The Sledding Hill by Chris Crutcher

Amazon Summary: "Billy Bartholomew has an audacious soul, and he knows it. Why? Because it's all he has left. He's dead. Eddie Proffit has an equally audacious soul, but he doesn't know it. He's still alive. These days, Billy and Eddie meet on the sledding hill, where they used to spend countless hours -- until Billy kicked a stack of Sheetrock over on himself, breaking his neck and effectively hitting tilt on his Earthgame. The two were inseparable friends. They still are. And Billy is not about to let a little thing like death stop him from hanging in there with Eddie in his epic struggle to get his life back on track."

This book is a little different from Crutcher's other books. Instead being told from the point of view of a character who is having problems, this story is told from the point of view of a very un-troubled, non-living boy. I've gotta give the man some credit for being unique. I'm sure that I've read something from the point of view of a dead person before (at least I think I have), but definitely not with this much description of what it's like to be dead. I think it would've been fine but for the mention that dead people lack emotion. That threw me for a loop. How could you care about anything without emotion? It didn't seem entirely consistant with spirit-Billy's actions. He was also all-knowing. But for some reason he stuck around to see what was going to happen next? Why wait when you can skip ahead in time and find out immediately? I think it needed some more fine tuning to make sense.

Other than that though, it's a pretty good read. I think I'd rather it were told from Eddie's perspective. It could still have spirit-Billy in it, but more as a side character than anything else. I think having him as the main character took away from the story. Cool idea, but not the best execution. The particular issue that this book focuses on is censorship. I foolishly though that censorship was long gone by now, but apparently not. Boy did that throw me off. I mean, who bans books because they have gay characters or bad language? What's the point? High school is way more inappropriate than any book I've ever read. People are deluding themselves if they think banning books is going to fix anything.

Anyway, the point is that while I loved the idea of this book, the execution left much to be desired for me. It's great that Crutcher wanted to experiment a bit, but I personally prefer his usual style.

Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher

Amazon Summary: "A varsity letter jacket: it's exclusive, nearly unattainable, revered . . . and everything that's screwed up about Cutter High, as far as T. J. Jones is concerned. That's why T. J. is determined to have the Cutter All Night Mermen—the unlikeliest swim team a high school has ever seen—earn letter jackets of their own. It won't be easy. For one thing, they don't even have a pool. They will fight for their dignity, they will fight with each other, and sometimes they will just fight. And then they will realize that a single moment can bring lifelong heartache or lifelong friendship. For T. J. and his crew of misfits, the quest may be far more valuable than the reward."

Now I'm stuck. I can't decide if I like this one better than The Crazy Horse Electric Game or not. I'm inclined to say this one partially because of how amusing it is at times, but it might just be that I read it more recently. Anyway, I enjoyed it a lot. The narrator, T. J., made Whale Talk particularly good. He's downright hilarious with the way he messes with people. He just sticks out as a particularly likable character and a great narrator for the story. The swim team as a group is totally charming, from Mott the intimidating to Dan the wordy. There's a large focus on the issue of racism in the book and it can get kind of rough, but the humor balances it out perfectly. The characters were all great, even if I didn't like some of them (but that's how was supposed to feel anyway since those were the mean guys). It's totally worth a read.

Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher

This doesn't really need much in the way of a summary. Basically, this book is a compilation of six short stories, five of which deal with characters in Crutcher's earlier novels and the other an entirely new character. Some of them are sad, some of them are funny, and others fall somewhere in between. They give a little extra information about the characters from his earlier books--Lion (Stotan! and Ironman); Johnny, Petey, and Telephone Man (The Crazy Horse Electric Game); and Louie (Running Loose). It's a fairly quick read and I think they add to the stories. Particularly the one about Lion because he was somewhat skimmed over in Stotan!. Even though Running Loose is (so far) my least favorite Chris Crutcher book, the story featuring Louie actually ended up being my favorite out of the six stories in Athletic Shorts. Athletic Shorts is definitely worth a read, even if you haven't read the books the characters come from.

Chinese Handcuffs by Chris Crutcher

Amazon Summary: "Dillon is living with the painful memory of his brother's suicide -- and the role he played in it. To keep his mind and body occupied, he trains intensely for the Ironman triathlon. But outside of practice, his life seems to be falling apart. Then Dillon finds a confidante in Jennifer, a star high school basketball player who's hiding her own set of destructive secrets. Together, they must find the courage to confront their demons -- before it's too late."

Well. That was intense. That's my warning for you. If you can't take any kind of heavy abuse stories then don't pick it up. It's very intense. That being said, I maintain my opinion about Chris Crutcher's books as a whole; they are very good. This one is different from the others in that there's a good portion in the first half of the book that is told (more or less--he has a very distinctive style of switching points of view around whenever he wants to let you know what's going on in someone's head) from Jennifer's perspective. I haven't seen a girl play much of a role in any of Crutcher's stories so far (I guess there was a bit in Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes...) so I was surprised at the role she played. He sort of gave it up after he explained what her deal was, so he didn't exactly stick with it, but it was new nonetheless. I totally forgot to mention this in some of my review of his other books but Crutcher often uses letters as a way to narrate the story. In this case, Dillon narrates a lot of what happens in letters to his dead brother Preston. I don't really know what to think about this technique. It's certainly interesting, but I don't know the purpose of it. I haven't formed much of an opinion about it either way. Anyway, on to his next book!

The Crazy Horse Electric Game by Chris Crutcher

Amazon Summary: "Willie is a top athlete, the star of the legendary game against Crazy Horse Electric. Then a freak accident robs him of his once-amazing physical talents. Betrayed by his family, his girlfriend, and his own body, Willie's on the run, penniless and terrified on the streets, where he must fight to rebuild both his body and his life."

Let me start off by saying that this is my favorite Chris Crutcher book so far. Its plot is a lot more solid than that of some of the others and I just got an overall good feeling from it. I thought it was particularly interesting because it deals with an injury (and Willie's struggle to overcome it) which is something I hadn't seen yet in Crutcher's books. I can't think of anything else to say other than that it's a good, solid book.

Running Loose by Chris Crutcher

Amazon Summary: "Louie Banks has it made. He's got a starting spot on the football team, good friends, and a smart, beautiful girlfriend who loves him as much as he loves her. Early in the fall, he sees all his ideas of fair play go up in smoke; by spring, what he cares about most has been destroyed. How can Louie keep going when he's lost everything?"

Hmmmm... I think this is my least favorite book of Crutcher's so far. It's probably because I decided to read them all in the order he wrote them--this being the first one. At least, the first popular one. He might've written something before it. It's still good, but it lacks the emotional depth that his other books have. I didn't feel much of anything while reading it--the part that should have made me feel something really didn't because I'd already guessed it was going to happen. It's sort of a blah book for me. My favorite part of the book was probably the last quarter. I probably would've liked the story better if the first three quarters of the book were condensed into one and the last quarter stretched to three. It's also kind of dated (as I mentioned for Stotan!). Anyway, this book really just goes to show how much an author can improve over time. He went from mediocre to brilliant. I can't wait to get to his newest book. I think the main thing that he's improved on over time is how engaging his books are--this really didn't hold my attention as well as his later books. Anyway, on to the next Crutcher book!

Stotan! by Chris Crutcher

Amazon summary: "It's the last swimming season for Walker, Nortie, Lion, and Jeff, and their coach is building their self-discipline in a grueling four-hour-a-day test of stamina designed to bring them to the outer edge of their capabilities. As it turns out, Stotan Week is also the week in which secrets are revealed, and the four friends must draw upon their new strengths for an endurance they never knew they'd need."

I'm going to start out by suggesting that you read this before Ironman because I already knew some of the stuff that was going to happen since Lion is in both books. Plus I kept thinking it was Lion who was narrating instead of Walker. Stotan! struck me as a little less intense than the other books I've read by Crutcher. It's sort of all over the place--I couldn't give you a solid plot since Stotan week is done by the time you reach the halfway point in the book. That's not necessarily a problem, but I found myself liking the other books a bit better than this one. It's also possible that I didn't enjoy it as much because it was written about a generation before my time so the issues it addresses aren't quite as relevant. I mean, they are, just a little less prominent today than they were then. Nevertheless, it's still a plenty good book--just a little dated.