Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

This is a childishly, morbidly, sweetly, defiantly hilarious book. It's the half-fictitious memoir told from the perspective of 11-year-old Jack as he is grounded for the summer and has to do some (Pause.) unusual chores for his elderly neighbor.

Basically, in this small town (which creepily reminds me of where I now live) the adults wear many hats, and this old lady whom Jack helps happens to wear the hat of medical examiner. She also wears the hat of obituary author. And town historian. And stalking victim. Jack ends up helping her with all her hats in one way or another.

There's a whole lot packed into this tiny book: The importance of community. Communism vs. capitalism. The place of history in our future. Authority figures. The banality of death. Trade and materialism. Don't let someone "hey mister" you. Don't piss off a hell's angel...

Okay, so maybe those last two were a little specific.

I understand how this won the Newberry in 2011, but at the same time, I don't get it at all. I don't feel like this was written with much literary self-consciousness. All these themes are too jumbled. What the hell is a kid supposed to take away from reading this?

"As I shoveled I worked on my obituary. 'Jack Gantos,' I said a little breathlessly, 'was born at the Frick Hospital in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, and raised in Norvelt, Pennsylvania, which is a town that is slowly vanishing, and like some Houdini trick it will soon be found in West Virginia. Jack was a good student but learned more from reading books than from staring out the window at school. His parents were total strangers who took him away at birth.'"

I am, however, intrigued and considering ordering the sequel. It made me laugh.

~8/10~