- Hardcover: 400 pages
- Publisher: Doubleday Canada (Feb 21 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 038565975X
- ISBN-13: 978-0385659758
- Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 14 x 3.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 499 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #382,417 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
A GLOBE & MAIL BEST BOOK OF 2006
“Mean Boy will make you laugh out loud.” —The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
“Mean Boy is catchy and imaginative, harrowing, yet richly humourous, a rewarding piece of fiction from one of Canada’s most original writers.” —The London Free Press
“The atmosphere Coady evokes is pungently realistic, bolstered by hilarious set-piece scenes…. Mean Boy succeeds as a wonderful portrait of a university town and university life, from the high jinks of students intent on accumulating experience to the pontifical evasions and suggestions of well-meaning professors…. Coady’s portrayal of the jealous tenuousness of friendship, the in-fighting and fierce competitions of the literary world is daring and brilliant. . . . And Coady’s skill as a parodist and prose writer far surpasses poetic pretension. Mean Boy is a tour de force.” —The Globe and Mail
“Mean Boy is above all a solid and comical page-turner.” —NOW Magazine
“You don’t have to be a creative writer to in order to appreciate Coady’s skill as a humorist. . . . [Her] writing is tight and fast-paced, and she depicts the dynamics among her characters . . . with a sure hand. . . . An unflinching writer. . . Coady has created yet another impressive work of fiction.” —Toronto Star
“Coady has hit on a vigorous subject in Mean Boy…. [she] renders all this with glee, in a series of set pieces that rambunctiously capture an age — the mid-‘70s— when Canadian literature had more practitioners than readers…. Fun.” —National Post
“Superb…both central characters are utterly memorable and, well, hilarious. A coming-of-age novel, Mean Boy will make you laugh…. [Coady] is a storyteller with a wry comic sense and a wonderfully satirical touch.” — Edmonton Journal (CanWest News Service)
“Coady explores the sometimes uneasy relationship between art and academia . . . with a polish and razor-sharp wit that takes no prisoners…. With its polished and authentic writing, Mean Boy is guaranteed to garner attention at this year’s major book awards. If somehow you’ve missed Coady’s earlier work, start right now with this one.” — Calgary Herald
“Mean Boy is a wonderfully savage rip on the world of academia where professor-poets backstab, students write puerile poetry…and tenure is granted or denied by succintly portrayed stuffed shirts. If you have ever taken a creative writing course, you will alternately laugh, cry and blush. For those of you not conversant with the bad boys of poetry, hang on and simply enjoy.” —The Sun Times (Owen Sound)
“This is a brilliant book, a probing and often hilarious satire of the pretensions of university life and the elitist posturing of poetic genius." –Books in Canada
From the Trade Paperback edition.
“Mean Boy will make you laugh out loud.” —The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
“Mean Boy is catchy and imaginative, harrowing, yet richly humourous, a rewarding piece of fiction from one of Canada’s most original writers.” —The London Free Press
“The atmosphere Coady evokes is pungently realistic, bolstered by hilarious set-piece scenes…. Mean Boy succeeds as a wonderful portrait of a university town and university life, from the high jinks of students intent on accumulating experience to the pontifical evasions and suggestions of well-meaning professors…. Coady’s portrayal of the jealous tenuousness of friendship, the in-fighting and fierce competitions of the literary world is daring and brilliant. . . . And Coady’s skill as a parodist and prose writer far surpasses poetic pretension. Mean Boy is a tour de force.” —The Globe and Mail
“Mean Boy is above all a solid and comical page-turner.” —NOW Magazine
“You don’t have to be a creative writer to in order to appreciate Coady’s skill as a humorist. . . . [Her] writing is tight and fast-paced, and she depicts the dynamics among her characters . . . with a sure hand. . . . An unflinching writer. . . Coady has created yet another impressive work of fiction.” —Toronto Star
“Coady has hit on a vigorous subject in Mean Boy…. [she] renders all this with glee, in a series of set pieces that rambunctiously capture an age — the mid-‘70s— when Canadian literature had more practitioners than readers…. Fun.” —National Post
“Superb…both central characters are utterly memorable and, well, hilarious. A coming-of-age novel, Mean Boy will make you laugh…. [Coady] is a storyteller with a wry comic sense and a wonderfully satirical touch.” — Edmonton Journal (CanWest News Service)
“Coady explores the sometimes uneasy relationship between art and academia . . . with a polish and razor-sharp wit that takes no prisoners…. With its polished and authentic writing, Mean Boy is guaranteed to garner attention at this year’s major book awards. If somehow you’ve missed Coady’s earlier work, start right now with this one.” — Calgary Herald
“Mean Boy is a wonderfully savage rip on the world of academia where professor-poets backstab, students write puerile poetry…and tenure is granted or denied by succintly portrayed stuffed shirts. If you have ever taken a creative writing course, you will alternately laugh, cry and blush. For those of you not conversant with the bad boys of poetry, hang on and simply enjoy.” —The Sun Times (Owen Sound)
“This is a brilliant book, a probing and often hilarious satire of the pretensions of university life and the elitist posturing of poetic genius." –Books in Canada
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Book Description
Earnest, small-town Lawrence Campbell is fascinated by his poetry professor, the charismatic and uncompromising Jim Arsenault. Larry is determined to escape a life of thrifty drudgery and intellectual poverty working for his parents’ motel and mini-golf business on Prince Edward Island. Jim appears to the young poet as a beacon of authenticity – mercurial, endlessly creative, fearless in his confrontations with the forces of conformity. And he drinks a lot.
Jim’s magnetic personality soon draws Larry’s entire poetry composition class into his orbit. Among the other literary acolytes are Sherrie Mitten, with her ringletted blonde hair and guileless blue eyes, the turtlenecked, urbane Claude who writes villanelles, and the champion of rhyming couplets about the heroic struggles of the Maritime proletariat, Todd. Casting a huge shadow over the group is the varsity football player and recreational drug user Chuck Slaughter – titanically strong, capriciously violent, hilariously indifferent to the charms of the poetic life – who has nearly given up terrifying Larry in order to pursue an awkward romantic interest in Sherrie.
Drawn by ambition and fascination, the group assembles itself fawningly around Jim, tagging along to bars, showing up at readings, thrilled to be invited to Jim’s home, a shambling farmhouse in the woods where he lives with Moira, his shrewish backwoods muse. Lost in adulation, Larry is so delighted to be singled out for Jim’s attention that he does not pause to wonder what Jim expects from his increasingly close relationship with the young poet.
Closely observed and deeply funny, Mean Boy tells the story of Larry’s year-long battle against the indiscriminate use of quotation marks in advertising and his disillusionment as his narcissistic, hard-drinking idol spins out of control and threatens to take the young man’s cherished notions about art and poetry down with him. Mean Boy is Lynn Coady’s most polished and ambitious work to date.
Jim’s magnetic personality soon draws Larry’s entire poetry composition class into his orbit. Among the other literary acolytes are Sherrie Mitten, with her ringletted blonde hair and guileless blue eyes, the turtlenecked, urbane Claude who writes villanelles, and the champion of rhyming couplets about the heroic struggles of the Maritime proletariat, Todd. Casting a huge shadow over the group is the varsity football player and recreational drug user Chuck Slaughter – titanically strong, capriciously violent, hilariously indifferent to the charms of the poetic life – who has nearly given up terrifying Larry in order to pursue an awkward romantic interest in Sherrie.
Drawn by ambition and fascination, the group assembles itself fawningly around Jim, tagging along to bars, showing up at readings, thrilled to be invited to Jim’s home, a shambling farmhouse in the woods where he lives with Moira, his shrewish backwoods muse. Lost in adulation, Larry is so delighted to be singled out for Jim’s attention that he does not pause to wonder what Jim expects from his increasingly close relationship with the young poet.
Closely observed and deeply funny, Mean Boy tells the story of Larry’s year-long battle against the indiscriminate use of quotation marks in advertising and his disillusionment as his narcissistic, hard-drinking idol spins out of control and threatens to take the young man’s cherished notions about art and poetry down with him. Mean Boy is Lynn Coady’s most polished and ambitious work to date.
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Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Poetry on the Tantramar Marsh,
By bookworm (Riverview, New Brunswick, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Mean Boy (Hardcover)
Lynn Coady's satire of a small town university and its even smaller poetry society is a entertaining read. Coady has done her homework and exposed many of the hidden stories and myths of Mount Allison University and one of its former, famous poet/professors, John Thompson.Mt. A. grads will love the references to Hart Hall and Mel's (not so carefully disguised) etc. and English majors everywhere will cringe with self-recognition at the scenes where Larry tries to explain why poetry is so important to him. Mean Boy deserves to be read.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome book,
By
This review is from: Mean Boy (Paperback)
This novel is one of my favs now. It has moments where I couldn't help but laugh out loud and there were moments where I was so immersed in the book that Id sit down and read for hours, wondering what was going to happen next. The characters are great contemporary style is a breeze to absorb its content. Lynn Coady has an inspiring finesse in her work and makes for a delightful read. This book is sure to have an impact on how you view your childhood heroes as Lawrence, the protagonist, realizes his long time idol is all too human and at times, a mopey narcissistic jerk.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Terrific read!,
By
This review is from: Mean Boy (Paperback)
A very intelligent, evocative story of a small-town character experiencing the emotional tumult of the expanding horizons of leaving home for university. Extremely well written, poignant and occasionally funny, this is an excellent read and well-deserving of the time spent.
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