Pay It Forward

I loved this book, but was not going to take the time to review it--but the last review about it being "overly utopian" ticked me off. In the movie, the teacher tells Trevor that the class thinks he's come up with an overly utopian idea. He says, "So?"I'm on his side.Also, I wish people wouldn't review books unless they have read them carefully. In the movie Trevor is 11. In the book, when he makes that comment about Chelsea Clinton being "a major babe" he is just a day or two shy of his 14th birthday. And it never says the world is perfect and there is no greed. Also the book starts with the gift of a 2-year-old Acura, where in the movie it's a brand-new Jaguar. In the book the boy helps an old lady with her garden. How can anyone say the favors in the book are outrageous and unbelievable compared to the movie? I don't know what book "Overly Utopian" read, but it wasn't the Pay It Forward I read.Please, people, it's okay not to like a book but be fair and get your facts right.

Following on the heels of her critically acclaimed debut novel, Funerals For Horses (1997), Catherine Ryan Hyde has crafted another affecting tale. It is one sown with promise and the innate goodness of humankind. Can our world be changed for the better? Twelve-year-old Trevor McKinney thinks that it can. Cynicism may dismiss this belief as implausible, lachrymose, but Ms. Hyde's meticulously wrought, restrained prose keeps sentimentality at bay, while at the same time imbuing Pay It Forward with a transcendent power to move. There is aught in Trevor's small town California background to explain his response when a social studies teacher challenges students to ""Think of an idea for world change, and put it into action." The boy devises an ingenious but simple scheme - pay it forward. In Trevor's words: "You see, I do something real good for three people. And then when they ask how they can pay it back, I say they have to pay it forward. To three more people. Each. So nine people get helped. Then those people have to do twenty-seven....Then it sort of spreads out, see. To eighty-one. Then two hundred forty-three. Then seven hundred twenty-nine. Then two thousand, one hundred eighty-seven. See how big it gets?" Trevor initiates his plan with Jerry, a homeless man, to whom the boy gives his paper route earnings so that Jerry can make himself presentable and find work. But with his first paycheck Jerry turns into a bar, squanders his hard earned cash, and winds up in jail. The second recipient of Trevor's good will is Mrs. Greenberg, an elderly arthritic widow. She dreams of seeing her beloved garden well tended again. Trevor spends after school hours restoring the yard to its former verdancy. When she asks the boy how she can pay him back, he suggests that she pay it forward. But Mrs. Greenberg dies. Deeming his plan a failure, Trevor is further disheartened by a relationship that he hoped would develop between his mother, Arlene, and his teacher, Reuben St. Clair. A more unlikely pair would be hard to find - Arlene is white, a pretty but tough recovering alcoholic who works two jobs to make ends meet. She feels Reuben looks down on her because she lacks education. A "little lightning bolt of indignation," Arlene is so prone to misjudgments that her AA sponsor warns, "Every time you throw a punch, girl, you break your own jaw." On the other hand, Reuben believes Arlene is repelled by his appearance - he is a black war veteran who lost half of his face in Vietnam. Wounded both physically and emotionally, he is only comfortable in a classroom. In a moment of self-revelation, Reuben discloses, "Any moment that required him to be emotionally helpful, to offer solace or understanding, was a hard moment." Yet, despite Trevor's misgivings his plan has taken root and is growing, spreading across state lines to Washington, D.C.. An invitation is extended to Trevor, Arlene and Reuben to come to the White Hou

When I read this book I was in the midst of an experimental project geared toward preventing child abuse via changing the energy in our community - something of a "Pay It Forward" in action -- reading Hyde's book offered me an affirmative boost that was magical. As soon as I finished reading it, I emailed more than a hundred people about the book - and the local libraries have not been able to keep it on the shelves since. It is an easy premise to put aside with cynicism - if one's choice in life is to hold on to the negative (this can't work, people aren't that way, etc.) and keep out the positive (each of us has the potential to change the world in powerful ways . . . every day). What I'm finding, is that more and more people are opening to joy and love and giving and letting go of control of outcomes (i.e. trusting in doing something wonderful just for the sake of doing it) - and if you're one of those folks, you'll find this book an energy booster, an affirmation, a gift for heart and soul.

Over the years, as I read more and more, my expectations get lower. I often just hope a book will keep me entertained on the train ride home, or distract me before bed. Catherine Ryan Hyde's books continually spoil me, though, and make me miserable with everything else I read for weeks afterward.Pay It Forward is one of those stories that, like my grandmother says about her favorite books, "Just talks to you, like you're sitting right there in the room!" It's a story about normal people and their normal dreams, which, like most normal dreams, are really extraordinary when they come true. It's so wonderful to step back from a book with a lovable character and realize that the character doesn't end with the book. It's never over, because the writer -- the character's creator -- is still alive and full of ideas. The idea of paying it forward really does come from a living, thinking person, and what's better, a person with a beautiful voice that just might reach out further than she can imagine.

Wow! Since I read this book, I've been confined to talking only about IT! Hyde has put on paper what has thus far only been effectively expressed on film. Unlike any other American-centric author, Hyde makes her optimistic view of our country believable. What makes "Pay it Forward" very real is Hyde's acknowledgement of the errors of human beings. What makes this work truly fantastic is proof that America can be made smaller -- truly village-like -- by kindness. She doesn't ask for "random" kindness, but for good deeds to be "paid forward," not back, for other acts of kindness. Catherine Ryan Hyde shows that you, me, anyone can perform mammoth acts for others, without losing what matters; and by doing so, the reader learns, we can change the world (and thereby gain so much more). I sincerely believe that this one book, or the point that Hyde makes, can improve the nature of day-to-day relations between Americans, country-wide, city by city.