St. Iggy

LIKED IT: WILL BUY.Felt like this was damning with faint praise, but I'm really not.

Read this one because, and I quote the flap, it is about the sort of child my students wish to read "When Iggy Corso gets kicked out of high school, there's no one for him to tell. His mother has gone off, his father is stoned on the couch, and becuase the phone's been disconnected, even the social worker can't get through." Sounds good, but I did flinch when opening-- when would the bad words start?

Not until page 94. And there weren't that many, so they can be bowdlerized. (Sorry, AS IF.) I loved the voice. I loved the cadence of the words. It read beautifully. Iggy was born drug addicted, and his thoughts are in marvelous run on sentences, and his ADHD tendencies make him prone to disconnected outbursts.

He's not a good kid, but there are reasons, as stated above. But he wants to be better. He just doesn't know how. He tries, with the help of a friend and his mother (and who is more messed up, Iggy, or his friend with the "good" background?)

Ultimately, there is redemption, which I think most adults look for in this sort of cautionary tale, even though the ending confused me. I even reread it, but it was rather impressionistic, and it was late, and I read faster than I should have.