"So, my beautiful fat girlfriend, Cassidy, is threatening to kick me to the curb again, my best friend suddenly wants to put the brakes on our lives of fabulous fun and my dad, well, my dad is a big fat question mark that I'm not sure I want the answer to.
Some people would let a senior year like this get them down. Not me. I'm Sutter Keely, master of the party. But don't mistake a midnight philosopher like me for nothing more than a shallow party boy. Just ask Aimee, the new girl in my life. She saw the depth in the Sutterman from the first moment when she found me passed out on the front lawn. Okay, so she's a social disaster, but isn't it my duty to show her a splendiferous time and then let her go forth and prosper?
Yes, life is weird, but I embrace the weird. Let everyone else go marching off into their great shining futures if they want. Me, I've always been more than content to tip my whiskey bottle and take a ride into the heart of the Spectacular Now. "
More and more I've been reading books and watching films and TV shows that seemed to be about nothing. The plot consists of a simple storyline and nothing really happens. What I've learned is that it's much more complexed than that. Nothing seems to happen because the story is realistic. Think about your every day life and what a normal day is to you. It's not all the interesting; you don't do much. It's the extraordinary days you have every once in awhile that get turned into the big blockbuster films we see and "enjoy" more. For me, I love a simple story that come as close to every day life as possible.
The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp should've been titled The Spectacular WOW I loved this book because I really do love this book. I don't think there's a word in the English language that could really come close to describing my feelings towards The Spectacular Now. At first glance it seems to be a story about nothing that would really hold my attention. Just look at this summary printed in tiny font on the copyright page: In the last months of high school, charismatic eighteen-year-old Sutter Keely lives in the present, staying drunk or high most of the time, but that could change when he starts working to boost the self-confidence of a classmate, Aimee. Sutter's going to help some girl become hot! What crazy fantastical way will he do it?! But if you think that's going to be the story, you're wrong. I found the writing on the back cover (which is the writing at the beginning of this post) much more intriguing than this tiny run-on sentence. It may seem like your typical story of two teenagers in high school, but The Spectacular Now is much more than that.
The story really does focus solely on Sutter Keely with quick storylines for other characters that tie into Sutter's quite expertly. I liked that Sutter was the main focus because he's the perfect protagonist and narrator. When you have such an everyday story like this, I mean it's set in southern Oklahoma, it's the dialogue and the characters that bring it all to life. Tim Tharp did a spectacular job of creating Sutter and his attitude. The novel is funny throughout without losing its underlying subtext. Dare I say this is one of the most perfect young adult novels I've ever read. It's witty and well written. When people say perfect doesn't exist I want to slam The Spectacular Now with a post-it that says 'Read Me' in their face and walk away.
I will admit I didn't just stumble across The Spectacular Now. I knew it was a film (released in late 2013) and I was just going to skip the book and go straight to watching the film. I don't remember what changed my mind, but I'm overjoyed that it did. While reading it, sometimes I'd let it slip that I knew who played who in the adaptation and it put a damper on my own interpretation of the characters, but that didn't last long. When I first started reading it I was wondering how they would dramatized such a beautiful simple story for the big screen, but like I said, it's the characters and the dialogue that really make The Spectacular Now very spectacular. I can't wait to watch the film.
I know I didn't say much about the book or the story and I may have repeated myself, but that's because I don't want to give anything away. Just know that Tim Tharp is a genius, the dialogue is hilarious and the book is wonderful. I will tell you that I was a little sad at the end, but only because of how much Sutter changed and I'll let you read it for yourself. If you haven't guessed it already, read The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp.
Embrace the weird.
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