Huge
by James W Fuerst
Ok, before I get into the meat of this review: what have I done wrong? What, exactly, did I do to anger the cover design people at Random House? First they make Gone Away World neon pink, bright green, and fuzzy, and now... now....
Huge is a wonderful first novel. Its protagonist is a twelve year old boy who has read way too much Chandler, Hammett, and all the other world-weary detectives, and has convinced himself that he's a kindred spirit to them. So what does Random House do? They make a book cover that looks like it was decorated by an eight year old girl (or Sara)! It's sparkly! It looks like a trout! I just... I know there are things I don't understand in this world. Apparently, cover design is one of them.
Anyway, on to Huge. It's tempting to simply write about how well Fuerst sells his conceit - it's not that Eugene Smalls (formerly - and currently - known affectionately as 'Gene', desperate to convince people to call him 'Huge', like the first three letters of his name, despite the fact that he's tiny) actually lives in a hard-boiled world. There are no untrustworthy dames, no skulking mooks, no long shadows covering rain-and-neon swept streets. He's living a normal, lower-middle class life, trying to keep up with his older sister and help out his single mom. It's just that his grandmother has been consistently feeding him a diet of hard-boiled detective novels, and transforming himself into a steely-eyed, hard-hearted flatfoot is the only way he knows to cope with his changing world, faced as he is with the daunting task of entering adolescence.
The mystery elements in Huge are light, but factor large into Eugene's world. Someone has vandalized the sign of his grandmother's retirement home. They're spray-painted 'retarted' over the world 'retirement'. It's not just the vandalism that drives Eugene up the wall; it's the fact that they misspelled their own taunt. And so off he goes, onto his own case, regardless of whether his mother or sister want him to. He's not a popular boy, intelligent but reclusive, prone to rages he can't control, and he knows he's on his own. Besides, anything's better that facing the end of summer and the upcoming school year.
And that's where Fuerst, to put it simply, wins. Eugene isn't an annoying kid. He's also not an adult shrunk to miniature size. He's a twelve year old, with a twelve year old's sense of time, a twelve year old's sense of his place in the world, a twelve year old's sense of purpose and drive and fear. Hyperbole or not, he belongs in the ranks with Mitchell's Jason Taylor, McCammon's Cory Mackenson, and, yes, Salinger's Holden Caulfield. The joy in reading Huge is in watching Eugene grow up between the pages, and slowly start to question whether viewing the world through noir-tinted glasses - and keeping himself locked off from the world beyond him - is really such a wise choice to make.
-Drew |
Next SigningClaire Datnow
will be signing
 Wednesday
February 15
1:00 - 3:00 pm Little Professor Bookclub |
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