Modern Classics God Boy

by Ian Cross and Ian Cross

Book Overview

Set in a small town in New Zealand, the story is told through the eyes of a gauche thirteen year-old boy called Jimmy Sullivan. It is the haunting tale of a young boy growing up in a catholic... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0141187441
• ISBN13: 9780141187440
• Release Date: December 2003
• Publisher: Penguin New Zealand
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.2" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Bitter, vital, brilliant

I thought this classic had been lost forever, and I'm so glad Penguin have republished it. Jimmy Sullivan is a troubled adolescent relating the events which plunged him into turmoil. He has an existential bravado, swearing that he's going to put God in His place, that he's going to tell the 'truth' to the world about God. The narrator's naivete is masterfully used to create dramatic irony and suspense. It was a punch in my guts as I read his explosion of confusion and violence against everyone he loves in the midst of family disaster. The book and character are wound up dynamite, uneasy, brutal. It was originally published in 1957, 6 years after THE classic of adolesence that I can't bear to name here, because the poor bastard must've got compared all his life and it's like he just wants to get out from that shadow. But the comparison is necessary. They're brothers. The difference between this and Salinger's work is that the God Boy is darker, more suspenseful, and from New Zealand.

Absolutely amazing

I wish this book was in print, I read it from the library and was quite frankly amazed. It mightn't be everyone's cup of tea, but for me, the author got into my mind and wrote down what I think and feel. It tells the story of one boy, and his struggling descent into delinquence due to his father's alchoholism, and the gradual break down of his family. Read it.