Skippy Dies
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After 14-year-old Skippy ends up dead on the floor of a local donut shop, a number of suspects emerge at Skippy's school in Dublin, in a hilarious portrait of the pain, joy, and occasional beauty of adolescence.
McMillan Palgrave
Why does Skippy,
After 14-year-old Skippy ends up dead on the floor of a local donut shop, a number of suspects emerge at Skippy's school in Dublin, in a hilarious portrait of the pain, joy, and occasional beauty of adolescence.
McMillan Palgrave
Why does Skippy, a fourteen-year-old boy at Dublin’s venerable Seabrook College, end up dead on the floor of the local doughnut shop?
Could it have something to do with his friend Ruprecht Van Doren, an overweight genius who is determined to open a portal into a parallel universe using ten-dimensional string theory?
Could it involve Carl, the teenage drug dealer and borderline psychotic who is Skippy’s rival in love?
Or could “the Automator”—the ruthless, smooth-talking headmaster intent on modernizing the school—have something to hide?
Why Skippy dies and what happens next is the subject of this dazzling and uproarious novel, unraveling a mystery that links the boys of Seabrook College to their parents and teachers in ways nobody could have imagined. With a cast of characters that ranges from hip-hop-loving fourteen-year-old Eoin “MC Sexecutioner” Flynn to basketballplaying midget Philip Kilfether, packed with questions and answers on everything from Ritalin, to M-theory, to bungee jumping, to the hidden meaning of the poetry of Robert Frost, Skippy Dies is a heartfelt, hilarious portrait of the pain, joy, and occasional beauty of adolescence, and a tragic depiction of a world always happy to sacrifice its weakest members. As the twenty-first century enters its teenage years, this is a breathtaking novel from a young writer who will come to define his generation.
Baker
& Taylor
After 14-year-old Skippy ends up dead on the floor of a local donut shop, a number of suspects emerge at Skippy's school in Dublin, including Skippy's drug-dealing rival in love; a ruthless smooth-talking headmaster; Skippy's friend, who is determined to open a portal into another dimension; and more, in a hilarious portrait of the pain, joy and occasional beauty of adolescence.
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Quotes
Add a Quote‘Do you think we should do something?’ Niall says. ‘Do something?’ Dennis repeats. ‘Like what?’ ‘Like, stop him somehow.’ ‘And just let this Neanderthal waltz off with the great love of his life, is that it?’ Like many pessimists, Dennis becomes strangely energized when things are actually at their worst. ‘He should sit tight and let himself be bullied and trampled over for another four years, and then some day when he’s an accountant married to some mediocre-looking girl the bullies didn’t want he can take revenge by giving Carl Incorporated a really exacting audit?’
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Add a CommentThis is a story of adolescents at boarding school, with a parallel story of teachers. It was much better than I expected.
I fell in love with this book after reading the inside jacket's comparisons to Infinite Jest's Enfield Tennis Academy and Harry Potter's Hogwarts. The book did not disappoint. It was a perfect mix of humor and heartache definitely worthy of the comparisons.
I pretty much loved this. Experimental, funny, tragic. Tackling string theory, midlife angst and teenage insecurity. Oh, and also spiritualism, video games, RPG and WWI. The author deftly switches voices. From the mind of Carl the menacing, hulking, empty yet enigmatic bully. The oftimes lost and pathetic Howard the Coward. Ruprecht. Some of my now all-time favorite characters in literature.
Very worthwhile read, though I'm convinced that I would have liked it better if I were a guy, a little too much about sex-obsession among adolescents and immature adult males. But beautifully written and makes me want to read Robert Graves.
Meh. Couldn't get into it.
Excellent book with rich characters, especially little Skippy. Sits at #1 on my list of top books from 2010.
Looking at all the previous comments, I don't think I have much to add. Except that this book is FUNNY. Not ha-ha funny, not fun at the expense of others' misfortune. But a kind of sublime humor that arises from the clash of conformity against the chaos and anguish that is youth. This is a book that is worth reading a second time (that is, if you can imagine reading anything a second time in these days!). This is a book that makes me remember what it was, to feel the crush and splendor of first love.
Though it starts with the death of a student this novel is not so much a "who-done-it" as a character study of the students and teachers of an Irish private school. It is written with laugh out loud humour and many poignant moments as you glimpse into the hearts of these characters.
Very compelling and interesting, full of pith and moment, sometimes heartbreaking and sometimes horrifying, nuanced and brutally honest and eye-opening. Story about, as the NY Times review said, "a single catastrophic autumn" at an Irish boys' school (some boarders but mostly day students; also deals a lot with the teachers and admin and touches on the nearby girls' school as well - very balanced). Should appeal to anyone interested in teaching, quantum physics, string theory, growing up, love, the universe, doughnuts....! I don't think my high school ever had "bad boys" as bad as the bad boys in this book (though maybe now every high school does? or perhaps only in bigger cities like Dublin, Toronto, etc) and I sure learned more about the gritty side of life than I cared to. But to its great credit, this book made me feel for teenagers in a way I never have before, even when I was one.
funny, sad, frightening, touching story about teenage suicide; but it is much more about life than death.