. And while the book is ultimately more about how he awkwardly manages to get outside his own head, the mystery framework moves the plot along quickly. The book is fun and easy to read. Hugely recommended.

Twelve-year-old Eugene "Huge" Smalls wants the world and everything in it to be huge like him. But Huge--too small to even make the junior high football team, though he's the fastest kid at practice--doesn't exactly live up to his moniker. His uncontrollable temper and sardonic wit leave him isolated from his peers, and his obsession for the detective stories of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett drives him to question the motivation of everyone around him, even his doting mother and older sister Neecey--leaving Huge feeling even more alone. On his custom bike (The Cruiser) and with his constant companion (a stuffed frog named Thrash who only encourages his rage), the amateur sleuth prowls the dreary New Jersey town, longing for a life of intrigue he's only read about. His grandmother readily provides an opportunity for Huge's mischief, however, when she hires him on his first real case. But Huge's quest to solve it quickly deteriorates into a pursuit of vindication and personal retribution. Then everything changes for Huge when his detective work leads him to an unsuspecting high school party one night and a furtive encounter with classmate Stacy Sanders, a shapely but quiet girl Huge has had a hopeless crush on since he first laid eyes on her. In the end, the quest for revenge turns into a desire for forgiveness. And it's not just the rampaging Huge who must be forgiven. He himself must learn to forgive and to face a world often ripe with disappointment. The boy who wants everyone to call him "Huge" must not just grow taller--he must finally grow up. A charming story, though the narrative is at times a bit clumsy. I'd recommend Huge to anyone with nostalgia for banana seats, striped tube socks, and that time in life when having friends meant the world ... or anyone just looking for a book that's really fun to read. Huge won't disappoint.