The Man: New York Times Notable Book of the Year

Well, let me start out by saying that I personally enjoyed this book, and thought it might be an appropriate and thoughtful addition to the library of a mature kid between, say, 10 and 13 years old (all the same, read it first before you give it.) There's a lot of tension between the boy's prosperous middle-class liberal upbringing, and the tiny, aggressively needy drifter who disrupts his life. There's a lot of play on the nature of charity, dependency and exploitation. A key bit of dialogue: -You didn't take me in. I came in. -I let you stay, then. -Yes, but why? That is the question. -I felt sorry for you, of course. You were cold... starving... -You were being kind? -Er... yes. I suppose so. -My size didn't come into it? -No. -You weren't attracted... fascinated... by my size? -Well... not JUST that - -Suppose you'd been woken up by a naked starving man six foot tall? You'd have screamed, run for Mum and Dad and called the police? -Yes. On the other hand, do NOT start reading this to your 4 year old unless you want questions and comments like "hee hee, he's drinking a BEER!" "why does he call the boy a sissy? What is a sissy?" "what is a wog?" "why does the boy tell lies to his mama?" and "he's a bad man because he will burn down the house and kill the good boy." I went to the library, saw this next to The Snowman in the children's section, grabbed it along with a bunch of other books for bedtime reading. Meant to look it over before I read it to our preschooler. Husband saw the book on our shelf, assumed that I'd already vetted it, began to read it to the tot, who of course loved the funny little naked man and begged for more! However, we ended up skipping or making up a lot of dialogue-- too many hard words, too much complexity, too much satire. Publishers Weekly review recommends this book for ages 4-8, but that's plain wrong. At that age, kids will get nothing out of it except perhaps a premature understanding that it is possible to steal beer from one's parents, and that one way to deal with anger is to threaten to burn the house down with a match. Lord, life is difficult enough for a parent as it is.

I remember reading this when i was small, around the age of the boy in the story. Not only did I love the humor of the situation, i remember being brought nearly to tears by the end. The relationship between the two is very touching, and even now, re-reading it in college, the melancholy, but heart-warming feeling of the story is just as touching.