Comment

FindingJane
Aug 05, 2014FindingJane rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Weird, painful, sad and funny by turns, this book is yet another example of what happens to American males who really can’t grow up but are forced to, anyway. Carlton Dunne IV is yet another manboy buried a little too deeply in a fictional world composed of comic characters of his own making. When he becomes enmeshed in a plan to rescue his kidnapped father, he doesn’t exactly rise to the occasion. The perceptive reader can spot the plot twist coming miles off but not poor Carlton. Yet his journey is mildly touching. Carlton wins points for being mostly honest about his deficits. He’s maladjusted, antisocial and considers himself misanthropic. What saves Carlton from being thoroughly repellant is that you recognize his misanthropic tendencies are merely adolescent shyness coupled with actual cluelessness. His father is equally maladroit about maintaining relationships. But what Carlton comes to realize is that everybody he knows has troubles being with other people and that he’s not the only one who hasn’t figured it out yet. It’s a sweet revelation and you find that means Carlton isn’t necessarily the loser he’s imagined himself to be…or, if he is, he’s not the only one.