The Full Cleveland

I have no idea how I came into possession of this book, but it showed up and I was so surprised by the depth of the book. I am also amazed at another reviewer who commented on how the book cover doesn't have the look and feel of the actual story at all. That is exactly what I was thinking and to be honest I don't ever remember thinking that about a book and its cover before. It kept bothering me that the two seemed so disconnected. I took it with me on vacation thinking that it was a quick brainless nanny diaries type book since that is the idea I got from the look of the book. But what I found was a cross between Carson McCullers, JD Salinger and Hesse but a little more sarcastic and wry which was great. A young girl trying to reconcile the groundless ground with the realities of life. I also disagree with the reviewer who says that coming of age stories have been done to death. What idea hasn't been done to death? Yoga romance? Even that is becoming popular these days! That would be like saying that man vs nature books have been done to death too. I highly recommend this book and wish that I hadn't accidentally dropped my copy in the tub as I was finishing it so that I could pass it on. My only critics are the cover and the title.

Terry Reed's first novel is an impressionistic coming-of-age story about Boyce Parkman, a girl in a large family living in Shaker Heights, Ohio in the 1960's and '70's. We experience the world through Boyce's eyes, at first accepting her parents' political and social views without question, then meeting the outside world in the form of a smart-mouthed girl from the other side of the tracks and then a boy (!) who is good at kissing. Consequences ensue. Funny and heartwarming, I couldn't put it down! Ms. Reed is a writer to watch...

The Full Cleveland is all that it promises to be and more. At first read, it is a charming and funny coming-of-age tale that follows the Parkman family's precipitous slide from the enchanted wealth of Shaker Heights, Ohio into the middle class normalcy of "It's a Wonderful Life." Seen through Boyce Parkman's original mind, however, as she moves from childhood to young adulthood, this multi-layered comic and lyrical journey becomes a classic, raising moral and philosophical questions along the way. Boyce's wry, subversive voice lures us, laughing one moment and crying the next, into inquiries about conscience, love, beauty, knowledge, and courage. In the end, The Full Cleveland becomes a family primer on how to live.

This is a fantastic coming-of-age novel that that I highly recommend, especially for book clubs looking for the next big thing on the Chick Lit list. Reed is a smooth and funny writer, a real pleasure. I can't wait for her next one!

I enjoyed this book immensely. I have never been to Shaker Heights (the affluent suburb of Cleveland the book first takes place in), but now I feel as if I have driven up and down its streets, gone to parties on the polo grounds, looked out from Tudor homes. All this is described with the greatest irony, sense of humor and wide eyed smart sweetness by Zu, the young narrator. Raised by a Protestant father keen on showing social injustice to his children, and a chic and crazily devout Catholic mother who has them pray for success, Zu navigates all waters while trying to answer some big questions of her own. This is a terrific first novel.