To start off: I didn't like the book. I know that that is a rather simple response to the book, so I guess I really should write some more if I expect a good/decent grade for this journal. I didn't like the book (whoops, already said that...). Alright, I'll go into detail now.

The book was written in the same style as another book that I don't like: The Catcher in the Rye. Both books feature a character that assumes that you actually care about his thoughts about every single thing that happens to them, and then they even, at times, talk about what hasn't happend, but might. That gets on my nerves very quickly. I really hate it when people share with me paragraphs and paragraphs of thought, especially when I don't care in the first place. The only time where I don't mind is when it is a a teacher, like an English III Honors teacher, or the like. :) Both books manage to go on and on on the tiniest, most insignificant detail. Whole paragraphs focused on a passing event, something that most sane people just dismiss within a fraction of a second of it happening, with good reason: there is no reason to dwell on it!

Another similarity between both books, and that got on my nerves, is the amount of detail given when describing places and people. Both authors obviously do not know that their readers have an imagination of their own. Objects, yes, do need to be described. However, there should be some amount of uncertainty about the exact look of the object being discussed. Extreme details aren't needed (and in my case, they aren't wanted, either). There are times where the reader should be able to put down the book, and visualize what the author has written in their mind. That picture should vary from person to person. The overflow of details, however, eliminates that. If you describe it too much, there is no interest in the book. Why read it if you can't visualize your own mental picture? Everything is already out there; you might as well put the book down (which I thought of doing ALOT) if there is nothing for you to visualize. It drains both my interest and my attention span when there is no mental work to be done while reading.

Also, the subject of the book is rather annoying. I'll go ahead and say this, at the risk of sounding racist: I don't care about a black guy trying to make it in a white world. It happens all the time, to alot more people. His misadventures are no more interesting to me than the life of a tapeworm (actually, I think the tapeworm would be more interesting). The story is just a dramatization of everyday occurances from that time, when racism was much more previlant. Black people today are still denied certain jobs, only now they can sue for discrimination if they are looked at funny. The main difference between the book and what was really going on at the time was the reason for the narrator's expulsion. I seriously doubt that there were throngs of black teens kicked out for driving white rich men to school-outlawed bars. Black teens in the South still had to deal with discrimination, and they still had to deal with adjusting to a new environment, which everyone would have trouble doing, no matter what their skin color or sex. I just don't see the big deal with this book.