February 2013

Ratings

Artie - saw this as coming of age novel about love, acceptance, and friendship. He wondered which generation the author was targeting. Was it ours, or our kids? He found the narrative effective and came to like the long run-on sentences which seemed to him very much like how we think. He particularly liked the like line about, stealing is a crime, but the betrayal of a friend is a sin.  He thought the story was interesting, but in the end it seemed contrived and far-fetched.  While reading he went back and forth from anticipation, to wondering when it would be over. When Bone referred to crossing the line from one part of our life to the next and not being able to return, Artie identified with this. He saw a connection between the biker gang that Chappie hung out with at the beginning of the book with the Jamaican's hideout at the end. He would recommend to his kids. 

Letitia -  didn't enjoy it, but thought it was well written and would recommend it to her son. She didn't think Chappie would survive and found the story unrealistic.  The whole thing felt like one big ganja trip since hardly a page goes by without Chappie smoking pot, and she will be listening to Bob Marley in a whole new light since she'd never heard of Rastafarianism and didn't know Bob had anything to do with it.  She found many of the characters to be horrible, especially his parents and called his real dad a pathetic loser, however she did like I-man.  When Chappie ended by saying how much he had grown she thought that he still had a long way to go.

Maggie  - thought it was a good choice and gave it an eight out of ten for its writing, but a four out of ten for its content. She thought the author had a great voice, but the language, drug use, and Buster Brown/Rosie story made for uncomfortable reading at times. It haunts her that some people lead these types of lives. She enjoyed the first part of the book, but once they got to Jamaica the story lost its charm and became boring. There were too many coincidences and inconsistencies, like getting on plane to Jamaica without a passport.  She found Bone an unsympathetic character who wasn't willing to take charge of his life. She couldn't believe he put Rose on a bus by herself and lost what sympathy she had for him then. She would recommend it. 

Miles - Found the book original and raced through it. He thought it can't be easy to write from a 14-year old's  perspective and that Banks did a brilliant job at this. Miles disliked Chappie right from the start. But he allowed that we reflect off the people we have relationships with and Chappie had no one positive to reflect with except I-man. He kept waiting for Chappie's stepfather to get his comeuppance but it never happened. Miles thought it must be frightening and stressful to never have a plan for your life, so the allure and escapism of drugs made perfect sense in such an environment. For a 14 year old boy, Chappie had an uncommon disdain for sex, most likely from what he had to live through with his step-father. Miles had no sense of where Chappie was going to wind up.

Pat - There were too many major coincidences for me to rate higher than a five. I can allow the occasional coincidence for plotting, like Buster Brown being the one who picks up Chappie hitchhiking. Okay, he lives in the area. But the Ridgeways giving him a ride from the bus station? To what purpose?  Then running into his Dad in Jamaica? C'mon!  There were also too many holes in the story. If the Ridgeways are so well off, why are they sending grandma to Chicago on a bus? Why is I-Man picking apples in NY when he's a drug king in Jamaica? The more I read, the less I liked it. It brought out strong emotions, most of them negative. It had a fun Huck Finn feel to it for a while, but that evaporated when they sent Rose off to her death. I found the ending very contrived, especially the phone call with Rose's mom, and Chappie's waxing fondly over his memory of Bruce whose last interaction with him was being hogtied in duct tape.  

K'lynn - Found this a quick and easy read, and often wondered if she was reading the right book. She liked the writing, and wants to read more of his work. She then said, WHO EVER THOUGHT THAT I'D AGREE WITH PAT? and listed many major coincidences that rang hollow. Their apartment conveniently burns down, they just happen to steal a truck from a firefighter, and then when he sees his dad in Jamaica and starts running after him she thinks, it's not really his dad is it, and then when it is...Oh! My! God! This stuff does not happen, but she kept reading because the writing was so good.  She liked Chappie and felt for him, but kept thinking to herself 'really'?  She just couldn't buy the story and emphasized this by saying: this can't be real, this can't be real, this can't be real. She's not sure she'd recommend. 

Michelle - said you don't have to believe a book to enjoy reading it. However,  if this were a real autobiography you  would never believe it. Then she recalled this line from the opening paragraph: The fact is the truth is more interesting than anything I could make up and that's why I'm telling it in the first place.  Michelle (who had the childhood nickname of Chappie) related to Chappie and thought that he was on a meaningful dream-like life experience trip. Not difficult to imagine when you consider all the weed he smoked. She thought he wanted to fit in with people and with I-man he finally could. He wanted to be like him, so he got tan, dreads and danced like him. She thought the story was about Chappie wanting to find love, or find a way out. She really liked the ending when he compared the three people he chose to love on his own to constellations. He chose them because they loved him for who he was. 

Carolyn - also began with the quote about truth being more interesting than anything Chappie could have written. She wanted to know how we could have believed Too Close to the Falls yet not this one? Carolyn shared that while teaching at Hough Elementary, which has a high free and reduced lunch rate, she took a course on poverty which involved a quiz with questions like do you know how to book a flight? and then do you know which shelters offer food during the weekend? I looked for a link to this quiz, but couldn't find one. Anyway, the point of the quiz was that we become skilled in the monetary class we live in and it was eye-opening for Carolyn. All this to say (Carolyn said it much better than I'm writing it) that people of poverty have a different mentality about money than we do, so when Chappie spent all that money on a tattoo it made total sense to her and rang true. He changed his look on the outside and began to feel different inside. Kids really feel that way. Carolyn thought that Chappie was an intelligent, good person deep down, and she kept waiting for him to escape his circumstances. He was let down by everyone who should have loved him. This is so sad because it's true for so many people, more than we realize. At the bus station she thought he was going to go with Rose and that there would be a happy ending, but no.

Sandy -  didn't think Chappie wanted to fit in, but was just so quiet and easy going that he was able to survive the situations he found himself in. "I would've been dead I know that." The Buster and Rose characters were so disturbing, and Sandy said we didn't have the radar for pedophiles back then that we have now. Sandy also agrees that people who live in abject poverty live for the moment and continually go back to wrong choices. She shared that while driving through San Ysidro she thought she was in Mexico, but it was the US. She couldn't believe people were living in shacks with no electricity.  When the story moved to  Jamaica Sandy also thought, "Oh, Come on!" a lot. She wondered if the author was trying to make a point comparing and contrasting the different types of poverty between the two countries, but concluded that horrific things can happen everywhere. She was glad Artie picked it. 

Becky - It's interesting, the ratings seem higher than the comments would indicate.  I would rate it a 4.5 to 5 for  many of the reasons people stated - too many coincidences, seemed unlikely overall. The characters ranged from unlikeable to despicable, although I agree that I-Man was an exception.  I had a hard time imagining that Bone and I-Man could board a plane for Jamaica, and then to 'bump into' his biological father really pushed the envelope.  And I agree with Maggie, putting Rose on the bus alone to that horrible mother when he himself knew from personal experience what that would be like was awful to read.  

I thought the author did a great job with the voice of Bone, but the story itself was frustrating.  At the end I found it very sad and hopeless that Chappie  included Bruce (is that the right biker name??) as one of his clouds, a person that loved him. 

I couldn't see a happy ending for Chappie.   

Artie, for all that, I am glad I read it, it was a good choice and different genre for us :)

Michelle recommended this website for Kindle purchases:  smartbookworms.com

Next pick: Schroder - Amity Gaige