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HomeShop at BookSurgeJuvenile FictionPerforming ArtsLife is Falling Sideways |
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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 4 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Tom Sawyer in the 20th Century Jan 15, 2010
By R. L. Hilliard
No whitewashed fences, but a haunted house, rooftop ledges and an abandoned mental hospital electric shock room provide the venues for four young teenagers to test their relationships to each other and their families, the stirring of young love, the forbidden thoughts and language of sex, and the dangers of adventure and rebellion. Michael Keith's writing is brisk and reflects the teenage vernacular of the 1950s and '60s. Each short chapter captures the reader's attention and holds it into the next chapter. "Life Is Falling Sideways" makes one feel all the fears and foibles, attitudes and aspirations disappointments and hopes of being a young teenager again.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
An ordinary boy confronting extraordinary events... Jan 09, 2010
By RLS
Leaving childhood behind is never easy, as we discover in Life is Falling Sideways, the story of a young boy dealing with rapid-fire life issues. Ghostly visitations and adolescent erections mingle uneasily with first love; humor, tragedy, friendship, and a few brushes with death make up the rest of the trip from Innocence to Wisdom. Poignant, funny, and insightful - uh huh, this book has it all!
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
I LOVED this book! Dec 14, 2009
By Norlinda Ann Conroe
"inveterate reader"
I just finished reading this book and I LOVED it! Davy is a great choice for a narrator ; as seen through his eyes, his life is so believable. I had a real sense of what his world was like... hard, but not tragic. In contrast, Bob's life is believable but tragic (and all too real). The character of Henry, which could have been a running joke, does provide some comic relief - but he is also complex and sympathetic as well. Corey is, as the dad suspects, the more "normal" of Davy's friends - so you can feel what his loss will be to Davy, especially when it is forever ( or until "we grow up"). I thought all the characters were fully realized and they pulled me into their lives. I had a real feel for Davy's family too: a family of lost dreams, alcoholism, bickering, intolerance - but also of caring and love. I had the sense that Davy was a lucky boy in spite of the coldness of his room and the problems in his family. I really liked the way the "issues" just came to the surface as part of Davy's everyday experience: racism( in so many forms), poverty, lost dreams, sacrifice, coming of age. The symbols worked well, and the "polio house" and its ghosts were intriguing. ( I can remember the polio scare well. Someone in my neighborhood got it, as well as my doctor - who had to be in an iron lung. Keith captured well the sense of mothers' fears, the seemingly random nature of who caught it, and the miasma of anxiety that hung over everyone.) The sweet character of Mary Kay kind of breaks your heart, as you know - in a way she doesn't - that polio will probably continue to shape her life. Davy's devotion to her as a "first love" is poignant. I was amazed at how multilayered the book was; it captured a historical period as well as that beginning transition to adulthood which everyone goes through. Kudos to the author. This book deserves to reach a large audience. (I would like to see a sequel; I really wanted to know what the rest of Davy's life held.)
Exceptional coming of age story Nov 25, 2009
By Gunther Purdue
"GP"
This is a multifaceted look at the life of an adolescent boy during the polio crisis of the 1950s. Extraordinary things keep happening in the life of the teenage protagonist, which are both heartrending and humorous. A very satisfying read for young people and adults alike. This is a great coming of age story--an honest depiction that will keep the reader engaged from first to last page. Highly recommended.
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