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This title in other formats:Project Xby Jim Shepard
Review-a-Day (What is Review-a-Day?)"Project X, even for its distracting stabs at capturing the specifics of teenage thought...is a feat of verisimilitude, with an inspired evocation of the caprices of adolescence, deftly tracing the fine line between idle pent-up angst and the kind that puts a gun in the hand of an eighth grader who might use it." Daniel Torday, Esquire (read the entire Esquire review) Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Below the sign welcoming the new eighth-grade class to school is one that promises to leave no child unsuccessful and a handout that offers eight ways of being smart. For Edwin Hanratty, at times as hilarious as he is miserable, this is part of what makes junior high pretty much a relentless nightmare. And so, with Flake, his only friend, he contends with clique upon clique—the jocks who pummel them, the girls who ignore or taunt them—as well as the dogged and disconcerting attentions of a sixth-grader who’s even more ferociously disaffected than they are. And while Edwin’s parents work hard to understand him, they face without fully realizing it a demoralization so systemic that he and Flake have no recourse other than their own bitter and smart remarks, until they gradually begin flirting with the most horrible revenge of all. This lethal impulse, which has touched communities across America, has never been given such shocking credibility as it has in Project X, which suggests that these boys’ central predicament is not their hatred of the world but their agonized and enduring love of it. Never before has Jim Shepard’s compassionate virtuosity been on such conspicuous, unsettling, and haunting display. Review:"[E]ngrossing....With a pitch-perfect feel for the flat, sardonic, 'I-go-then-he-goes' language of disaffected teens, Shepard explores how, in two disturbed minds, the normal adolescent obsessions with competence, mastery and status take on disastrous proportions, and the search for social belonging becomes a life-or-death matter." Publishers Weekly Review:"Shepard's grasp of the roiling, unstable psychology of adolescence couldn't be sharper....A story 'ripped from the headlines' and transformed into a bitter, gemlike work of art." Kirkus Reviews
(Starred Review) Review:"[Shepard] lays down innocuous sentence after innocuous sentence until you find, to your surprise, your heart lurching. This novel should not be dismissed as an afterthought to Vernon God Little because it is, in every particular, a considerably better book." Stephen Metcalf, The New York Times Book Review Review:"The key to...Project X...is that it doesn't earn sympathy for its young protagonists by making villains out of all the grown-ups. In fact, aside from a few obvious bullies, there are no villains in Project X: It's a tragedy, pure and simple....Shepard is lacerating on the details of junior high....Shepard puts us into the shoes of two boys with murder on their minds but not in their hearts. His compassion for them rings out like a shout — the kind no one hears until it's too late." Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com Review:"[L]ean and stinging....Shepard neatly and devastatingly explicates teenage alienation and despair....Ultimately, Shepard boldly addresses the volatile subject of teen violence with cleansing candor, equanimity, and sympathy." Donna Seaman, Booklist Review:"Project X truly ups the ante [in] dark realism and depth." New York Magazine Review:"If Jim Shepard's fiction carried a sign, it might say DANGER: EXPLOSIVES. As this riveting novel progresses, we find ourselves praying for Hanratty's salvation — and our own." Cathleen Medwick, O Magazine Review:"Project X is a savvy, sensitive take on the tortured inner lives of two eighth-grade boys — Hanratty and Flake, both outcasts who plan a Columbine-like revenge on their unwitting school — that builds tension with unremitting skill." Elle Review:"Project X is a vivid, unforgettable, and heart-rending book that left me sort of in love with young Edwin, wishing I could turn back time, drop into the book, and give the poor kid the attention he deserves. Jim Shepard is a fantastic writer — compassionate, funny and fearless — and he has written a frightening reflection on our times, that does what great writing always does: inspires us to look more closely at life, and be more caring." George Saunders, author of Pastoralia Review:"Jim Shepard's disaffected eighth-graders, so brilliantly rendered, elicit the same helpless pity and recognition as Denis Johnson's most memorable characters. This is a dazzling, impossibly wrenching novel." Andrea Barrett, author of Ship Fever Review:"Project X takes us into the ghastly condition of the toxic teenage android, by which I mean its dialogue is ear-perfect and funny as can be. It's also a very frightening and suspenseful and serious novel. Moreover, Shepard has a deep intelligent sympathy for his characters, all of whom are realized and affecting. This is a fine and moving novel." Robert Stone, author of Dog Soldiers About the AuthorThe author of five previous novels, Jim Shepard lives with his family in Williamstown, Massachusetts. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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