Casebook

for a while when i was 17 and newly back into reading, i got all my books from two sources:<br />- the young adult contemporary section at american paradise Target™️<br />- recommendation lists of weird quirky underread adult literary fiction i checked out from my local library<br /><br />neither went very well, but at least the first category was fun.<br /><br />this was from the second.<br /><br /><i>part of a series i'm doing in which i review books i read a long time ago</i>

I'm going to be upfront, I didn't finish Casebook. I have read some good reviews for the book and was looking forward to reading it. Unfortunately, I think I am in the minority when it comes to this book. The book I read wasn't the book I thought I was getting. I got about a third of the way through and gave up. <br /><br />There are a few reasons that this book just didn't work for me. I didn't really like the way it was written. I know that for some people, it will work but I just couldn't get into the flow of the book. It was like Miles was just randomly telling us about things that happened to him after his parents split up. It felt very disjointed and I never got a handle on time frames for any of it. There also seemed to be a jumble of characters and I couldn't keep everyone straight. Finally, there were weird footnotes that were supposed to be from his friend Hector. I found those weird and I didn't get the point. So, I'll just chalk this on up to being not a good fit for me. Check out what others are saying ( Maybe you will "get it".

I found the synopsis of this book to be entirely misleading. I didn’t encounter any blatant evil, just stale characters slogging through monotony. This is told from the perspective of Miles, who is nothing but a nosy kid lacking direction. His parents get divorced and his mom starts dating a loser. So Miles takes it upon himself to find any unsavory tidbit he can about Eli to discredit the promises he made - over the course of six very long years. The narrative is a disjointed stream-of-consciousness that just didn’t work for me. It’s like Miles expected his reader to be familiar with all of the characters in his orbit and be in on his inside jokes and characters from page one. <br /><br />I really struggled with this whole book and had to force myself to finish it. I disliked Miles for obsessing over Eli, I hated Eli for his deception, and I couldn’t respect Miles’ mom for letting Eli affect her so much. With so many characters caught up in their own misery, it was just painful to read.<br /><br />I received a complimentary copy of this book via the Amazon Vine program.

I know there are a lot of reviews out there talking about all the problems in this book. I'm just gonna say straight out - none of that stuff bothered me. I know Miles sometimes sounded like a teenager and the next page sounded like an adult. I felt like that was normal. His best friend Hector (maybe gay? maybe Miles is gay too? who knows?) had the same kind of thing happening, but I felt they were both characters I could identify with, and I could have when I was in high school, too. <br /><br />I liked the Harriet The Spy vibe going on when Miles and Hector were listening in on phone conversations, trying to find out if The Mims (Miles' mom) was ever going to be happy again after the divorce. I liked the private investigator they hired to look into Eli, the new guy. I liked the way this was mostly a story about growing up and worrying about parents and being a friend. Parents are real people, too, and it's a really hard time finding that out and still being a kid. <br /><br />Also, at the private school the kids attend there is a motto they live by and it is: "Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? Will it improve upon the silence?" I think I'm going to make that my motto.

I loved this book in ways I didn't expect - perhaps because it reminded me of so many things I loved when I was a kid. <i>Harriet the Spy</i>, for instance - I read that book over and over again because I loved the idea of looking into windows, of observing people in the neighborhood and the world and trying to figure out things about them - all kids are snoops, right? It made me think of hanging around on the upstairs landing when my parents had a dinner party and after I was supposed to go to bed - just listening to the adults. I never wanted to go to bed because I was positive I'd miss something.<br /><br />Our hero, Miles, and his friend, Hector, spy on and listen in to Miles' divorcing parents. They snoop their computers, their phone calls, try to figure out things about the new boyfriend (who seems very suspicious to them). Much of what they learn is confusing and a bit scary - what do they do with their suspicions? What is this adult world all about? Will Hector's mother be okay?<br /><br />Ms. Simpson captures the confusion and glamour of kids just learning about the grown-up world and trying to fit together the pieces. Moving and profound, <i>Casebook</i> offers a glimpse into a family coming apart and changing through the eyes of a very smart and cool kid who just wants to understand. Highly recommended.

3.75 stars Casebook is a creative novel about a typical divorce from the vantage of a teenage boy. Mona Simpson has lived around boys because she writes from their world. I enjoyed the main character, Miles, as he sleuths his way through family life. All children love to eves-drop on their parents: it’ considered reconnaissance in knowing the enemy’s game plan. Simpson takes that premise and writes a clever novel about divorce from a kid’s perspective.<br /><br />Miles starts his snooping when he was nine and wanted to know ahead of time what intentions his mother has for his free time. At the age of nine, Miles wanted to watch “Survivor” to improve his social standing at school. Nothing is more important to Miles than being able to watch the show. Mile’s sleuthing results in learning unsettling facts of his parent’s marriage. The more he learns increases his spying appetite. His spying becomes his obsession, with his best friend Hector (who seems to have a crush on Mile’s family life). Simpson writes Miles and Hector as boys who are not popular and working to be included in the cool kid peer group. The boys’ observations on family life, marriage, and adult relationships are hilarious. The boys’ navigation through Middle School and High School are also comical.<br /><br />The spying goes on through their teen years. Both boys are interested in the dynamics of their parent’s life: their marriages, divorces, and dating life. They discover information that is above their abilities to process. They get themselves in some pickles of which they cleverly get out. This would be a great family movie. It’s like “The Parent Trap” in children plotting and getting themselves into some scrappy situations. If you are a fan of “The Parent Trap” or are amused by some of the clever programming on The Disney Channel, you will be a fan of this book. My only criticism is it does drag here and there. But when I thought, “OK, I’m bored now” something funny happens.<br /><br />It’s a fun book that looks at the unsettling affects of divorce and dating to the children involved. Adults think children are resilient, which they are; nonetheless, adult situations, such as divorce, are confusing to children. I’ll read more of her work.<br /><br />

I've been a huge fan of Mona Simpson ever since Anywhere But Here. In this novel, she tackles what I believe to be a difficult task in writing from the perspective of an adolescent teenage boy. And she never makes the mistake that some novelists do trying to utilize their creative writing skills and write in a manner that is not consistent with the narrator. In being true to her task, the writing can be a bit simple, abrupt and nonsequitor, just like a teenage boy. It is essentially a novel of a boy dealing with his parents separation and divorce, while trying to find out info about his mom's new boyfriend. It is basically a coming of age tale, with a bit of a mystery intertwined (who is this man Eli, dating his mom, and what are his motivations?). He and his best friend Hector become amateur sleuths in investigating their "prey". Using humor, pathos and compassion, Mona Simpson delivers a lucid tale of a boy dealing with a failing family and trying to mend it.

I seldom write a poor review on Goodreads for the simple reason that I seldom finish a book I don't like. Halfway into this book, I nearly put it aside, and by the last page, I devoutly wished I had. This just isn't at all my sort of book. Here we have an incredibly nosy kid who rifles through his mother's underwear drawer (!) and calls her "the Mims". I found everything about this kid irritating. The many other characters were no more appealing. This was a dreary tale that held no uplifting qualities at all for me. My recommendation: Don't waste your time.

"1 • Under the Bed<br /> I was a snoop, but a peculiar kind. I only discovered what I most didn’t want to know.<br /> The first time it happened, I was nine. I’d snaked underneath my parents’ bed when the room was empty to rig up a walkie- talkie. Then they strolled in and flopped down. So I was stuck. Under their bed. Until they got up.<br /> I’d wanted to eavesdrop on her, not them. She decided my life. Just then, the moms were debating weeknight television. I needed, I believed I absolutely needed to understand Survivor. You had to, to talk to people at school. The moms yakked about it for hours in serious voices. The only thing I liked that my mother approved of that year was chess. And every other kid, every single other kid in fourth grade, owned a Game Boy. I thought maybe Charlie’s mom could talk sense into her. She listened to Charlie’s mom.<br /> On top of the bed, my dad was saying that he didn’t think of her that way anymore either. What way? And why either? I could hardly breathe. The box spring made a gauzy opening to gray dust towers, in globular, fantastic formations. The sound of dribbling somewhere came in through open windows. My dad stood and locked the door from inside, shoving a chair up under the knob. Before, when he did that, I’d always been on the other side. Where I belonged. And it hurt not to move. <br /> ... "<br />

Every year, there are only a handful of novels that I cannot bring myself to finish. This one, unfortunately, will join that small pile for 2014. The premise of a snooping child narrator is one that has worked so well for other authors (like Lisa O’Donnell’s <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/18684780.Closed_Doors" title="Closed Doors by Lisa O'Donnell" rel="noopener">Closed Doors</a>), but the success really depends on the charm of the narrator. Miles displays little charm or humour and the odd structure adds to the difficulty in connecting with Miles or any of the other characters. The odd footnotes from “Hector” alludes to shifting facts and creates too much distrust in the narration. It almost feels like a series of inside jokes that the author is simply excluded from. And the choppy flow adds to this disconnect. There are too many dull details and too odd of an overall execution for me to feel anything other than relief to set this one aside. It just isn’t for me.