FROM THE INTERIOR: “THE SPECTACULAR NOW”

 

 

Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, from Tuesday/First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea; and Teaser Tuesdays hosted by A Daily Rhythm.

Today, after flailing about and picking up one book after another, I finally settled down with The Spectacular Now, by Tim Tharp, a book that I downloaded in February 2014.  I had seen the movie and was eager to read the book.  So now I’m galloping along through it, wondering why it took so long to start reading it.

 

 

 

Intro:  (Sutter) So, it’s a little before ten a.m. and I’m just starting to get a good buzz going.  Theoretically, I should be in Algebra II, but in reality I’m cruising over to my beautiful fat girlfriend Cassidy’s house.  She ditched school to get her hair cut and needs a ride because her parents confiscated her car keys.  Which I guess is a little ironic considering that they’re punishing her for ditching school with me last week.

Anyway, I have this sweet February morning stretching out in front of me, and I’m like, Who needs algebra?  So what if I’m supposed to be trying to boost the old grades up before I graduate in May?  I’m not one of these kids who’s had their college plans set in stone since they were about five.  I don’t even know when the application deadlines are.  Besides, it’s not like my education is some kind of priority with my parents.  They quit keeping track of my future when they divorced, and that was back in the Precambrian Era.  The way I figure it, the community college will always take me.  And who says I need college anyway?  What’s the point?

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Teaser:  (The night Sutter meets Aimee Finecky).  It takes about another hour to finish throwing her papers, and I keep her spirits high most of the time, but both of us lose a little enthusiasm toward the end, mostly because we know time is running out.  She’ll have to go back to her empty house, and I’ll have to go back to meet the wrath of Mom and Geech. (p. 76).

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Blurb:  This National Book Award Finalist is now a major motion picture — one of the most buzzed-about films at Sundance 2013, starring Shailene Woodley (star of The Fault in our Stars and Divergent) and Miles Teller (star of Whiplash).

SUTTER KEELY. HE’S the guy you want at your party. He’ll get everyone dancing. He’ ll get everyone in your parents’ pool. Okay, so he’s not exactly a shining academic star. He has no plans for college and will probably end up folding men’s shirts for a living. But there are plenty of ladies in town, and with the help of Dean Martin and Seagram’s V.O., life’s pretty fabuloso, actually.

Until the morning he wakes up on a random front lawn, and he meets Aimee. Aimee’s clueless. Aimee is a social disaster. Aimee needs help, and it’s up to the Sutterman to show Aimee a splendiferous time and then let her go
forth and prosper. But Aimee’s not like other girls, and before long he’s in way over his head. For the first time in his life, he has the power to make a difference in someone else’s life—or ruin it forever.

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What do you think?  Do you want to keep reading, just to find out what happens to these two lost individuals?  I know I can’t wait to keep going.

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