A Mug's Game- C. J. Swanson
This book is written in a lively, energetic
style that bounced me through the story. The narrator is Swanson's main
character, one Jimmie Barlow. The voice feels to me, though I am fairly
long-in-the-tooth, to be a very authentic male teenage/young adult one. Seeing
as the author is both female, and of nearer my age than a teenager, I consider
her character's words have been delivered with a great deal of aplomb and
credibility. In places, I could hear my own young adult children talking.
To the outside world, Jimmie appears to
have the profile of a classic off-the-rails young man. He is hooked on on-line
gaming, dubious money-making enterprises, is often absent from school in which
he has few friends, he associates with life's tragic and criminal cases, and he
is not beyond being the part of almost any mischief. Nearly everyone
underestimates and/or believes the worst of Jimmie.
The plot has violent and tragic tones, an
often irreverent humour, sad and dysfunctional characterisations, and all
overlaying a serious subtext concerning social issues that impinge on nearly
all of our lives. I am now a C.D. Swanson fan. There were a few copy errors in
the version I read, but they were too minor to concern all but a
'precision-editing-fascist'.
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