Dead End in Norvelt Hardcover – Bargain Price, September 13, 2011

The first clue that Dead End in Norvelt is funny is that the main character, Jack Gantos, has the same name as the author. The second clue is that comedy writer Dave Barry calls this "a brilliant book." By the time I'd read about 20 pages, I wasn't sure I could finish the book because I spent so much time laughing my head off. One night I couldn't sleep, so I got up at 3 a.m. and spent the next hour laughing hysterically as I read. Humor aside, the book is filled with odd bits of history that initially seem irrelevant but then suddenly make sense. In fact, history - national, local, and personal - is half the point of the book: as Jack says, "The reason you remind yourself of the stupid stuff you've done in the past is so you don't do it again." I thoroughly enjoyed Dead End in Norvelt, and Jack is definitely a kid I'd like to know.

As a boy, Jack was enjoying his summer vacation, when bang! Everything when up in a smoke. After firing a "somehow loaded" Japanese sniper rifle toward a movie screen, his summer was just getting worse. His mother, a citizen of Norvelt since she was born, had Jack to go to a neighbor's home up in 6:00AM for a kind satisfaction of her rules: help your neighbor. After helping Mrs. Volker for a day, Jack decides it might not be bad at all: until now, when he is sure he needs to help her.As his WWII veteran father returns to home with an army surplus J-3, he asks Jack to mow down his mother's precious cornfield to make a runaway and a bomb shelter. Already on the risk with his gun accident and his overwhelming will to get on board in the plane, Jack mows down the corn and gets into a serious trouble with his mother: grounded for summer. Now, not only he cannot contribute to the baseball team, his only way of escape is by doing chores and helping neighbors.By helping Mrs. Volker, he had a rather interesting summer. As he helped her, or should I say, typed the obituaries Mrs. Volker spoke to him, he soaked in all the necessary histories about Norvelt and learned to respect history. However, this book is not always peaceful. As all the original Norvelters started to die off in a very quick rate, rumors spread on town of the crazy dance diesis coming back to life to haunt them, or that the town is cursed. This mystery draws Jack deeply into risks of another trouble, and events.Leaving out the unusual case of frequent nose bloodsheds, Jack is considered a usual boy looking to spend the summer vacation in his own way, enjoying every bits instead of having to have to worry about watch his back every time. This is a very fun book to read, especially for a early-teenager like me. It has enough twists and turns for chapters that every time one cools down, other starts. I tried to listen it in an audio book instead, but it did not work because I had to pause every bits since I was laughing my head off way higher than the audio itself.Again, highly recommended: you will find yourself/past self as Jack and laugh along as he tries to set things right. ^^

I laughed so hard at certain passages that the tears came, and there were even more laughs when I read it aloud to my husband.The book is tightly woven from the point of view of a good-natured eleven- (then twelve-) year old boy growing up in the early '60s, a bit used and abused by the adults in his world.The writing is wonderful, and in my opinion the author's metaphors and similes are often dazzling: "I could see the flames leaping into the air, and the confetti of glowing ash that floated above the flames...[The]blistering flames rising above the house...waving goodbye to everyone who was watching." About old, arthritic Mrs. Volker: "When she finished she plopped down onto her couch like a string puppet that had been cut loose. All her jumbled pieces slumped into herself, and with her forehead pressed against her tucked-up knees she fell into a deep sleep."The unity of the book is complete, dealing, as it does, with the boy's obsession with death -- his own, the death of the town, the deaths of the town's old people, the death-work of the embalmer....The main characters and secondary characters including the boy's mother, Mrs. Volker, Bunny, and Mr. Spizz are endearing and funny, and unlikely to be forgotten.Having said all that, I'm not so sure that this is really a kid's book; at the end, when the mystery is solved, there is no moral payoff. Someone is outed, but there is no real consequences to the person's ill deeds. Life goes on -- or not, actually -- with little shock or horror, whereas the rest of the book deals, humorously, with right vs wrong.It's really a terrific book, if for adults. The best part is that it's tear-inducing hilarious.

"Dead End in Norvelt" is absolutely hilarious, and I feel it was a deserving winner of the Newbery Medal. I really enjoyed following the "adventures" of young Jack Gantos, or "Gantos Boy" as the tricycle-riding, elderly Spizz insists upon calling him. Gantos has a great writing voice, and this novel was full of colorful, funny language. Just take a look at a few examples:"I really didn't want to sneak into a house and stumble around like the Grim Reaper who had come to harvest Mrs. Dubicki." (p.105)"I glanced from the table to the orange linoleum floor, which looked like the inside of a grilled cheese sandwich" (p.221)"She was so short she could run full speed under her dining room table without ducking. I tried it once and nearly decapitated myself." (p.41)I feel that most middle graders would enjoy reading this story, especially boys. The finale is bit anti-climatic for my liking, but this story has so much character and heart, it more than makes up for this minor fault. Ultimately, it's a story about family and love, wrapped inside of a very funny package :)

Jack Gantos nos trae un libro difícil de clasificar. Una vez terminado diría que se puede considerar un libro de misterio aunque el protagonista (un Jack Gantos con 12 o 13 años) no parece ver el misterio que hay delante de sus narices: los ancianos de pueblo van muriendo a un ritmo más rápido de lo que sería normal, todas las muertes parecen naturales, pero ¿lo son realmente?El libro es bastante cómico en algunas partes, y el único pero sería que el protagonista parece un mero observador de todo y no parece tener mucha iniciativa.No existe versión en castellano de este libro, aunque yo creo que cualquiera con nivel medio de inglés lo puede entender. Existe una segunda parte y quizás algún día le de una oportunidad.

I was looking forward to reading this but was disappointed. Whilst I'm certainly old enough to remember the Cold War, this book is almost defined by it. I was looking for a decent class reader (yes, I'm a teacher) but this book just doesn't seem relevant.

The book is in good condition.

ジャック・ガントスによるジャック・ガントスを主人公とした半自伝的小説です。ときは1962年（宇宙飛行士のジョン・グレンが地球周回軌道を飛行した、という記述があります）。ところはペンシルバニア州のノーヴェルト（実在の町）。ガントス家はジャックと両親の3人暮らし。ガントス少年が12歳の誕生日を迎えるひと夏の物語です。とある事情からジャックは夏休みの間、母親から謹慎処分をくらいます。自宅から出かけてよいのは町内に住むMiss Volkerの手伝いをするときぐらい。Miss Volkerは（元）看護婦。ノーヴェルトが町として誕生したときからの住人。彼女は町の住人が亡くなると新聞に追悼記事を書くのですが、加齢のためMiss Volkerは指先が不自由。そこでジャックはMiss Volkerが追悼記事のための文章を口述するのを筆記し、それをタイプライターで清書、記事を新聞社にもっていくのでした。Miss Volkerは、ノーヴェルトの当初からの住人全ての追悼記事を書くまでは（つまり、最後に亡くなるのは彼女ということ）結婚はしない、と決めたまま歳をとってしまったのでした。さて、謹慎処分をくらったジャックはまだまだ遊び盛り。家では好きな歴史の本を読んで過ごしますが、いかんせん退屈。Miss Volkerからの呼び出しがある度に勇んで家を飛び出します。ところが、ジャックならずともこの本を読んでいる途中、読者はふと「ひと夏のことなのに、よくもまあ何人もの老人が亡くなることよ」と疑問をもつでしょう。そうです。本作品はミステリー小説でもあるのです。老人の連続死の謎。犯人は誰か。いったい何のために。本作はYA小説という枠に収まらない多様な側面をもつ小説です。今年に入って読んだ本の中では、今のところ最もおもしろい本でした。腹を抱えて笑える箇所が多くあります。と同時に、とても心を動かされた本でした。特に、日本人である私には、作者がMiss Volkerをして8月6日の広島への原爆投下について語らしめた部分に本当に心を振るわされました（第23章）。作者のフィロソフィーを含めてひとつの小説に感動したのは久しぶりのことです。是非お読みください。お勧めです。