Friday, September 17, 2010

2010 book 227

Paul Murray's Skippy Dies
Skippy, one of the main characters in this novel set at an Irish boys' school, dies in the very first scene. But then Murray goes back and shows us Skippy's life, and the life of his roommate Ruprecht, who's obsessed with uncovering the scientific secrets of the universe, and their slightly nerdy, horny friends, and their history teacher, and a troubled classmate, and a girl at the school across the street, and the school and its history . . . and it's all GREAT. This is easily going to be one of the entries on my best books of the year list. I seriously can't believe this wasn't nominated for a Booker when Andrea Levy's boring latest novel was. I can't even express what a great story this is, but I'm giving it a rare A+.

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