The Gospel According To Larry (2004) - Plot & Excerpts
The Gospel According to Larry was a book that I found in seventh grade and I constantly return to it, especially when I feel stressed from the constant consumerism that goes on all around me and when I feel like a hermit. It's a book that gives me a sense of people always being able to take back some control in their lives if they are willing to make the choice and the idea that we can't always prevent our secrets from blowing up in our faces. It was also the book that inspired me to read Thoreau and for that I will forever be grateful.Josh Swensen is a teenager unlike most of our day. He feels closer to nature than people and has only one true friend with whom he is madly and secretly in love with. But his best friend Beth, like the typical teenage girl chooses the hunky jock (who is nonetheless a jerk) over the lovable nerd who adores her. Some say these are stereotypes but when you see them happen over and over again in high school you start to question what a stereotype really is, if it is true. Josh is extremely intelligent and yet a social hermit, so he commits to writing a blog under the name Larry. Yet no one knows who Larry is even though he becomes a huge media hit. And Josh does not tell Beth even though she creates a study group to discuss Larry, which she made Josh join. What I like about Josh's character is that even though he is an extremely intelligent person he is still a teenager, a boy who loves his best friend, a boy who misses his dead mother, and a boy who loves his stepfather. But the best part is that at the same time he forms the contradiction of the imagined stereotypical teenager. He rages against consumerism, he writes for no recognition, he reads Thoreau in an underground room be built in the woods, and he only has seventy-five possessions.One of the things I learned as a writer is that a book becomes a lot more interesting if you get the reader to think "did that really happen?" The book begins with the author, Janet Tashjian, in a grocery store where a young boy comes up to her and gives her a manuscript with the plea that she read it. The author goes on to say that the rest of the book will be the mysterious boy's story. And in the end the book returns to the author and the idea that it was all a true story. When I first read the book I was cast into major doubt of if it was a true story or not. Could Josh have truly been a real person? I knew he was a fictional character because I knew the book was not a memoir and that it was a device the author used to make the reader believe Josh was real. But nonetheless I had to look him up. I had to make sure Josh Swensen was not a real person. And as a writer I want to do that. I want to make a character so real to someone that they can't believe he wasn't a real person at some point in history. I want to make people go out and check that my characters aren't people they could be standing next to in a crowded bus.
I was VERY impressed with this book. It most definetely deserves more than just five stars. I'd give it a hundred, if that was an option. It meant a whole lot to me... but let the rant begin:So... I don't know how to start it, so it might be totally off track. So what's with this betagold chick? Doesn't she HAVE a life? I mean, give me a f*cking break. Why would you set out to ruin someone's life for them? How inconsiderate. People are assholes, all they want is money. MONEY ISN'T IMPORTANT(ok, so maybe it is a little important... but). Or what about that girl who set up a law suit against Josh after he died? Like, seriously? You're such a bitch. He obviously didn't do it, the kid was too smart to do something so dumb. Or Beth? I hated that she basically flipped him off after she found out her best friend was Larry. I know it was stupid and all, that he didn't tell her... but still. I'm glad she's found another life though, still working for Josh's cause. I hope she isn't married though, that would kinda piss me off. And by the end of the book, Josh was right. He shouldn't have taken on such a big project without analyzing himself first. You need to work yourself up, one by one. You gotta start with yourself, and move onto one person... and then the next... and so on. He sure did a great thing, by saying all these things, because it's TRUE. We ARE trashed by all the crap and advertizing. We all have STUFF that we don't need. We all have those MUST HAVES or I WANT IT because everyone else has it. It's just because we're human. We humans are greedy, very greedy indeed. I can definetely count myself in on that too. Yeah, we need to take a step back and take a look around us. Do we really need it? Maybe I should ask myself those kinds of questions. Hell, I can't break away from goodreads, how would I part from my journals? My writing? Even my pencils? Yup, I proved it to myself. Life can be a waste, especially when people come around the corner and bury it in trash for you. It kinda sucks. Actually, it DOES suck. I guess I should shut up now... but we shoulda let Josh alone. He needed to live his life how he wanted. He still deserves to. He doesn't need to be a big star to change the world, neither do I, and neither do you. He deserved to live like a normal teenager(I'm not just saying this because I'm 14...) it's just.. the way you're supposed to. And I kinda like it that way.
What do You think about The Gospel According To Larry (2004)?
"Maybe finding common ground with people we disagree with was the first step to a real revolution" --- Josh Swensen (main character).Around 4.5 stars. I really enjoyed this one! I loved the characters (though some of the teenagers didn't always talk like teenagers but hey the book takes place in 2001 so maybe it was) and loved the message on self discovery and acceptance of others and yourself! I, also, didn't mind the whole save the earth and those who inhabit it message either. I especially enjoyed the writing style: with it mainly written by Josh (these were less structured and refined like a teenager would write), some excerpts from Larry (who surprisingly had a uniquely different voice from Josh), and the notes from the "author" just made the writing style/format that more real! Overall, it was a nice, quick, enjoyable read with a good message, light humor, and an interesting story. I definitely recommend to all those who love contemporary -- one with a little less romance then usual.
—Monica
I think my life would have better if I had gone to bed at a normal hour. But I stayed up to read this instead (on the recommendation of my sister-in-law, who also recommended Twilight—strike two, she's out). I guess this book is supposed to facilitate discussion of important issues among teens or some other trite thing, but I found it insulting. Is this what we think The Youth can handle? Is this what we think of their intellectual capacity? Are they really that stupid?It's not just that the "issues" were glossed over non-issues from 1999, and not just that the book was full of hypocrisy from front to back (and not the intended kind that would supposedly foster "dialogue"), but it was just plain old poorly written and boring.Oh dude, like the world sucks because of like, everyone drinking Coke and stuff, and like, no one cares about not caring about stuff, so I wish everyone could just be free and stuff like Thoreau, and stop buying stuff, and maybe stuff should just be free anyway, right?
—Isaac
The gospel according to Larry is ook een boek wat in mijn tas zat met 5 young adult boeken. Ik las vrij goede recensies over dit boek, wat me zeer nieuwsgierig maakte. Toen ik in dit boek begon vielen me gelijk de voetnoten op. Heel toevallig, aangezien ik tot voor kort nog nooit boeken met voetnoten had gelezen, maar toevallig deze week 19 keer Katherine had gelezen van John Green waar eveneens voetnoten in stonden. Alleen vond ik bij 19 keer Katherine de voetnoten grappig en echt iets toevoegen aan het verhaal, maar in dit verhaal niet.Het idee is leuk. Een simpele, doodgewone jongen die een blog begint die uiteindelijk door miljoenen mensen bekeken wordt en niemand weet wie er achter zit. Zijn goede vriendin niet, zijn vader niet, niemand niet. Zijn blogs zijn heel uiteenlopend. Hij ergert zich bijvoorbeeld aan reclames en celebrity aanbidding. Ik kon me helaas niet verplaatsen in deze blogs en vond ze een beetje ver gaan. Ik consumeer en ik schaam me hier niet voor. Ik koop dingen, omdat ik die nodig heb, maar ook omdat ik ze leuk vind. Ik erger me daar niet aan, waardoor Larry's blogs hun uitwerking op mij missen.Wat ik wel grappig vind is dat Janet Tashjian het idee geeft dat dit een waargebeurd verhaal is! Na dit boek geloofde ik hier nog altijd in en snapte ik niet dat ik hier niet eerder over gehoord had. Pas toen ik ging kijken op het internet kwam ik erachter dat het toch echt een fictief boek is. Leuk detail!Uiteindelijk was het een leuk boekje voor tussendoor, maar het raakte me niet. Ik kwam niet in het verhaal en de blogs misten hun uitwerking op mij.
—Samantha
