The Coming of Age of Jimmy Perrini
(NOTE: Some of the links in this blog are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase on Amazon. Thank you for supporting my writing in this manner. More details here.)
*****
In an interview, Tom Perrotta says this book is about a man who is haunted by the events that took place in the summer of 1974 when he was thirteen years old. Several very bad things happen to Jimmy that summer, the first of which was his mother’s death from cancer. It was no one’s fault, of course, Jimmy’s dad and older sister were struggling with their own “fog of grief” too, but Jimmy was pretty much left to his own devices. The dad worked many overtime hours and the sister had a job as a mother’s helper that took her away from home.
As Jimmy says in the book: Being alone in the house at night was the only thing worse than being alone in the house in the morning. Thus he tried hard not to be there. During the day he was an unpaid junior counselor at a camp in the local park. At night he rode around town with an older boy, a misfit named Eddie, in the car that is dubbed “the creepmobile” by more respected kids.
Jimmy enjoyed riding with the windows open on a summer evening. Back in that era, that was a common thing for families to do. I sure did it and enjoyed it with mine. Thus in my thought process, Jimmy should have been doing that with his dad and sister – maybe even stopping for an ice cream. But in their absence, Eddie filled in. And let’s just say that the boys did things that Jimmy’s mom would not approve of, but then she was gone, so the rules no longer applied.
I have to state that at one point in the creepmobile section, I stopped reading the book for several days and considered giving up on it entirely because I was so afraid of what the creepmobile boys were going to do to another character in the book. I finally braved the next sentences and they were not as awful as I had imagined, but still, Perrotta’s excellent writing had me cowering on the couch.
*****
All of the memories of the summer of 1974 are explored in detail by the much older Jimmy, now called Jay, when he is invited to return to his hometown of Creamwood, NJ for the ribbon cutting ceremony for a new municipal building named for his father, the Frank J. Perrini Memorial Complex.
Beyond being the son of Frank, he is also the most famous author hailing from that city. He had written a few literary books at the start of his career and then in an effort to be more commercial wrote a series of kids’ books – Ghost Teacher, Ghost Teacher Loves You, and Ghost Teacher to the Rescue. An animated series had been created from the books, sealing his fame.
As Jimmy says as he thinks back on his career: “I used to tell people that I had two different writing careers, one for love and one for money, but I don’t believe that anymore. The truth is, it’s all been one thing, just a bunch of variations on the only themes that have ever mattered to me. Ghosts and Orphans. Orphans and Ghosts. The way we’re abandoned and never left alone.”
*****
Clearly, this is a coming of age story. Tom Perrotta tells us in the interview that this is a very important genre. Adolescence is the crucible of identity. We make ourselves in those years.
This leads me to my main thought about this book – I wonder if we had a thirteen-year-old female who suffered the exact same tragedies (plural) as Jimmy, what her coming of age story would have looked like?
This is where I would take my book club if we were discussing this book. Which might just happen because I loved this book and want others to experience it.
Nice job, Tom Perrotta!
*****
Click here to learn more about Ghost Town on Amazon.
*****
Click here to join the Book Lovers Club. I post about three dozen book reviews a year. If you would like to receive them as I write them, please join the Club.
*****
If you like my writing, I hope you will check out my new book, Chai on Life. It contains 36 slice-of-life stories ranging in topics from belly fat to Billy Joel. It is available wherever books are sold and on Amazon. There is even a companion journal for you to write the stories of your life.
Chai on Life is available in 3 formats: Hard Back, Kindle, and AudioBook.
*****
And one last thing! Amazon has named me an Influencer (!!!!) and invited me to open a Storefront. You will find lots of my favorite things there including fun gifts for people who love to read. Check it out!
Leave a Reply