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Coming of Age: Three Books and a Movie

Recent media consumption …

Wishin’ and Hopin’

Wally Lamb tells a short and rambling tale of a fifth grader coming-of-age in a Catholic school set in the 1960s. A vivid picture of a young guy raised by Italian parents who run a diner down at the bus station. Colorful characters, young and old. I recalled my own time in middle school. Class performances were more of a thing even in the 1980s than they seem to be now. “Lift every voice and sing” needs to be a cultural habit.

“Lady Bird”

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this movie. After streaming it, I borrowed the Blu-Ray from the library for a second viewing. More coming-of-age in a Catholic school in 2002 Sacramento, California. Every character is going through their own struggle. The father losing his tech job in 2002 hit close to home.

“Sacramento is the midwest of California!”

“Of course you love me, but do you like me?”

“Aren’t Love and Attention the same thing?”

“Like ‘Napoleon Dynamite’” is fair: awkward high school students. I thought of “The Big Lebowski” what with a Californian of their Own Name stumbling through life on the eve of (another) war in Iraq. There’s an overall theme of longing for more while realizing that you love what you have.

Where are you from?
Sacramento.
Where?
… San Francisco.
Oh yeah, nice town!

The Pushcart War

Back to the middle school again for me, and back to the 60s in setting, except the 2012 printing of Jean Merrill’s classic sets the tale 14 years in the future of 2026, which is pointlessly jarring, because the novel is clearly set in a New York City with wooden pushcarts and telephone books and taxis. A New York City that has never heard of Internets or Smart Phones or Ubers or e-bikes. A timeless tale of The Little People standing up to The Man. Old timey and sentimental and absurd with a straight face like I was reading a Wes Anderson movie.

I get that the novel was set in the future when it was first published, but by the time I got to read it in the 1980s, I read the book a few times as hopeful historical fiction. So, after I got past the ridiculous date given in the introduction, I dialed the book back to when it really lives and had a great time again. This being the 60s there’s a pleasant “crackpot” florist in jail for terrorism, and a big peace march near the end. True to 2026, the rich and powerful are monsters pushing their master plan to own it all. Until the people at last determine otherwise.

I bought the book for my older son for his birthday, but the books of my youth do not easily appeal to the tastes of today. More prose for Dad. I hope it finds a reader through the Little Free Library. If I get my hands on an older printing I may stash that on my bookshelf.

James

Another middle-school flashback, ostensibly. Headed down the river with Huckleberry Finn, but with the adventure told from Jim’s point of view. The story and the back story reveal themselves in layers, and grow increasingly implausible and entertaining. Huck is a nice kid but here it is Jim coming of age, a grown man, who has emancipated himself, out of necessity, and now he has to figure out who he really is and how far he’s willing to go to get what he wants. The last part of the book reads like a movie and I am pleased to hear that is in the works.

I picked the book up on a Saturday and was finished the next day. I’m not a fast reader but James was engagingly urgent and I had to keep going. I’ve got it next to the bed, and I may re-read it before deciding where it should go next.