Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You

Quite possibly one of the best books in this genre you will ever read! Frankly I think it should replace CITR in high-schools all over North America! This messed up young man James Sveck is brilliantly incisive, side-splittingly funny, heartbreakingly sad and totally lovable. Go and buy it NOW! Buy two copies because you will definitely want to lend it out to your best buddy, your brother, sister, nephew or niece and it's unlikely it will be returned!

This deceptively slim novel has no significant bells and whistles, and its plot, what there is of it, is ordinary by any stretch of the imagination. But oh how it will take your breath away. This book has the sting of truth in every sentence, and I devoured it in less than 2 days - I read it with more gusto than anything I've read in the last few years. The writing is actually dazzling, and you will remember with an ache these delightfully dysfunctional people, so carefully rendered, so beautifully observed.

Cameron, Peter. "Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You", Farrar Strauss Giroux, 2007. Facing Adulthood Amos Lassen Coming-of-age is never easy but it is very hard in cynical tines. James Sveck is a cynic growing up surrounded by cynics in Peter Cameron's new novel, "Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You". Here is a novel written beautifully and crafted with great skill that not only is endearing but humorous as well. It is a novel about today and Cameron manages to capture the cynicism and with sarcastic irony the period in which we live today. James, our hero, observes all that is happening around him as he leaves high school and prepares for college at Brown University. The sarcastic title of the book sets the tone for the novel and as we meet our socially antagonistic hero we learn that he is emotionally distant, obsessed with himself and that his parents are upper class and have divorced. It is his summer before college and he really doesn't want to go because he knows that he will have to interact with others. He spends that summer working at his mother's art gallery or going off to visit his grandmother or going to a therapist which his parents felt was a good idea after he supposedly had a nervous breakdown the year before while on a school trip. James's fears, dreams and compulsions and passions are handled with lyrical writing by Cameron. It is never really clear if is gay but he does show the desire to be loved by the gay manager of his mother's gallery. He is frightened of life and Cameron is able to beautifully depict that with his writing. We also get an excellent satire of the art world and its pretentiousness. Cameron tells us a tale of a culture where almost everyone is born again or undergoing therapy because they are unable to connect with the world which is devoid of idealism. This is seen through the eyes of a young man who doubts that he will find his own way in the world we live in.

What a wonderful coming-of-age novel in the Age of Cynicism. Cameron is in total control of his narrative and precociously cynical protagonist, with all the apt props that drive us into questioning everything. The novel is crisply written, humorous throughout, adroitly crafted, endearing, while suitably alienated by all the phony characters who presumptively "got real and cool" and haven't. This novel is one perfectly suited to its time and age. I wish such great stories were written 40 and 50 years ago, that could be enjoyed in high school, college, and maturity. Granted, Cameron's ability to capture the precocious cynicism only works in our present state of affairs, but no author has captured its intensity with sarcastic irony better. One's empathy and/or identity flows with each defective character (with a mild smirk that we gay men tend to get, when others think they know us better than we already know ourselves -- until, of course, we trust experience to break those barriers). I especially enjoyed the young guy and grandmother's role in the novel's heuristics. In a culture where everyone is born-again or in therapy for being lifeless and self-consciously dead, perhaps we'll discover it is the spirit that questions and doubts, who questions orthodoxy, rather than submits to a depraved civilization in therapy for loss of feeling and meaning, perhaps some of us are shamans -- if only for ourselves. At least that was once, and may yet again, be the hope of youth -- to question things that jaded middle age seems content with. No idealism. Just a precocious kid with doubts about "their" way of the world.

James Svek doesn't really fit in. He isn't interested in the same things as other eighteen-year-old guys, doesn't even like people his age, and even keeps his family at a distance. Nobody could blame James for being detached from his family. His father is a bit self-absorbed and seems to feel obligated to spend the little time he does with James. James' mother owns an art gallery and has just returned early from her honeymoon. Her third marriage has ended almost as quickly as it began. And James' older sister, Gillian, is enmeshed in her own life, and an affair with a married professor. Even the family dog seems to feel superior to James. The only family member James admires is his grandmother who is supportive and understanding, even if she is a bit eccentric herself. The only other person that James admires is John, who works with him at his mother's gallery. James is a contemplative young man whose views on the world around him aren't always congruent with popular opinion. He sees the world with a mix of ironic humor and disdain. Although he isn't an "angry" teenager, James has distanced himself from the people and things that surround him. Now James' life is getting complicated. He has been accepted to Brown University but he has decided that he doesn't want to go to college. He would rather buy an old house in the Midwest and live in obscurity. His parents have sent him to a shrink, one who annoyingly answers every question with a question. He has just ruined what friendship he had with John. And why are his parents now asking him if he's gay? SOMEDAY THIS PAIN WILL BE USEFUL TO YOU is a smart, funny story about the pain that comes with growing up and becoming your own person. James is a highly likeable character whose views on the world and himself are refreshing and insightful. This is a book that is sure to leave a lasting impression on anyone who reads it. Reviewed by: JodiG.