Boy swallows universe / Trent Dalton.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780062898104 :
- ISBN: 0062898108 :
- Physical Description: 452 pages ; 24 cm
- Edition: First U.S. edition.
- Publisher: New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2019]
- Copyright: ©2019
Content descriptions
General Note: | "A novel"--Dust jacket. |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Boys > Australia > Fiction. Families > Australia > Fiction. Brisbane (Qld.) > Fiction. Boys > Australia > Fiction. |
Genre: | Bildungsroman. |
Other Formats and Editions
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gibsons Public Library | FIC DALT (Text) | 30886001063854 | Adult Fiction Hardcover | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2019 February #1
*Starred Review* Consider Eli Bell of Darra, Australia. His mother, Frankie, and her live-in boyfriend, Lyle, are heroin dealers; his brilliant, visionary brother, August, older by a year, is a selective mute who chooses not to speak; and his best friend is an elderly murderer. Eli is 12 when readers meet him; he will age to 18 through the pages of this marvelous bildungsroman, as circumstances educate him in the ways of the world, which are sometimes heartbreaking. Speaking of which, it should be noted that dealing drugs is dangerous and can make terrible things happen. When they do, Eli and August are reunited with their father, who has long been absent from their lives. Eli has a dream of becoming a journalist when he grows up and of enjoying the romantic company of a working journalist, the beautiful Caitlyn Spies. Meanwhile, the evil Tytus Broz, the Lord of Limbs, and his vile henchman, Iwan Krol, enter Eli's life, bringing with them the possibility of death. There is much more to come in this marvelously plot-rich novel, whichâtold in Eli's first-person voiceâis filled with beautifully lyric prose (a fat man has legs like "the faces of walruses without tusks"; the sun is "a white hot god of a thing"). The characterization, too, is universally memorable, especially that of Eli and August. At one point Eli wonders if he is good. The answer is "yes," every bit as good as this exceptional novel. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2019 January #2
An Australian teen aspires to reassemble his broken home, bust a drug ring, and decrypt his brother's odd pronouncements. That's a lot for a 12-year-old living outside of Brisbane to take on; and this, Dalton's debut novel, also feels like a case of reach exceeding grasp. But it has the virtue of an earnest and bright narrator in Eli, who, as the story opens in 1985, is living with his mother and her boyfriend, Lyle, who are scraping out a living as small-time heroin dealers. His older brother, August, prefers to communicate by writing in the air with his finger, and his air-scribbles are generally koanlike and inscrutable: "Your end is a dead blue wren," "Boy swallows universe," and such like. The closest thing to a normal person in Eli's life is Slim, an elderly small-time criminal whose knack for prison escapes in his youth has become the stuff of legend. After a falling-out with rival dealers, Lyle is killed, mom is sent to prison, and Eli loses a finger, leaving the brot hers to live unhappily with their alcoholic father. Dalton's novel is a kind of picaresque, built around comic scenes amid the grim setting, involving Eli's taking cues from Slim in the ensuing years to either break into things (such as the prison where mom is sentenced) or break out of his desultory existence by angling his way into a journalism internship, where he's determined to reveal the truth about the esteemed businessman who's also a drug kingpin. "A confident sneak can make his own magic," Eli explains. But the magical elements promised in the novel's early pages, mostly via August's non sequiturs, either get abandoned or turn out to be relatively pedantic matters of interpretation. A likable debut that trades its early high-flown ambitions for dramatic but familiar coming-of-age fare. Copyright Kirkus 2019 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved. - LJ Express Reviews : LJ Express Reviews
[DEBUT] This autobiographical first novel illustrates the plight of narrator Eli Bell and his mute but clairvoyant brother, August, who live with their heroin-addicted mother and her drug dealer boyfriend Lyle in Darra, a suburb of Brisbane, Australia. A big influence on Eli's life is Slim Halliday, the Houdini of Boggo Road, an ex-convict who takes care of both boys. In an intense confrontation after Lyle is discovered double-crossing his heroin supplier, Eli loses both his surrogate father and his mother, who is sent to prison, as well as something deeply important to his life. He and August go to live with their alcoholic father, which leads to a strange rekindling of their familial relationships, even as their mother continues making bad choices about boyfriends upon her release. The novel crescendos satisfyingly as Eli grows into his own as a journalist, working with crime reporter Caitlyn Spies to uncover the mystery of a missing family and exposing the murdering drug lord and his henchman at considerable personal peril. VERDICT A captivating and quirky life story that leads the reader on an intense and rewarding journey; highly recommended.âHenry Bankhead, San Rafael P.L., CA (c) Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2019 February #2
Dalton's splashy, stellar debut makes the typical coming-of-age novel look bland by comparison. The novel tracks bright, confused young narrator Eli as he moves through the ages of 12 to 19 in the 1980s in a seedy suburb of Brisbane. Eli's best friends are his older brother, August, an electively mute genius with premonitions of the future, and former felon Slim, his babysitter and a notorious, frequent escapee from a heavily guarded prison. Eli loves his parents, but they're a mess: his mom and step-dad deal heroin, and his dad is a depressed, panic-stricken alcoholic. The novel follows Eli as he nearly gets caught up in dealing drugs himself, discovers a secret room with a mysterious red telephone in his house, breaks into prison to wish his incarcerated mom a merry Christmas, and avenges the wrongs done to his familyâall while pursuing his dream of becoming a journalist. In less adept hands, these antics might descend into whimsy, but Dalton's broadly observant eye, ability to temper pathos with humor, and thorough understanding of the mechanics of plot prevent the novel from breaking into sparkling pieces. The author shapes Eli into an appealingly credible hero capable of shaping a future for himself despite a background that doesn't bode well for him. This is an outstanding debut.
Copyright 2019 Publishers Weekly.(Apr.)