I Love You, Beth Cooper

It's rare -- all too rare -- to find a book where you constantly laugh out loud. Larry Doyle has accomplished this difficult task with: I Love You, Beth Cooper. A stunning debut, which almost certainly means more funny and smart books from this major talent. It's a classic scenario: the high school nerd falls in love with the gorgeous cheerleader. In less capable hands, the book could be tedious. But, throughout this fast-paced book, there are dozens of hilarious scenes, great dialogue and wonderful characters. It's all the sweeter and funnier because there are many touching moments too. In a 24-hour period, these high school graduates learn a lot about love, and life. Thank you Larry Doyle. Harvey McKinnon is the co-author of The Power of Giving: How Giving Back Enriches Us All (Penguin).

Comedy is the hardest genre to write, whether it's for the page or the screen. Doyle's worked on both The Simpsons and Beavis and Butt-Head, so he's clearly got the chops for TV, and this book proves he's got 'em for the page as well. Although I love comic fiction, it usually tends to leave me pretty unsatisfied, often tending to be satire of the "shooting-fish-in-a-barrel" variety, whereby the situations are stale and the jokes obvious. Here, Doyle takes a familiar setup (perhaps it might qualify as a subgenre) -- the last day/night of high school -- and goes to town with it in a ridiculously over-the-top manner that will leave readers looking for laughs well satisfied. It's something along the lines of "American Graffiti" meet "Freaks and Geeks" meets "Better Off Dead." The story kicks off with the nerdy hero Denis Cooverman (aka Penis, aka The Coove) delivering his high school valedictorian speech in a sweltering gym. The thing is, his best (and only) friend Rich, a walking database of movie quotes, has convinced him to toss his milquetoast speech in favor of some home truths. And thus the speech becomes a trainwreck of thinly veiled insults, retribution, and outing of classmates, climaxing with Denis's declaration of love for the head cheerleader. This serves as the catalyst for a wild night of many wacky and/or illegal antics which are clearly not condoned, but are laugh-out-loud funny (including three sexual acts whose slang names I had to Google to decode). If this doesn't sound particularly original, that's because it isn't. But comedy is all in the execution, and Doyle loads each page with gags, sharp banter, great wordplay, and all manner of acid observations. Yes, many of the targets for this semi-revenge of the nerds satire are obvious, but again, it's all in the execution. The wild night unwinds at breakneck speed, saturated with current pop culture references, and pretty much ready to go for the big screen. It's probably best appreciated by those who weren't the popular kids in high school, and are now in their mid 20s to late 30s, well steeped in the teen movie genre from the complete works of John Hughes to American Pie. It's totally unbelievable, and totally hilarious stuff.

Larry Doyle's "I Love You, Beth Cooper" takes a novel type (the coming-of-age story) and manages to work in equal amounts of pathos and hilarity without detriment to either. What you need to know about the main characters is that Denis Cooverman is class valedictorian and captain of the debate team (he speaks "nine languages, three of them real") and Beth Cooper is the head cheerleader. As another reviewer has noted, if you thought high school was the be-all and end-all of your life, skip it. If you're one of the rest of us, get this book right now! Denis decides to declare his love for Beth (who scarcely knows he's alive--their only contact has been from being seated alphabetically next to each other in class) from the podium at their high school graduation. From that moment, at the very beginning, the comedy comes fast and furious, starting with the response Denis prepares to Beth, depending on whether her reaction to his oath of love is positive or negative: POSITIVE: "Then we agree." NEGATIVE: "It's my medication." Some of the hundreds of great lines from the novel include: "Denis jerked his face to the side--universal body language for 'Yes, I was staring at you'--while maintaining his casual yet defiant pose against the wall. It made him look like a male underwear model, except not." "Denis thrust his hands back into the closet, praying they would reappear holding anything resembling a weapon. A loaded revolver would be ideal, though unlikely (his mother felt hunters should be tried for war crimes and his father drove a Prius)." "Rich [Denis's best friend] chafed at Denis's brain ruining all their fun . . . but the doom-modeling had saved Rich's life on at least five occasions: the 'Super Juice' made from Orange Powerade, 'Batman returns' cereal, crushed Superman vitamins and topped with Mr. Muscle oven cleaner (age five); the re-enactment of the mining car chase from 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom' (age 9); the 'Harold and Maude' fake suicide re-enactment and sympathy ploy (age 14) . . . " "Valli Woolly invited no one [to her party]. She had disinvited just enough people ('I have to keep it small') for word to get around. She wanted everybody to be crashing, so that they would all feel unworthy and she could eject anyone at any time. She was that much of a bitch." "The kitchen was unnecessarily immense, as no one in the Woolly family ate anything with the exception of Mr. Woolly, and all he ate was Scotch." There's a little too much bully-boy-beats-up-cowering-skinny-guy in the book for my tastes (all of it extraordinarily cartoonish and distracting), but that's my only complaint. This is an amazingly funny, laugh-out-loud-and-read-parts-of-it-aloud-to-anyone-sitting-near-you kind of book.

As other reviewers have said, this book is hilarious. The broad plot (high school geek gets a fun, crazy, intermittently painful night with the head cheerleader) is just the skeleton on which Doyle is hanging all his spot-on, extremely funny observations about modern life (teen and otherwise). I started this on a plane and kept disturbing my seatmate by laughing out loud. The descriptions remind me a lot of David Sedaris. It's a great gift for grads ~ but don't think of it as *just* a teen book. Anybody who has been to high school will enjoy it.

One of the most enjoyable, entertaining books I've read in a long, long time. I read the book in two sittings, finishing up at 4 a.m. this morning. I laughed my way throughout, to the dismay of my wife who I'm afraid was trying to sleep. This is a funny, fast-paced read, and I was actually more than a bit sad to see it end, which is always the sign of an excellent book. I hope it finds the large audience it deserves.