Sassytime

I received this book as a Christmas present and I loved it.

I realise that I have been on a bit of an Agatha-Christie-only diet for the whole of my pregnancy (was it Poirot Pica?) and my brain is probably starved for something new, but this is one of the best books I have read in a-really-long-while.

Descriptive blurb:

Late on a hot summer night in the tail end of 1965, Charlie Bucktin, a precocious and bookish boy of thirteen, is startled by an urgent knock on the window of his sleep-out. His visitor is Jasper Jones, an outcast in the regional mining town of Corrigan. Rebellious, mixed-race and solitary, Jasper is a distant figure of danger and intrigue for Charlie. So when Jasper begs for his help, Charlie eagerly steals into the night by his side, terribly afraid but desperate to impress.

Jasper takes him through town and to his secret glade in the bush, and it's here that Charlie bears witness to Jasper's horrible discovery. With his secret like a brick in his belly, Charlie is pushed and pulled by a town closing in on itself in fear and suspicion as he locks horns with his tempestuous mother; falls nervously in love and battles to keep a lid on his zealous best friend, Jeffrey Lu.

And in vainly attempting to restore the parts that have been shaken loose, Charlie learns to discern the truth from the myth, and why white lies creep like a curse. In the simmering summer where everything changes, Charlie learns why the truth of things is so hard to know, and even harder to hold in his heart.

I LOVE the character of Jeffrey Lu, he made me laugh outloud and then re-read the funniness to my husband. I love the way the author writes, the rhythm that he writes with, the words he chooses, the characters and how he has them interact - this really is the best book I've read in awhile.

I found some of the character threads seemed to get lost or were thrown aside towards the end. The character of Charlie's mother seems to wind up up up and then doesn't come through with a truthful ring in the end. She let me down a bit.

The dialogue between Charlie and Jeffrey is great. They discuss the relevant, both Jeffrey's parents are the victims of race crimes, and the irrelevant, how the stripes get in toothpaste. They talk like pirates while discussing the religious significance of 'Cheeses' and whether he inspired the Cheese Wheel.

I loved it loved it loved it - read it!