Twerp

Twerp By Mark Goldblatt

There seems to be some kind of book law that states that if you want to tell a good coming of age story with a male lead you must set it in either the 50s or 60s. Twerp just made the cut, being set in 1969. Julian Twerski, our not so heroic lead is quite the character, he's narrating his story via composition books, not because he wants to -- his teacher has given him a choice: tell me your story or, like everyone else, you can take on Shakespeare. Julian takes decides he'll tell his story. He often gets sidetracked, telling parts of his story that have nothing to do with THEE story. He knows what his teacher really wants to know about -- the incident that landed him in trouble.

Julian is trying to move on from the incident. He's got a life to live. There's a rumor that there's now a kid who is faster than he is. Who will he be if he's no longer the fastest kid in his district? His best friend likes a girl but Julian, well Julian is the one who knows how to write the love letters -- that can only end well, so says his best friend. There are walls to climb. There's a sister to annoy, be annoyed by. Girl troubles, friend troubles, teacher troubles, races to run, Hebrew school to deal with on top of plain old school. Oh and he needs to remember not to be a Twerp.

And still, he has to write about the incident... But what if he just keeps writing and writing about anything and everything, maybe if he writes enough, he can just avoid that, right? His story is more than that, right?

I really couldn't give it five stars because it does feel like this story has been done before... mostly. That said, Julian is just barely different enough from that cliched 1960s coming of age boy to make you keep reading. You do want to know just what this boy did. It's hard to imagine him doing anything bad enough to make a teacher take notice -- especially as he's already told us most of typical stupid young boy moves. As the book comes to an end, you learn of his mistake -- the big one -- and you realize that yes Julian was a Twerp, more than a Twerp, but one that has learned a lot about himself during his assignment -- learned enough to know that he's ready to move on and hopefully not be a Twerp in the future.

* Disclaimer: I received this book at no cost in order to review it. I offered no guarantee of a positive review, though I only request books I think I'll like because why read a book you think you’ll hate?