Lowboy

The critical praise for Lowboy was so exalted I almost hesitated to buy the book; nothing could live up to that hype. But Lowboy just about does. The disintegrating point of view of the title character, aka Will Heller, is precise and sweeps you along. The entire book, in fact, is paced like an express train: fast, at times appearing to be controlled, at other times delivering unexpected jolts. It was only afterward that I questioned a few of the authorial choices, in particular concerning Will's mother. But the external and internal worlds of Will sucked me in to such a degree that even after I emerged, I still felt vaguely unsettled, as you do when climbing up the subway steps after an especially long trip to be smacked with the midday sun. All I can say is that I can't recommend Lowboy enough.

Few books in my collection receive the esteemed honor of becoming underlined/highlighted. I knew right away this would be one of them. A fantastic look into a schizophrenic teenager's mind, this book was compelling and beautifully written. The writing alternates between a stream of consciousness style and a more sterile narrative approach so the reader gets a glimpse into the main character's mind as well as the world around him and those involved in his life. This book is a definite contemporary to Catcher in the Rye but no less original; I would highly recommend it!

Having stumbled upon this novel quite by accident, I was mesmerized by the story of a psychotic adolescent who has escaped from a mental institution and his mother's frantic efforts to save him or to save anyone whom he might harm in a story that covers just a little over 24 hours. Many parts of the book are told through the paranoid schizophrenic eyes of the beautiful 16-year old boy, adding a great deal of realism to the tragic yet hopeful story. Wray has apparently accomplished a great deal of insight into the mind of paranoid schizophrenia as well as the mind of innocent youth throughout the world. Woven into this thrilling story is the beautiful and enigmatic mother and the thoughtful and provocative detective she hires to catch the boy before he harms himself or someone in his way to accomplish what he must accomplish to save the world. Reserve some time for this novel because once you start reading it, you won't be able to put it down.

This is just by far the novel of the year for me--profound and beautiful and edge-of-your-seat thrilling at the same time. Where did this John Wray come from? I hadn't heard about either of his other two novels, although the critics seem to have gone ga-ga over them, too. I can't gush over this book enough. I was so entertained and entranced reading it that at one point I didn't even realize I was crying. I just flipped over this thing. Did I mention that it's also really funny?

After reading the Sunday Times I was eager to get my hands on this book. The notion of detailing the psychology of a teenage schitzophrenic appealed to me because of the sheer challenge such a project would entail - an attempt to express the ineffable, if you will. It is difficult to argue that Wrey succeeds in his effort, since I have no personal experiance with schitzophrenia, but the psychology that he does map out in this underground world (so to speak) is nothing short of impressive. One has to applaud Wrey not only for the control of his prose and the range of his strokes, but also for all the subtleties that bring out the character of the protagonist and of the city he exists in. For instance, the setting is the New York City subway, which, like public transportation systems in most major cities, is filled with that strange sense of "otherness." The subway itself has that schitzophrenic, "wasteland" (in the TS Eliot sense of the word) surreality. It's like looking well under the cracks of society, and, in effect, finding the unstable essence underneath. There are other subtle aspects of the narrative that work to same effect (like ciphers embedded in the text, or the ebb and flow of the structure), but I probably shouldn't spoil these things for others. There were a couple of instances where I felt a little enclosed in the simple, declarative style of minimalism that Wrey wrote in. On the other hand, the decision to do seems fitting and appropriate; that is, symptomatic of the protagonist's incapacitating schitzophrenia. Other times the way that Wrey describes the surreality of this almost hallucinogenic world has a poetic edge that is on point. I wouldn't say that this is my favorite novel, or the best written novel, and certainly not a novel for everyone, but it is a fantastic display of literary sense. I called this review "sad but true" because this novel, in its entirety, really is sad when you conisder it, but it's also true, especially given the social stigma that sorrounds mental illness. To try and write a novel that handles such subject matter fairly is a kind and sympathetic gesture.