Book reviews

I ordered a few fiction books from Amazon and I'm hoping to write reviews of each after i read. I read two of them yesterday so there should be another review later on.

How I Paid for College by Marc Acito. I was told this was a good book by somebody. I don't remember who or when or why. It was a bit different then i thought it was going to be. I brought it off amazon.co.uk and all the reviews were very positively. It gave a brief blub and it sounded interesting so i brought it. I thought it was going to be a story about a group of kids who try and get enough money to pay for college. I also thought it was more pulp fiction. Not as pulp as Dan Brown or anything but still inside the mainstream. I was kinda wrong. Amazon.com has a review that kinda sums up the general dift of the book.

Columnist and first-time novelist Marc Acito has been called the "gay Dave Barry." But don't expect to find riffs on bad traffic, pirate-speak, and all-writer rock bands in Acito's debut, How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship & Musical Theater. As stated in the title, this book finds humor and adventure mainly in those topics that would most appeal to a stereotypically gay audience: musicals, piano bars, and sex, sex, sex.

Like i said, the book was a bit different then i thought it was going to be. I liked the book with a few exceptions. It was set in 1983/84 but it didn't feel like it was. Thing seem too more modern then it should have been. They did things with computers that was probably not possible to do at the time. Some of the characters were too stereotypic and this subtracted to the story. Some characters were quite good. But even with the stereotypic characters, Acito did add a few good traits, which made it somewhat more believable(especially towards the end). They all had flaws which was refreshing because normally the novels i read the characters are more or less flawless.(Sharpe is a kickass character but has no flaws except for some angry issues with the French. But who doesn't have angry issues with the French). There was no flawless hero.

Even though all the major characters were actors in high school, little was mention of the stage crew involved. The stage crew makes or breaks the show. But he might not have wanted to cross the fine line between stage crew and actors. Different jobs, different people. The two groups never hung out except the people who were cross overs. Were techies who crossed over into acting(very rarely did this happen) or actors who joined the stage crew after finding out it was much more fun especially since were we able to make fun of the drama director. When I was in high school i was on stage crew and witness several of the things that were described in the novel. Like the strangness of some of the actors. After reading it, i was kinda able to understand some of the actors who i thought at the time was total freaks but might have just been a little freakly.

There was some great moments in the book mostly towards the middle of the book that had me laughing but as far as I'm concern its not a comedy book. More of a light drama with a few very funny moments thrown in. Its not a book that i would recommend buying, unless you happen to be a gay drama major or don't actually know what the book is about, but if you do come across it, read it.