From the Bookshelf of What's the Name of That Book???…
Find A Copy At
Group Discussions About This Book
No group discussions for this book yet.
What Members Thought
This is a big book - figuratively and literally - and it's hard to know where to start. It's one of those books where you completely buy into the world of the story - it's character driven, and you never doubt for a moment that this is how they would act or think. But because it feels so real, it's that much more difficult to read. Each of the high schoolers is so painfully messed up, each family has so many issues. It never reads like a problem novel, partly because it's so well crafted and par
...more
I don't know how I missed reading this earlier, but this is a perfect back-to-school book.
Karl Shoemaker's first week of senior year is supposed to be his ticket to "normal" - he's leaving the self-described Madman Underground, a disparate group of students who have some sort of troubled home life (incest, alcoholism, missing parents, etc.) that causes them to act out in school. He's also only a few months sober, recently broken up with his girlfriend, and trying to keep his alcoholic, hippie m ...more
Karl Shoemaker's first week of senior year is supposed to be his ticket to "normal" - he's leaving the self-described Madman Underground, a disparate group of students who have some sort of troubled home life (incest, alcoholism, missing parents, etc.) that causes them to act out in school. He's also only a few months sober, recently broken up with his girlfriend, and trying to keep his alcoholic, hippie m ...more
Tales of the Madman Underground is full of great characters, sad stories, and insight into adolescences in the early 1970's. The adults in the book, though flawed as are the teens, are worthy, interesting and redeemable. My one issue with this book is that it needs a good editing. Somebody at the publisher needed to go through this and delete all of the excess details and dialogue. So much of it was overkill.
...more
Mar 13, 2010
Philip
marked it as to-read
Oct 06, 2013
Jennie
marked it as to-read
Jun 08, 2014
Lisa
marked it as to-read
