I’ve been a fan of Steven Wright for many years and was excited to see he’d written a book. I liked the concept of writing about the thoughts flowing through the head of a seven-year-old boy as he sat through his school day. I especially liked that his thoughts were depicted as birds flying through a rectangle in Harold’s mind.

Wright’s description of Harold’s grandfather, who lived on Moosehead Lake in Maine, is charming and funny, and assuming he’s based on a Wright relative, he’s definitely a clue to how Wright got his offbeat sense of humor. Harold’s memories of his vacation adventures with his grandfather, and some of Wright’s descriptions of birds, are the heartwarming and relatable elements to the book.

Other parts? Not so much. For a seven-year-old in the 1960s, Harold sure has a foul mouth (in his mind, at least), and attitudes about sex and women that are far, far, beyond what a seven-year-old would have. About a quarter of the way in, I finally told myself that I had to get over the unrealistic depiction of the inner life of a boy that age, and just focus on the imaginative worldview.

That worked some of the time, but it’s hard to escape the many comments made about women that are less about Harold and more about Wright’s (seemingly rejection-based) hostility. As those comments pile up, and Wright adds a bizarre and grisly fantasy attack on criminal defense lawyers, the charm of the book wings away.

Review in progress and to come.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review

I was really excited to read a novel by Steven Wright. I love his comedy and was curious how he'd handle a novel. It's the story of a boy named Harold and the entire novel covers what's going on in his head during the course of one day. It's kind of like Ulysses for kids!!!!!

There are a ton of great lines, brilliant observations. It's really a pleasure to spend some time in Harold/Steven's head. It might not surprise you that some things in this book are just plain bizarre. There is an extended, extended description of a dream that takes place on the Moon that goes on way too long for my taste. So that keeps it from being a five-star book in my opinion. However, there's enough good stuff to make me really happy I read it.

Netgalley provided me a free e-copy of the book in return for this review.

The gorgeous book cover and description of the plot (stream-of-consciousness of a third-grade boy) inspired me to read this novel by Steven Wright. Wright is apparently a famous comedian, but I was unfamiliar with his work.

There were so many things that did not work for me, unfortunately, but I'd like to start with a couple of positives:

Sprinkled throughout this story are some absolutely beautiful, heart-breaking sentences, such as this one:
"His grandfather told him that rather than measuring time with clocks whenever you see a bird it can be a click, a nudge to be aware of your time, that a bird is like a live second hand."

Harold, who is our 7 year-old narrator, experiences new thoughts in his head as different types of very specific birds, who fly into a rectangular-shaped area in his brain. Each time a new bird flies into the rectangle, he describes what he's now seeing in his mind. These are often very vivid and strange scenes, which transport him out of his third-grade classroom, and into other temporary realms. I thought this was a lovely way of describing thought patterns--birds flying into a rectangle, and this concept initially drew me into the story.

I also thought that the character of Harold's grandfather had many wise sayings, which Harold imparts throughout the story. I enjoyed reading some tidbits about the Lakota tribe, which is part of Harold's ancestry.

So, what did not work for me (at all):

There is absolutely no instance where a 7 year-old boy (who is apparently in 3rd grade...this seems young for 3rd grade, in the 1960s?), describes his thoughts and feelings in the way Harold does throughout this novel. The tone of Harold sounds much more like a disgruntled 45 year-old man, who has negative things to say about fat people, religion, politicians, women, sex, etc... There were times when I was truly appalled by the often-rambling sentences I was reading, which were supposed to be coming from a 7 year-old. For example:

"A stunning Albino Blackbird glided through the rectangle with an emotionless face like the look that some very beautiful women have because they're so used to men looking at them with their mouths open in awe and even though they act like it doesn't matter to them and some of them even act like the men are actually rude for looking at them and some of these women will experience an emotional self-esteem plane crash when time washes their beauty away like someone cleaning the sand off a sidewalk with a garden hose."

Yes, there are unfortunately, many, many sentences that go on, and on, and on like this one. I understand that children often ramble, and it's to be expected in a stream-of-consciousness narrative, but the thoughts described for Harold do not at all sound like thoughts a child would think or say, like, ever.

I also did not appreciate the random, insults (which Harold thinks, supposedly) about mental illness (specifically insanity), fat people ("The problem with fat people is they never eat on an empty stomach"; sexual identity ("This was in the 1960s not like many many years later when it would become like going through a sexual identity salad bar.". Harold also uses expletives a lot, which I don't have a problem with, but when he uses them, they just sound so out of place, like the author was randomly sprinkling them in. Again, I have zero issues with reading books that are explicit or deal with dark, complicated subjects--in fact, I prefer a really deep, dark, complex story that stretches the imagination. This one, however, felt like it was the author (or another adult male) speaking the entire time, and I got very tired of hearing that voice when I was expecting to hear a young child's instead.

There were also many instances where Harold would think or say something, and I got the feeling the author was trying to be funny (probably because he's a comedian), but the jokes truly fell flat--they were insulting and just not funny, not even in a poking-fun-at-someone-jokingly kind of way. Harold often thought very adult-sexual thoughts about his teacher and another female student in his grade (and not cute 7 year-old crush thoughts). Those were there as well, but then out of nowhere Harold would think something extremely racy and at one point the author even describes the teacher feeling horny during class (?).

I was relieved when I finished the book, mostly because I didn't want to hear the voice of Harold anymore (whoever he was, which is not a child).

I thought the concept for this story was great. Sadly, it didn't work for me, but perhaps it will for someone else. I still love the cover art so there's that.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.