![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick
The Blurb On The Back:
Leonard Peacock is turning 18.
And he wants to say goodbye.
Not to his former best friend, whose torments have driven him to consider committing something tragic and horrific.
Nor to his mum who’s moved out and left him to fend for himself. But to his four friends.
A Humphrey Bogart-obsessed neighbour.
A teenage violin virtuouso.
A pastor’s daughter.
A teacher.
Most of the time Leonard believes he’s weird and sad but these friends have made him think that maybe he’s not.
He wants to thank them, and bid them farewell.
It’s Leonard Peacock’s 18th birthday. To celebrate, he’s going to give gifts to the four people who’ve meant the most to him before engaging in a little murder/suicide with the boy who’s been tormenting him for years. But as Leonard visits his neighour Walt (who’s obsessed with Humphrey Bogart movies), Iranian violin prodigy Baback, evangelical Christian Lauren and inspirational teacher Herr Silverman, he discovers that it’s not easy to say goodbye …
Matthew Quick’s literary YA novel deals with the serious topics of depression, social isolation, emotional abuse and rape but maintains a dark sense of humour and a pitch perfect narrative voice. Leonard is an outsider – smart but damaged he keenly recognises his absence of friends and yearns for human contact even though he can’t quite seem to connect with people. I particularly enjoyed his relationship with Bogart-fan Walt and Quick perfectly captures how it’s based on mutual acceptance. By contrast, Herr Silverman was a little too idealised for me and I found the footnotes that pepper the text to be really jarring and they took me out of the story. Despite that though, it’s an absorbing read and sympathetic to its main character. I’d definitely check out Quick’s other books.
Leonard has a pitch-perfect voice. Vulnerable, smart-mouthed and damaged by the emotional abuse suffered at the hands of his selfish mother and absentee father and, more seriously by sustained sexual abuse, he knows that he’s broken and is determined to take action over it. Given that the book is told in the first person though, I found the footnotes to be particularly jarring and an unnecessary gimmick. I also wasn’t struck on the future letters device either, as they were a little too mawkish for my liking.
The best scenes are those between Leonard and Walt because Quick strips their friendship down to the essentials. However, I also enjoyed the to-and-fro of his confused relationship with Lauren and liked the fact that Quick doesn’t use her faith as an easy stick to beat her with but equally isn’t afraid to have Leonard challenge her on it. I wished that the scenes with Herr Silverman had shared the same ambiguity but Silverman is, for me, too idealistic a portrayal of a teacher.
That said though, I did enjoy this book and it’s particularly good to see a YA book that deals with the under-discussed subject of male-on-male rape.
The Verdict:
Matthew Quick’s literary YA novel deals with the serious topics of depression, social isolation, emotional abuse and rape but maintains a dark sense of humour and a pitch perfect narrative voice. Leonard is an outsider – smart but damaged he keenly recognises his absence of friends and yearns for human contact even though he can’t quite seem to connect with people. I particularly enjoyed his relationship with Bogart-fan Walt and Quick perfectly captures how it’s based on mutual acceptance. By contrast, Herr Silverman was a little too idealised for me and I found the footnotes that pepper the text to be really jarring and they took me out of the story. Despite that though, it’s an absorbing read and sympathetic to its main character. I’d definitely check out Quick’s other books.
And he wants to say goodbye.
Not to his former best friend, whose torments have driven him to consider committing something tragic and horrific.
Nor to his mum who’s moved out and left him to fend for himself. But to his four friends.
A Humphrey Bogart-obsessed neighbour.
A teenage violin virtuouso.
A pastor’s daughter.
A teacher.
Most of the time Leonard believes he’s weird and sad but these friends have made him think that maybe he’s not.
He wants to thank them, and bid them farewell.
It’s Leonard Peacock’s 18th birthday. To celebrate, he’s going to give gifts to the four people who’ve meant the most to him before engaging in a little murder/suicide with the boy who’s been tormenting him for years. But as Leonard visits his neighour Walt (who’s obsessed with Humphrey Bogart movies), Iranian violin prodigy Baback, evangelical Christian Lauren and inspirational teacher Herr Silverman, he discovers that it’s not easy to say goodbye …
Matthew Quick’s literary YA novel deals with the serious topics of depression, social isolation, emotional abuse and rape but maintains a dark sense of humour and a pitch perfect narrative voice. Leonard is an outsider – smart but damaged he keenly recognises his absence of friends and yearns for human contact even though he can’t quite seem to connect with people. I particularly enjoyed his relationship with Bogart-fan Walt and Quick perfectly captures how it’s based on mutual acceptance. By contrast, Herr Silverman was a little too idealised for me and I found the footnotes that pepper the text to be really jarring and they took me out of the story. Despite that though, it’s an absorbing read and sympathetic to its main character. I’d definitely check out Quick’s other books.
Leonard has a pitch-perfect voice. Vulnerable, smart-mouthed and damaged by the emotional abuse suffered at the hands of his selfish mother and absentee father and, more seriously by sustained sexual abuse, he knows that he’s broken and is determined to take action over it. Given that the book is told in the first person though, I found the footnotes to be particularly jarring and an unnecessary gimmick. I also wasn’t struck on the future letters device either, as they were a little too mawkish for my liking.
The best scenes are those between Leonard and Walt because Quick strips their friendship down to the essentials. However, I also enjoyed the to-and-fro of his confused relationship with Lauren and liked the fact that Quick doesn’t use her faith as an easy stick to beat her with but equally isn’t afraid to have Leonard challenge her on it. I wished that the scenes with Herr Silverman had shared the same ambiguity but Silverman is, for me, too idealistic a portrayal of a teacher.
That said though, I did enjoy this book and it’s particularly good to see a YA book that deals with the under-discussed subject of male-on-male rape.
The Verdict:
Matthew Quick’s literary YA novel deals with the serious topics of depression, social isolation, emotional abuse and rape but maintains a dark sense of humour and a pitch perfect narrative voice. Leonard is an outsider – smart but damaged he keenly recognises his absence of friends and yearns for human contact even though he can’t quite seem to connect with people. I particularly enjoyed his relationship with Bogart-fan Walt and Quick perfectly captures how it’s based on mutual acceptance. By contrast, Herr Silverman was a little too idealised for me and I found the footnotes that pepper the text to be really jarring and they took me out of the story. Despite that though, it’s an absorbing read and sympathetic to its main character. I’d definitely check out Quick’s other books.