My knee jerk reaction about Elisha Cooper's book ridiculous/hilarious/terrible/cool was that it was unlike any other book I'd ever read. It was more voyeuristic sociology experiment than novel.But now that I've finished it and I'm reading the inside of the dust jacket, it says "Part documentary, part soap opera, part sketchbook..." which is a more apt description than anything I could have come up with.
Cooper took a year and observed the lives of eight kids attending Walter Payton High in Chicago. And about the only thing they have in common is the school as the cast of "characters" seem as diverse as would be possible. From the the overachiever to the underachiever, the cool to the criminal...Cooper tells the story of their year at school.
There's Emily the soccer star.
Maya the actor.
Diana the swimmer.
Daniel the overachiever.
Anais the dancer.
Anthony the drug dealer.
Aisha the new girl.
And Zef the underachiever.
See? Told you it was quite a mix.
I don't know that there are any definitive "it" books about today's American teenager. Cooper's detached narration of the events of their lives brings an even-handed approach to seeing today's teens for what they are instead of analysing or judging them. He simply wrote what he saw and passed it along for the reader to draw their own conclusions about what might happen to these kids after the last of the prom balloons have wilted and the graduation gowns are put away.
There are two people for which Cooper's book may be of the most interest.
Those who read a lot of typical novels and want a change of pace.
And those who never read but want to because, well, it's a small book. And the pace is quite fast, Cooper jumps from one person to the next fairly quickly, offering a series of vignettes from month to month during the course of the school year.
You can find more about Elisha Cooper at his website which includes a lot of information about his other works. Also, this book is available on Amazon.com
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