I’ve made it no secret that my favorite flavor of story is the coming-of-age tale. Stephen King’s IT and “The Body”. Robert McCammon’s BOY’S LIFE. Ed Gorman’s “Moonchasers”. These are a few of my favorite stories. There’s just something about a child moving from adolescence to an early form of adulthood as he or she goes through a life-changing series of events that speaks to me.
So, it was with quite a bit of excitement that I dug into THE GREATEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD, a story that centers around nine-year-old Morris Bird III. The first half of the book is an in-depth character study that details Morris’ life – everything from his familial relationships to his band of friends to his classes at school. At times interesting and at times a little slow, this section is a poignant representation of a boy’s life, his daily routines, and the inner turmoil he feels as he grows up in the 1940s.
The second half of the novel then delves into an adventure that Morris and his six-year-old sister share, in which Morris decides to visit a friend who has moved to the other side of Cleveland. Armed with a few tools to help him on his journey, and pulling his six-year-old sister across the city in a little red wagon, Morris sets off to find his friend. It is during this part of the story that we see Morris and his sister go through numerous trials and tribulations, the worst of which is a horrible industrial disaster that destroys a large part of the city (and no, that isn’t a spoiler…it’s discussed on the first page of the book). It is here we also see Morris display numerous characteristics – determination, courage, bravery, loyalty, etc – that bring him through his trials and ultimately push him over the hump from boy to young man.
My only quibbles with the book are a couple of style choices that didn’t work for me, the worst of which was the long paragraphs. There are multiple paragraphs that stretch for three to four pages…and one that actually went for twelve pages! I’ve never seen anything like it before. It was also during these passages that numerous characters and their points of view were all mashed together with no designated break from one another, making it hard at times to figure out where one point of view changes to another. And last, there are instances throughout the novel where conversations are denoted with quotation marks, but then other conversations have no quotation marks (again, mashing them together with everything else). While I understand that the story is ultimately the same whether or not there are paragraph breaks or quotation marks, Robertson’s style made it a little more work to read through an otherwise solid story.
Slow spots and quibbles aside, this is a very good novel that effectively describes what it was like to be a child of the 1940s, and how events that transpire in one’s life bring about the end of innocence. I’d grade THE GREATEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD as an 8 out of 10, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys this type of story.
THE GREATEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD is published by Harper Paperbacks at a cover price of $12.95.
So, it was with quite a bit of excitement that I dug into THE GREATEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD, a story that centers around nine-year-old Morris Bird III. The first half of the book is an in-depth character study that details Morris’ life – everything from his familial relationships to his band of friends to his classes at school. At times interesting and at times a little slow, this section is a poignant representation of a boy’s life, his daily routines, and the inner turmoil he feels as he grows up in the 1940s.The second half of the novel then delves into an adventure that Morris and his six-year-old sister share, in which Morris decides to visit a friend who has moved to the other side of Cleveland. Armed with a few tools to help him on his journey, and pulling his six-year-old sister across the city in a little red wagon, Morris sets off to find his friend. It is during this part of the story that we see Morris and his sister go through numerous trials and tribulations, the worst of which is a horrible industrial disaster that destroys a large part of the city (and no, that isn’t a spoiler…it’s discussed on the first page of the book). It is here we also see Morris display numerous characteristics – determination, courage, bravery, loyalty, etc – that bring him through his trials and ultimately push him over the hump from boy to young man.
My only quibbles with the book are a couple of style choices that didn’t work for me, the worst of which was the long paragraphs. There are multiple paragraphs that stretch for three to four pages…and one that actually went for twelve pages! I’ve never seen anything like it before. It was also during these passages that numerous characters and their points of view were all mashed together with no designated break from one another, making it hard at times to figure out where one point of view changes to another. And last, there are instances throughout the novel where conversations are denoted with quotation marks, but then other conversations have no quotation marks (again, mashing them together with everything else). While I understand that the story is ultimately the same whether or not there are paragraph breaks or quotation marks, Robertson’s style made it a little more work to read through an otherwise solid story.
Slow spots and quibbles aside, this is a very good novel that effectively describes what it was like to be a child of the 1940s, and how events that transpire in one’s life bring about the end of innocence. I’d grade THE GREATEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD as an 8 out of 10, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys this type of story.
THE GREATEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD is published by Harper Paperbacks at a cover price of $12.95.
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