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Absurdity, Unrepentant
By bukkhead | January 21, 2010
This review appeared previously at Wiffli.com, and is being reproduced here because here is where I’m supposed to put reviews.
BOOK REVIEW: ‘YOUTH IN REVOLT’
by C.D. Payne
499 pages
Published by Alvia Press, 1993.
Last Friday I finished Youth in Revolt by C.D. Payne. Now this is an exciting book because it’s the first in a series, the series has a movie based on it, the movies stars Michael Cera, and the books were self-published. The books are Nick Twisp’s journals, his adventures as a regular 14 year-old-boy living in California. Go grab your e-reader and download a sample.
I heard about the book when I saw a clip that was alleged to be the real Michael Cera cursing out a camera crew on the set of the movie. Turns out the clip was a lampoon—whether it was a scene from the movie, or just an extra, I don’t know. But I decided I wanted to see the movie. And then I saw the book and decided I wanted to read it. And then I saw there were sequels and I wanted to read them as well.
And then I read Youth in Revolt and I no longer want to see the movie or read the rest of the books. Maybe someday. My wife tends to rent movies without consulting with me first (not that she has to—but she knows I’ll say “no thanks” to pretty much everything) so if it slips into the house, I’ll make some popcorn (protip: add black pepper and curry powder to your popcorn. You’ll thank me for it).
Maybe someday on the sequels, too. But not right now. The book is pretty much the development of a sociopath, a Machiavellian existentialist surrounded by other sociopathic existentialists, differing only in their degrees of intelligence and erudition. Not that the book is a downer- I think it’s called absurdist. But not Sam Becket absurd, more like Spike Jones absurd. The kind of thing the guy that Shakespeare “borrowed” his comedies from would write today if he was alive, lived with his mom, and smoked a lot of weed. (I have no idea if this describes C.D. Payne himself, but I don’t intend it to).
Basically, Youth in Revolt is The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Stranger, The Catcher in the Rye, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, crammed into one, with the angst and negativity replaced by gullibility and farce. In my opinion it all sort of wears thin after a while, as Twisp’s literary voice doesn’t carry me too far past what passes for the book’s climax and denouement. But some folks will like it. They’ll like the kid’s cheek, his affected vocabulary, the subtle way Payne paints a picture that even the narrator can’t see. They guy’s got talent, and no fooling. I just wish his editor did as well.
Am I using a rating system for these book reviews? I can’t recall. If I am, I’ll give Youth in Revolt three out of five love-worn diaries… less if it had not been amusing, more if it had been less soppy. Or shorter.
Topics: Books |