‘My neighbours. I heard them shouting in the yard. They were
always shouting. I ran to my hiding place where I could see through a hole in
the metal fence. They were shouting and one man was crying and the other man
pulled out a pistol. Shot my neighbour straight through his head. It was the
middle of the day and I saw all his blood spray onto the back door of the
house.’
…
‘Every hell is different,’ he said. ‘It’s what we do with
our hell that defines us. Do we take drugs and pretend hell doesn’t exist? Do
we wear hell like a badge? Do we curl up and sulk in the corner somewhere? Do
we swallow it and die slowly as it eats us from the inside? Do we build a
fortress and make it a private hell? Do we paint smiles on our faces and
pretend hell doesn’t exist? Do we drag everyone down with us?’ (pp.212-3)
I struggled to get into this novel. Now that I’ve finished
reading it I think I have worked out why. The cover. I blame the cover, and the
fact that it is classified as Youth Fiction. This is only acceptable to my mind
if that ‘youth’ is turning 19 this year.
Happy As Larry is a deeply philosophical book. I was
confronted by it on several levels. The protagonist is a bit ASD, a pure soul
who is often misunderstood. He is, sadly, the butt of several misdemeanours. A
neighbourhood child is the embodiment of pure evil; his actions are
heart-stopping, breath-holding chilling. And for me, the unravelling of Larry’s
parents’ marriage is deeply moving (I won’t spoil the ending).
The thought provoking extract is one of many; I could have
flipped to virtually any page and found meat for the mind. No wonder it took
some getting into.
But I am glad I persisted. I feel richer for reading it, and
surely that’s the highest accolade of any writer.
STRICTLY OLDER READERS please :)
