Date: 14 April 2011, 08:54
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Sometimes I get to thinking that my mental list of the "Top 5 Books I've Ever Read" is going to remain cast in stone until the day I draw my terminal breath. Then, out of the blue, an accidental discovery like "A Boy's Life" will come along and prove that, while I may consider myself well-read, there's still way too much opportunity for bona fide treasures to remain hidden. I try not to use too may superlatives when writing a review - they tend to distract the reader and perhaps even cause them to question your objectivity. But this time I just can't bring myself to care, such is my admiration of the book I read just a few short weeks ago. Put simply, this work is a masterpiece, and it's only when you encounter something as rich as this that you realise how often that word is applied to inferior goods. One line plot summary - "'A Boy's Life' details the adventures of a twelve year old boy growing up in a small town, being essentially a series of vignettes backed by a tale of an unsolved murder." None of which, of course, would tempt you to read the thing were I not to say this: McCammon has always been a competent writer, but neither before nor since has he approached the heights he attains here. God knows other writers have come close to capturing the simple magic of boyhood (King's "The Body" makes a fine case study), but McCammon leaves them all in his wake. There really is magic in this book, I swear it - the pleasures and pitfalls of early friendships, the thrill of summer break, the bicycle as a near-mythical icon, the joys of childish things and the call of the future - it's like putting on a pair of magic lenses and seeing things as we saw them before the cares of the world came to spirit us away. I could go on at length, writing about the richly drawn characters, the way McCammon steers a course between humour and tragedy with an unwavering hand, the astonishing writing-style, the way large issues are melded to small events ... but I won't. I will, however, say this: This book is a wondrous thing, a gift to be cherished, and I cannot believe that anyone who was ever young will ever quite shake away the faerie dust which settles during its reading. It's that powerful. Or, to paraphrase Jon Landau - at a time in my life when I desperately needed to feel young again, "A Boy's Life" took me back, if only for the briefest of times. And that, friends, is something money can't buy.
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