What do You think about Mean Boy (2006)?
This novel reminded me of the movie Wonder Boys with Michael Douglas. The English world, the big fuss getting that speaker reminded me of the big party at the was it chancellors? The weird student/teacher relationship. The disjointed thoughts and yet the feeling of flow. Just, so odd yet so well done!I think that there needs to be no student/teacher relations. At all. lol. It's so easy to adore and idolize a prof. Especially when they are the best in their field. And there is just so much to go wrong! A falling out. A disagreement. An expectation that is not met. And the stack of cards comes tumbling down.The other thing that bothers me is how Sherri says he never read her work. I never finished collage but it was totally teachers pet where I went. The more you sucked up the further ahead you got. And that didn't mean someone elses work was better. They just got graded better. Or given better opportunities. School can be such a corrupt place.
—Kristy Trauzzi
I enjoyed reading this book. At first I thought it was because it is very thinly veiled a book written with Mount Allison University as its location. But it is not just how accurate a picture of small town liberal arts schools this book draws or the mixed boiler of emotions that comes from being at university with rural routes yourself. This book paints some very poignant metaphors and while the editing of the transcript was at times shoddy and I think the final poem was superfluous I did enjoy reading it and I think it enriched and helped me understand my own experiences at "Westcock"
—Violet
Mean Boy has its moments but never really took off for me. I almost stopped reading around page 100, but was just interested enough to keep going and finally finish it. But the story never realy goes anywhere and it ends with a whimper. There wasn't really an ending in my opinion. It was like she just didn't have any more ideas so stopped in mid-story. Nothing gets resolved, there was no real climax, nothing that really indicates an ending. Life goes on I guess. I was just left wondering what the heck I was supposed to take away from this book. Poetry is hard, I guess. Or maybe the life of a poet is hard. Or maybe nobody understands poets? Who knows? I won't be pondering this one for long. A pretty disappointing read.
—John
