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All About Lulu
Escrito por Jonathan Evison
Narrado por Michael Mish
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Weakness has always been a concern for William Miller. Growing up vegetarian in a family of bodybuilders will do that to a person. But William is further weakened by the death of his mother, the arrival of a new stepmother, and his irrepressible crush on his new stepsister, Lulu. As Lulu faces down her own challenges, William watches his life shift into tumult and despair. Once Lulu departs for college, Will goes into the world to find himself— discovering Western philosophy, a cruel dating world, enduring friendship, and, ultimately, his true calling. Emboldened by his turn as a late-night radio personality, Will rescues himself from the self-image of weakness he'd long wished to escape. This debut novel explores the fundamental difference between where we come from—and the endless possibilities of where we may go.
Acciones del libro
Comenzar a escucharInformación sobre el libro
All About Lulu
Escrito por Jonathan Evison
Narrado por Michael Mish
Descripción
Weakness has always been a concern for William Miller. Growing up vegetarian in a family of bodybuilders will do that to a person. But William is further weakened by the death of his mother, the arrival of a new stepmother, and his irrepressible crush on his new stepsister, Lulu. As Lulu faces down her own challenges, William watches his life shift into tumult and despair. Once Lulu departs for college, Will goes into the world to find himself— discovering Western philosophy, a cruel dating world, enduring friendship, and, ultimately, his true calling. Emboldened by his turn as a late-night radio personality, Will rescues himself from the self-image of weakness he'd long wished to escape. This debut novel explores the fundamental difference between where we come from—and the endless possibilities of where we may go.
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Interesting but long and a little too "hip" for my liking. And I have to admit I saw the "spoiler" in a previous review and already knew "about Lulu" when I started the book. But it was interesting enough following all the flawed characters (and there were lots of them) through their twists and turns and good enough for 3 out of five stars.
I read a review that said this title was misnamed because the book is really all about Will. In reality the book is all about Will's obsession with Lulu. With a delightful and diverse cast of characters, this is a book to fall in love with - from the beginning where we find Will stranded by the death of his mother leaving him with his champion body builder father and twin brothers who follow Dad's every path. When Dad remarries and brings Willow, a grief counselor, and her daughter Lulu to their home, Will begins to find himself with Lulu's help. He falls in love with Lulu and devotes every waking moment to documenting her every delightful and not so delightful activities. When Lulu turns away from Will, he is devestated. But as we know, life goes on. I fell in love with Will, his brothers, Willow and Lulu. I was left as confused as Will until the very end. FInally, there is redemption and sadness, and finally understanding. An excellent read!
I don't often read contemporary American literary fiction. When I do read such works (The Time Traveler's Wife, Empire Falls) I read them in large chunks and ultimately they have a great emotional impact. All About Lulu, the debut novel by Jonathan Evison, is no exception. It is an unconventional love story, the basic premise of which I had thought of writing before. Evison crafts it into a far more layered and encompassing story. It is Holden Caufield's Lolita. If Nabokov's Lolita was a metaphor for totalitarianism or opposing cultures, Evison's Lulu is a metaphor for growing up (or perhaps remaining young) and the desperation of teenage youth in the American dystopia. A brilliant first novel.
In the early pages of "All About Lulu" we follow Will through the death of his mother and his father's subsequent remarriage to his grief counselor, Willow. His new stepmother also brings with him the attractive-in-her-own-way Louise (nickname: Lulu). Will, with his abnormally low voice for a 9-year-old, had stopped speaking after his mother's death, and it is only through Lulu that he rediscovers his voice.Lulu and Will forge a seemingly unbreakable friendship and eventually becom...more In the early pages of "All About Lulu" we follow Will through the death of his mother and his father's subsequent remarriage to his grief counselor, Willow. His new stepmother also brings with him the attractive-in-her-own-way Louise (nickname: Lulu). Will, with his abnormally low voice for a 9-year-old, had stopped speaking after his mother's death, and it is only through Lulu that he rediscovers his voice.Lulu and Will forge a seemingly unbreakable friendship and eventually become pseudo-girlfriend and boyfriend. They develop their own secret language and depend on each other almost completely for friendship and understanding. That is until Lulu leaves for cheerleading camp the summer before they begin high school. Will is distraught that he won't have Lulu with him for a full month, and this turns to complete devastation when Lulu returns completely changed. She no longer responds to their secret language. She locks herself away in her room most days. And, worst of all, she acts as though Will is invisible.Throughout the rest of the book Will seeks to figure out what caused this change in Lulu. What happened while she was away? He spends years obsessed with her (and I have to admit it got a little creepy after awhile), but finally begins putting his life together. He gets his dream job as a radio announcer and even starts his own hot dog stand business with his Russian-immigrant landlord. Everything is running smooth until the last few chapters when he learns of events in Lulu's life and is pulled back into her orbit and finally learns what it was that pushed her away from him all those years ago.I really enjoyed this book, if only because of its loveably oddball cast of characters. First, there's Will's father and twin brothers who are all body builders. Evison takes the term "meathead" literally with these three, making light of the fact that they eat meat. Will, a vegetarian, laments several times that he thinks his dad believes the world is made of meat.Then we have his Russian-immigrant neighbor, his ghost cat (Frank), and his philosophy teacher, who I particularly love because he enabled Evison to use his Sweats to Pants Ratio, of which I've always been a huge fan:"I'm developing something I call the sweats to pants ratio (SPR), by which success is measured relative to the days one spends in formal versus casual attire (formal being anything with pockets). By this measure, seven days a week in sweats is the pinnacle of success. I'm at about five-to-two right now. Pretty damn succesful."This is a quick and fun read. I also like that it's a new author, published by a small press.