Sugarless

by James Magruder

Book Overview

Things look bad for Rick Lahrem, a high school sophomore in a cookie-cutter Chicago suburb in 1976. His mother's second husband is a licensed psychologist who eats like an ape, his stepsister is a stoner slut, and his father is engaged to a Southern belle. Rick's only solace is his growing collection of original Broadway-cast LPs, bought on the sly at Wax Trax.
After he brings two girls in speech class to tears by reading a story aloud, Rick is...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0299233804
• ISBN13: 9780299233808
• Release Date: October 2009
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Length: 274 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

The power of Speech Competition

Marguder has knocked it out of the park with this one. A must-read for anyone who has competed in speech competition or for anyone with a mother.

Deliciously funny

The 1970s setting has a bearing on our understanding of some attitudes towards various aspects of this delightful story. Richard (Rick) Lahrem, high school sophomore, lives with his mother and step-father following his parents divorce. This new arrangement has meant a drop in living standards, and more importantly for Rick, status. But he consoles himself in his secret collection of Broadway musical LPs. At school he is the sort of boy he thought no one really notices until his moving reading in speech class reduces two classmates to tears. He soon finds himself enrolled on the inter-scholastic dramatic reading team where he has an eight minute Dramatic Interpretation of Boys in the Band to perform. His immediate success leads to a new life and friends as he continues to win in the various stages of the competition. Along the way he starts to learn about himself. He begins to realise he has a lot more in common with Boys in the Band than just a talent for drama, and is soon enjoying an intimate relationship with his adoptive speech tutor from a rival school, Ned. He also has to contend with his step-father and wayward step-sister, a relationship that becomes even more confusing when first his mother, and then his step-father are swept up in religious fervour. It all leads to potential disaster at the finals of his competition. Sugarless is deliciously funny realisation of the coming of age of a well meaning and most likeable teenager. Rick narrates his own story and pulls no punches as he gives a frank account of events. It all adds up to a most entertaining and ultimately positive novel.

Brilliant new novel

SUGARLESS is a brilliant new work that deserves a wide audience. Well-written and constructed, Magruder's book introduces a wonderful new character, Rick, who shares his thoughts and adventures with the reader. Avoiding many of the pitfalls of similar works, SUGARLESS is far from maudlin or heavy-handed. The characters are believable and the author perfectuly captures the look and feel of the 1970s, as well as a young man's thrilling and frightening exploration of his sexuality. Kudos for such a terrific story.

READ THIS

Sexy, hilarious, heartbreaking. Sugarless is a valentine to love's indelible nature. Read this novel not just for its finely tuned record of the 24 hour news cycle that is adolescense . Read this novel not just for the claustrophobic familiarity of the fractured and bandaged, barely reconstituted family life circa 1973. Read this novel not just for the razor sharp humor fueled by the hormonal juggernaut of coming of age, coming out and did I mention that Jesus might save us all? But, sex definitely will. Read this novel to laugh and weep and revisit the intensity of being 15. As Rick discovers the wily, wilder world celebrated in his Sondheim musicals, he finds himself without a spoonful of sugar to sweeten life's visceral lessons of loving , losing and forgiving. The best writing is always brave and true, not just to itself but to larger realities that lodge in the heart of the reader permanently. Sugarless is such a book.

Realistic, engaging tale of '70s gay teen coming of age.

Rick Lahrem is a rather nondescript mid-1970's high school sophomore, in a nondescript Chicago suburb, who spends most of his spare time listening to Broadway-cast albums. His ability to "blend in" is a coping mechanism, to avoid attention at school (which he fears might result in him being outed as gay) and to avoid making waves in his rather dysfunctional family, consisting of a psychologist stepfather who is a slob, his stoner stepsister, and a mother in denial about her not-so-"happy" home. It all changes for Rick the day that he gives a dramatic reading in Speech class, which results in bringing some students to tears, and puts him on the teachers' "radar" to join the school team that competes in dramatic interpretation competitions. And it starts to really unravel when he is assigned a dramatic scene from the gay-themed play "The Boys in the Band." Surprisingly, Rich steps up to the challenges that face him, and does very well in the competitions. He also explores his sexual fantasies, with a speech coach from a rival school, dangerously about the same time as his mother is "born again" as a devout Bible-thumping Christian. A talented first-time novelist presents a sweet, witty and well-written coming-of-age story, featuring realistic, fully-nuanced characters and situations (including the relationship with the older man). Worthy of a full five disco stars out of five!