IN RE: James Sveck–eighteen-year-old New Yorker, charming, precocious, confused, doesn’t quite fit in (doesn’t really want to), If: his future (i.e., college) seems completely meaningless, not to mention terrifying . . . Then: he’ll start anew (move to the Midwest?). In re: James Sveck–misunderstood by a capricious mother, a self-absorbed father, a mordant older sister, Et alia: his Teutonic therapist, his D-list celebrity grandmother, his unnervingly attractive art gallery colleague . . . If: What one wants is enigmatic . . . Then: Life can be hell. But: as the summer gets hotter, James comes to recognize the wrenching truth of his emotions. James’s archly comic bravado fuels this sharply observed novel of a teen adrift in an adult world, struggling to make sense of the problems of love and of lack. The engaging voice of our idiosyncratic antihero is deftly captured by the adroit prose of Peter Cameron. Often hilarious, deeply compassionate, smart, and lyrical, Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You is every bit as sui generis as James Sveck himself. See also: Brown University; Sexual orientation (confusion thereof); Dinner theater; Poodles (standard).
Lincoln Hoppe walks a fine line in his performance. Some narrators might have mistakenly chosen to vocally depict James as whiny or, in the other direction, severely depressed. However, Hoppe elicits the complicated range of emotions that the young 18-year-old is grappling with throughout the story. The summer after graduating from high school, James finds himself despondent and directionless, utterly uninterested in the vibrant world of New York City. Slowly, his life spirals out of control as he retracts his decision to attend Brown University and behaves more erratically than ever. Therapy doesn't seem to help, and his mom is too busy getting married (and divorced) for the third time to notice what's going on with her son. L.E. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
Digital Rights Information
OverDrive WMA Audiobook
Burn to CD:
Not permitted
Transfer to device:
Permitted (3 times)
Transfer to Apple® device:
Permitted
Public performance:
Not permitted
File-sharing:
Not permitted
Peer-to-peer usage:
Not permitted
All copies of this title, including those transferred to portable devices and other media, must be deleted/destroyed at the end of the lending period.
Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You
by Peter Cameron
