Huge: A Novel Author: James W. Fuerst | Language: English | ISBN:
0307452492 | Format: EPUB
Huge: A Novel Description
From Publishers Weekly
In his mind's eye, precocious 12-year-old Eugene Huge Smalls, the narrator of Fuerst's quirky debut, is the lineal descendant of Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade and other pulp detectives he admires. When the nursing home where his beloved grandmother stays is vandalized, Huge sees a chance to follow in their footsteps by solving the crime. What follows is a picaresque romp around suburban New Jersey as Huge misreads clues, misinterprets motives and mistakes mundane incidents for diabolical schemes as only an inexperienced adolescent with a restless imagination can. Largely plotless, this coming-of-age story is full of awkward digressions. Still, Fuerst demonstrates a sensitive ear for contemporary teen talk, delicacy at handling the amusingly contentious relationship between Huge and his older sister and mom, and skill at conveying a child's-eye view of the world that is full of nostalgia, humor, candor and emotions that all readers can relate to.
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From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–Eugene Huge Smalls is a short, smart, blond going-on-13 outcast with anger-management issues, a stuffed-frog alter ego, a homemade tricked-out ride called the Cruiser, and a Philip Marlowe attitude. What Huge lacks in stature is made up for by his intense emotional reactions and overactive imagination. He lives in a boring small town in 1980s New Jersey where his father has abandoned him, his waitress mother, and his hot older sister to fend for themselves. While on a visit with his dearly beloved and somewhat senile grandmother at a retirement home, she hires him to solve his first real detective case. As he gathers clues, he tells about his past transgressions and feelings, a lost friendship, and various crushes and clashes including those involving retirement-home workers, his sister's friends, and a special girl his own age. Huge's coming-of-age musings seem mature for a sixth grader, yet these contemplations and Fuerst's portrayals of teenage relationships and experiences will resonate with older readers. Using humor and a narrative similar to Raymond Chandler's hardboiled detective novels of the 1940s, Fuerst entertains and draws readers into all the mysteries Huge tries to solve on his own, including those involving self-control, fantasy, friendship, and maturity.
–Melanie Parsons, Fairfax County Public Library, VA END
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- Paperback: 305 pages
- Publisher: Broadway Books; 1 edition (July 7, 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0307452492
- ISBN-13: 978-0307452498
- Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
- Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
The story is set in a middle-sized New Jersey town in the mid 1980s. Eugene Smalls is called "Genie" by everybody but he wants to be called "Huge." He isn't huge though. He's small. He's 12 years old (almost 13.) He is smarter than everyone around him, but he has trouble expressing himself, and other people's stupidity makes him furious. He lashes out violently, and has been branded a "problem child." During a long suspension from school (sometime before the novel starts,) he read a lot of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Sherlock Holmes. He also built a totally sweet bike out of spare parts. Summer is ending, Huge is going to be going to Junior High in the fall, and this is when our story unfolds. It is told in a semi-noir manner, in first person with lots of introspective flashbacks and sidetracks.
His senile grandmother (who gave him all the detective books) hires Huge to solve the mystery of the vandalized sign at the retirement home, and he gradually uncovers a tangled web of treachery and deceit among the kids in his town. Or does he? Huge may be freakishly smart, but he's still a kid. He misses a lot. Plus, he has a sidekick named Thrash (given to him by his guidance councilor) who tends not to give Huge the best advice...
The language of this book is vulgar but funny. Some of the vernacular sounds more like 2000s than 1980s. I don't remember kids talking like that when I was in 6th grade back in 1986, but I didn't grow up in New Jersey. Huge himself is so furious, so off-kilter, and so full of hard-boiled detective fiction, that for the first third of the book I kept picturing him as a grizzled 40-year-old midget instead of a kid. His dialogue and thought processes are hilarious yet incisive.
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