🦜 I just about broke my fingers requesting this book. I had no idea what to expect but I love Steven Wright. If you aren’t familiar with him, he is a comedian known for his deadpan delivery of ironic and nonsensical jokes. He’s also amazing with one-liners. For example:

▪️“There is a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.”

▪️“Right now I’m having a déjà vu and amnesia moment at the same time – I think I’ve forgotten this before.”

▪️“I spilled spot remover on my dog and now he’s gone.”

Admittedly, this sense of humor may not be for everyone, but I think he is hilarious. So, I couldn’t wait to read this book.

🦅 Unfortunately, I was disappointed. I didn’t feel like I got any of the Steven Wright wit, but I did get some strange meanderings of a 7-year-old boy named Harold. The entire book is about Harold’s thoughts, which manifest in his brain as birds flying through a rectangle. The story is a very stream-of-conscious style, whereby nothing seems to make much sense. There is no real plot – just random daydreams of a child throughout a school day. Some of the meanderings are interesting, and even humorous, but it doesn’t work as a book.

🐦‍⬛ In addition, the 7-year-old boy seems more like a crabby old man than a young child. Some of his thoughts are quite sexual in nature and felt inappropriate and unrealistic. This may have been some of Wright’s irony coming through, but it felt wrong to me rather than funny.

🦉 I will continue to love Wright as a comedian, but I didn’t really connect with his book. Sadly, it just wasn’t for me.

Thank you @netgalley and Simon & Schuster for an eARC of this book, which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

Love It… Wait, That’s Enough

Steven Wright is a comic genius, a true original, and his brilliant early performances on shows like Johnny Carson are gold mines to visit on YouTube. Looking at his peers, say on Saturday Night Live, some comics who sparkled in that framework were later able to parlay that success in motion pictures. Some routines, however, wore a little thin when stretched out to a full-length format. The question is, can the Steven Wright heartbeat sustain itself in a long form?

In his debut novel, Wright speaks to us through the imaginings of a seven-year-old boy named Harold. He daydreams throughout the school day, his ideas imported by exotic birds swooping through a rectangular opening into his consciousness. He shares wisdoms handed down by his grandfather, lessons learned from Lakota legend. When his mind returns to the classroom, he baffles his third-grade teacher with random philosophical questions, only to jet back into his imagination. There he finds himself and his possible girlfriend on the dark side of the moon, where they ponder the puzzles of God and the universe with Carl Sagan.

I found myself laughing out loud at so many points… Wright definitely has not lost his creative talent. His pacing, though, is difficult to keep up with. It is a dizzying journey into an M.C. Escher painting with stairways and gravity heading off in different directions. Unpredictable thoughts pop out like popcorn popping… or like a stand-up comedian spouting out one-liners. I enjoyed it in small portions, but it was difficult to hang in for longer sessions.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ramblings of a 7-year old. This is told in Steven Wright’s trademark stream of consciousness style and hearing him again brings back memories of his stand-up from years ago. However, as a book, it didn’t work for me. You never really know what exactly he’s talking about and it’s like listening to someone tell a story with a million tangents and you just want them to get to the point. I made it through 10 minutes before I gave up and tried the print book. I didn’t make it much further. I was hoping for some story and then a few ramblings are asides but as a whole book, it gets confusing.

📕I can only imagine an adult when I hear certain names. Harold is one of them; as if that adult was an a child at some point in time. So it took a while for me to accept that we are talking about extremely smart but bored 7 year old here. He is way beyond his years so it also proves my point.
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📗Harold has interesting relationship with God. He always brings him up but in a conditional way: “Moosehead Lake with his grandfather was like being in a dream. He thought God, if there was a God, put extra effort into creating that time of year. Many many years later he would love the summers on a beautiful little island in the North Atlantic.”
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📘There are many gems buried in Harold’s stream of consciousness when he is bored out of his mind at school: ”Even though Tinga was only gone for about 20 minutes Harold missed her. He wondered how far away she was. Like counting the time between thunder and lightning. He thought maybe that's what it is like when someone you love very much dies.”

There’s a reason why this type of stream of consciousness writing almost never works, and it’s largely because no one’s every thought without filter is actually all that interesting. Perhaps even less interesting than most? A third grade boy.

My understanding is that the author is a stand up comedian and perhaps some of this stuff plays well on stage, but in book form, it’s pretty much drivel. All of the “how would an eight-year-old boy think about this subject” musings are shopworn, the typical go-to material for the inner life of a young boy with nothing to make his perspective unique or at least uniquely humorous and entertaining.

I'm not really familiar with the author, since I rarely watch the stand-up comedy.
However, the cover and plot description inspired me to start reading the novel.
The story follows Harold, a 7-year-old narrator with unique thought patterns represented by birds flying into a rectangular area in his brain. This idea is really clever.
There are beautiful, heart-breaking sentences throughout the story. But the tone and content of Harold's thoughts sound more like a disgruntled adult than a child. There are lots of sexual thoughts, which were unexpected and inappropriate for a child protagonist. Please don't let your children read this book!
Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The inner Harold unveiled!

Of course anything Steven Wright puts pen to will be a stream of consciousness seemingly endless.
Harold is akin to Wright’s’ inner seven year old boy with an adult understanding, despite his innocence.
Dry, remorseless even, in his diatribe, Harold’s imagination is one where adults go to hide. Speaking of hidden, much of Harold’s sideways moves come through a series of rectangular windows opening up in his head. They’re a brilliant segue! Those birds who deliver his thoughts and questions are part of the wonder. And such birds!
Harold’s questions are a thing of beauty. Of course they happen on the inside. Ms. Yuka just isn’t worth asking questions of on the outside! Ms.Yuka fortunately is not inside Harold’s head, except in dreams.
I hear Wright’s in concert voice, in my head. This is pure Steven Wright blending with the known, yet giving new voices. Ha! Genius! Nobel stuff to me! (a reference!)
Harold is like no other third grade child, he’s Wright’s voice piece—seemingly innocent, maybe stubborn, satirical, ironic, and piercing. A book for those who appreciate Wright and are prepared to put up with his non PC references and entertaining voyeurism. Either brilliant or a complete faux, I’m coming down on the brilliant side.

A Simon & Schuster ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

I approached this hesitantly since a novel is different than (Wright's brilliant) stand-up. But I enjoyed this overall. A pretty good effort.

I really appreciate the free copy for review!!

So...I kind of knew what to expect from a book written by one of my favorite comedians. Steven Wright's style is witty one-liners, delivered in a random, stream-of-consciousness type of style. Harold is written in that style, but without the humor. I felt like I was inside the brain of a 7-year-old with ADD and very high intelligence. I was not amused. This book is a rambling, jumbled mess of strange thoughts that occur to a boy during his school day, and as a former teacher, it made me very uncomfortable to think that his teacher did not try to engage him in learning anything during the day...but that's just me. I had hoped for more of Steven Wright's witty observational humor, which was sadly missing from this book.

Only Steven Wright could write this book. It is a glimpse into the psyche of an incredible comedian through the eyes of a strange and interesting little boy. What a gift this book is.

I am so in love with Harold. I was hooked by the very first page. Even though Harold is a 7 year old, I saw so much of myself in him and I am almost a 40 year old woman! This book is so funny, endearing, surreal, and I was constantly grinning while reading this. I knew after reading about Ms. Yuka's "US/Chinese lint" that this book was going to be a winner.. This book is special. I had never read anything by Steven Wright before (and in fact had never heard of him before seeing this book on NetGalley), but I will forever buy anything he ever comes out with.

I can see some people "not getting" this book, but I am Harold and Harold is me. He is my spirit animal. Thank you so so much for allowing me to read this hysterical, charming and unique book. I am absolutely buying this in hard copy version when it is released.

P.S.- I would love to see this adapted into a film!

I enjoy Steven Wright's comedy and bit parts in movies, so I was eager to read his novel Harold. Our protagonist is a 7-yr old boy, and the setting is 1965 Boston, and also the moon. As expected, the book is full of non sequiturs and silly contrivances, like "Harold remembered the first time he ever yawned, he thought he had lost control of his mouth." But then there are also grumpy old misogynistic comments that track oddly coming out of a child's mouth; i.e., "If this was WWII I'd give you some bird nylons and some chocolates. The kind of nylons with the seam going down the back. We could be in a hotel room in Paris all smashed on red wine." Many of the references, like David Lean films and the actor Claude Rains, seem targeted to an older audience.

Reading this I thought it came across as though the writer had no idea what 7-yr olds are actually like, but maybe I'm wrong, and it's all a gag? Steven Wright has always kept his private life private, so maybe he actually has a bunch of his own 7-yr olds running around his house. That being said I really didn't understand why Wright made Harold his main character and set this in 1965, except for this: He wondered if it was possible to be in your 70s and have the perspective of a 5 year old without being nuts. When Harold was in his 70s he would know it was possible.

I have liked Steven Wright ever since the 80s when his comedic lines like, "You can't have everything. Where would you put it? " sent me into gales of laughter. Now Wright has written and entire book, albeit a short one, with line after line of lines like that. What may have been funny in a 5-minute stand-up routine becomes, instead, wearing and groan-inducing.

It's hard to relate to Harold, a 7 year old 3rd grader who would appear to be on the Autism spectrum. Harold is obsessed with birds and has a rectangular window in his brain through which assorted birds fly in, mouthing varied observations about life. They sound, sometimes, like his beloved Grandfather. He also visits cemeteries to commune with the dead through their headstones. And he's in love with an adorable classmate named Elizabeth about whom he fantasizes.

I wanted to like this book but failed. I do wish Wright all the best as he is a quirky and talented comic, but this effort was beyond me.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book to read early in an exchange for an honest review.

This was my first read by Mr. Wright and what a surprise it was! Harold is a bizarre and absurd book while also sharing a true depiction of how and what a child’s inner thoughts are. I’m a teacher and all I could do while reading was think about which of my students were so similar to Harold. I laughed out quite a bit! Solid 4 stars!

I really appreciate Steven Wright's humor. It is dry and ironic...and his deadpan delivery is sublime. Now take the brain of this man and put it in a child, and I think you have found my spirit animal! Being in Harold's brain is exhausting and magical. Some may say that a child of this age could not realistically have the thoughts that Harold does...but he could, and he does. I laughed out loud too many times!!

Writing: 5/5 Plot: 3/5 Characters : 2/5
A deeply interior book with constantly catchy and cerebral writing. The narrative purports to be the thoughts of an obviously gifted and unusual seven-year old boy, primarily while he is sitting in a classroom absolutely not paying attention to the woman in charge. Harold has “tangent festivals in his head” — what a great way to put it! While I’ve read other interior novels, they often seem to focus on neuroses and over thinking, while this one is focussed purely on imagination.

I very much enjoyed the writing and the constant stream of bizarre and connected thoughts — my own brain works that way and it was fun experiencing someone else’s stream. Every thought in Harold’s head presents itself as a well-depicted bird flying through a rectangle in his head. I liked the imagery. However, to be honest, I did get a little bored with the book about half way through — the novelty wore off and I began to notice that Harold’s thoughts were more bitter, superior, and snide than comical (yes, I realize that that is the very definition of comedy for some people, but not me). I also started realizing that there was a fair amount of misogyny — his thoughts on his mother, the young, pretty girl he is obsessed with (Elizabeth), and his teacher are all pretty negative in stereotypical ways. For example, on Elizabeth: “Said the pretty very very smart, blonde girl who years later would send several men to their emotional deaths.”

A couple of good quotes:
“Harold loved living in the circus in his head. He saw his mind as a soup made up of a mixture of what was on the inside of his head and what was on the outside of his head. He considered himself a brain chef.”

“Harold thought that an echo was audio plagiarism.”

While I've never heard of Steven Wright, the author description of him as "one of the most significant and influential stand-up comedians in history" led me to request an advanced copy of the book on NetGalley. Unfortunately, there wasn't much that I thought was funny in the book and I found myself wondering if I had misinterpreted the book description. Harold, a 7 year old boy, was thinking/dreaming thoughts that seemed to be coming from the mind of a person much older. He didn't seem to have much use for females in his life but the relationship with his grandfather seemed meaningful. I did like the imagery of birds coming into his head like thoughts but truthfully that was about it.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Simon & Schuster for an advance copy of this novel about a young boy, the birds that give him odd ideas and many questions, and the real world that seems so boring in comparison.

Say you are an up-and-coming editor at a major publishing house. Somehow you the editor have made a deal to write a prose sequel to the children classic Harold and the Purple Crayon, with Kurt Vonnegut writing only to be told two things. One Kurt Vonnegut passed away in 2007, and Harold can't use the crayon in the story. Fearing the end of a promising career before the promising career starts, the editor heads to a new bar named Called to the Desk, which is a The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson themed bar that only shows the many comedians that have performed on the long running talk show. Taking a big sip of the Ed McMahon Sidecar drink, a performance starts on the main monitor from 1982 with a young comedian making his first appearance, making Carson laugh along with the crowd. An idea forms, and a once threatened editor is suddenly secure in their position again. At least this is how I think Harold: a Novel by comedian, actor, and much much more Steven Wight came to be created. At least that is what a little bird told me.

Harold is seven years old, in the third grade and watching his teacher Ms. Yuka teach the class. The time is the 1960's and Harold has a lot going on. His mother has problems with the truth, showing love, and problems with her sanity. Harold's Grandfather is teaching him everything but how to be a boy of seven and in the third grade. And birds, birds from nature, birds from the past, birds long extinct or never were are constantly flying through a rectangle in his head giving him different ideas, and making him think about the world, and its mysteries. What is written on the other side of a blackboard, Does a bird know what a second is. Sometimes these birds take him to the Moon, where he drinks H30, the third H being honey, served by a young waitress who seems tired.

Harold is a book that is really hard to describe, though I will say if one likes early early Vonnegut, or Mark Leyner, or books that really hard to describe, this one is for you. The writing is really good, and even with all the different times and spaces it finds itself in, never loses where the book wants to go. I can see where people would have a problem with a seven year old in the 60's behaving like this. Well Wright address this in the book. Some comments might not be for everyone, I can understand that also. However the use of words, the sheer, what is Wright talking about, where did this come from, where are we going, is really well worth the journey. "This a painting of the ocean on the dark side of the moon as seen from the top of a lighthouse. “When the tide goes way out these 100 little combination lighthouse birdhouses are revealed." Something about this has just stayed with me. The more that Harold questions, the more that is revealed about Harold, and how maybe everything isn't great in his world. Maybe he questions to find out why things are so bad. Is he dreaming of a better place. When he jumps in time and space, is Harold wondering about what will be, or trying to manifest this. For a short book, there really is a lot to think about.

I've mention Vonnegut twice, and really think readers of Vonnegut's will enjoy this. I really really did. But I like odd things. And Harold reminds me of my nephews, who both start numerous sentences to me with, I have a question, I have a question. And one really really likes animals. Maybe I should pay more attention. A book that might be a cult novel in the future, or an oddity about today. Whatever the book becomes it is well worth the read.

Thank you, Simon and Schuster and NetGalley, for the advanced copy.

Meh. I read this one in a day. While there were some witty little parts, in all this book just missed the mark. The premise sounds hillarious. As a mom of three boys, I know that their thought processes are usually out-of-this-world, non-sensical, unreal blips of crazy talk. This book would have read much better if instead of a thrid-grader growing up in the 1960s, it was from the POV of a schizophrenic late 20s/early 30s male.

Spend a day in the mind of Harold, a third-grader in the 1960s. Thoughts come to him as different types of birds. He spends time with his grandfather, visits a cafe on the moon, and jumps on a spaceship with Carl Sagan. I wish I could add more, but the story just didn't work for me.

A hilarious and absurd comedy of errors. I laughed out loud at Harold’s misadventures. Steven Wright is a genius. 4 stars!

I received an advance review copy for free from NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.