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Casebook: A novel av Mona Simpson
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Casebook: A novel (utgåvan 2014)

av Mona Simpson

MedlemmarRecensionerPopularitetGenomsnittligt betygOmnämnanden
22312120,005 (3.47)7
Fiction. Literature. HTML:From the acclaimed and award-winning author of Anywhere But Here and My Hollywood, a powerful new novel about a young boy??s quest to uncover the mysteries of his unraveling family. What he discovers turns out to be what he least wants to know: the inner workings of his parents?? lives. And even then he can??t stop searching.

Miles Adler-Hart starts eavesdropping to find out what his mother is planning for his life. When he learns instead that his parents are separating, his investigation deepens, and he enlists his best friend, Hector, to help. Both boys are in thrall to Miles??s unsuspecting mother, Irene, who is ??pretty for a mathematician.? They rifle through her dresser drawers, bug her telephone lines, and strip-mine her computer, only to find that all clues lead them to her bedroom, and put them on the trail of a mysterious stranger from Washington, D.C.

Their amateur detective work starts innocently but quickly takes them to the far reaches of adult privacy as they acquire knowledge that will affect the family??s well-being, prosperity, and sanity. Burdened with this powerful information, the boys struggle to deal with the existence of evil and concoct modes of revenge on their villains that are both hilarious and naïve. Eventually, haltingly, they learn to offer animal comfort to those harmed and to create an imaginative path to their own salvation.

Casebook brilliantly reveals an American family both coming apart at the seams and, simultaneously, miraculously reconstituting itself to sustain its members through their ultimate trial. Mona Simpson, once again, demonstrates her stunning mastery, giving us a boy hero for our times whose story remains with us long after the novel is over.


This eBook edition includes
… (mer)
Medlem:kraaivrouw
Titel:Casebook: A novel
Författare:Mona Simpson
Info:Knopf (2014), Edition: First Edition, Hardcover, 336 pages
Samlingar:Ditt bibliotek, 2014
Betyg:****
Taggar:Mona Simpson, literary fiction, Los Angeles

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Casebook av Mona Simpson

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The whole "casebook" concept was just a gimmick to explain why the son can narrate the story of his parents divorce and mother's relationship with a psycho (because he eavesdrops and snoops). Even Hector's footnotes are lame and add nothing to the story. [small chance a print copy of the book plays out the casebook better than audio, but that just proves it's a cosmetic gimmick and does not add narrative value.] The psycho comment, that's not a spoiler -- even though Miles says he likes Eli, it is obvious there is another shoe to drop. Yes, there's some interesting perspective on how kids view divorce and the life they live afterwards -- for example, the insight that the single-parent family should stop trying to act like they're a typical family like everyone else [read: every two parent family] because they are not like everyone else. That's good advice, I think. So take it and read something else. ( )
  LDVoorberg | Dec 3, 2017 |
I did not know what to expect going into Mona Simpson's Casebook. The synopsis made it sound more like a mystery--two boys acting as sleuths to uncover their parents' secrets. But at its heart, this is really a tender coming of age story about a boy finding his way after his parents divorce and their new relationships. It's the story of how Miles struggles with his conflicting emotions, faces life's challenges and searches for answers about love and betrayal. Casebook is funny and charming. It is also sad and thoughtful.

I loved the way Mona Simpson sets the story up. In the introduction, the reader learns that the narrator and his friend are the "authors", telling the story behind the graphic novel they wrote about their espionage efforts. Names have been changed or nicknames used (like for Miles' two sisters, Boop One and Boop Two), descriptions even, in order to avoid identification of the people involved. Written in the first person perspective, this is Miles' story, with added footnotes by his friend Hector. (For those not liking footnotes--there are not very many, but the ones that exist are brief and funny in their own right.)

I liked that the story is a quiet one. It is not action packed, although it is a fairly fast read. If you are expecting big climaxes and life shattering revelations, you won't get them here. The mystery behind Miles and Hector's search for the truth about Eli, Irene's boyfriend, is not at all surprising. It is easy to guess early on, the markers being quite clear. For me, what was more important was how Miles dealt with the truth once he found it, how it changed him and impacted his choices there after.

I adored Miles. He is so innocent and naive on one hand and yet extremely resourceful and wise beyond his years in others. Even when he was exacting revenge on his enemies, he demonstrated he had heart and cared about others. I also really liked Miles' friend, Hector, who was the kind of best friend I wish I could have had growing up. His loyalty and taking matters into his own hands for his friend's sake say much about him. At the same time, I wish Miles' had paid more attention to what his friend was going through. Miles noticed Hector's troubles, but, to me, it felt like he was too caught up in his own life to really see his friend and the trouble that might be brewing in Hector's life, behind the scenes. I don't completely blame Miles though. Hector used Miles' life to avoid his own.

I am glad the author told the story from the point of view of Miles. I think back to my childhood, my curiosity about what was going on around me, including about my parents' relationship. I never resorted to tapping their phone, or rifling through their things, but I caught snatches of conversation here and there. And sometimes, perhaps, I snooped a little more than I should have. I do understand the desire to want to know more about a parent, to understand why he or she is depressed or angry, and wanting to find a way to fix it, hurting alongside them, and wanting them only to be happy. Miles loved his mother dearly and wanted so much for her to be happy. Miles learned some difficult lessons through the course of his story, but the fact that he came away from it all with hope . . . . Well, that warmed my heart. ( )
  LiteraryFeline | Nov 25, 2017 |
In Casebook by Mona Simpson a young amateur sleuth hears more than he bargained for which eventually leads to an expanded investigation and results in some hard earned lessons and maturity. Highly Recommended

When Miles Adler-Hart was 12 he originally began eavesdropping on his parents in a vain attempt to discover any plans they might have for his futures. Instead of talking about him, Miles discovers that their relationship is in trouble and they are getting divorced. After the divorce Miles' mother, Irene, introduces him to her boyfriend, Eli. With the help of his friend, Hector, Miles increases his surveillance on his mom and this questionable new man. Miles and Hector eventually befriend a PI to help in their investigation.

Miles says of Eli: "It was odd story. Like the brother. A lot of Eli’s life seemed weird. Sad, too. I felt that even then. But sad in a way that had no poignancy. More like a disease I hoped wasn’t contagious."

Simpson follows her teenage protagonist Miles from age 12 to post high school, with most of the novel centered around Miles to about age 15. This novel manages to transcend the usual teenage novel full of angst associated with a broken family and the ensuing financial stress it causes by focusing on the mysterious relationship between Irene and Eli as seen through the eyes and ears of a sometimes clueless, sometimes insightful Miles and Hector. There is also a dose of humor in Miles story through some of his schemes and antics, along with the poignancy of an alienated teen during a tragic time in his life.

The novel is set up as an account after the fact, with a present day Miles and Hector as successful comic book authors, with footnotes added later with comments on what is written. This is a coming-of -age novel with a mystery entwined in the story. Simpson does a wonderful job capturing Miles thoughts for his age while allowing Irene's personal struggles to remain somewhat aloof and beyond Miles' ability to comprehend.

In many ways Simpson's account is a somewhat sanitized picture of what divorce means to many women and children. While there is definitely emotional strain, the devastating blow that many experience emotionally and financially isn't pictured quite as insidious here as the reality is for many.

The quality of Simpson's writing and her ability to really allow us to connect with her teenage protagonist help to elevate Casebook up from just-another-coming-of-age-story to a novel with a mystery to unravel while we gain insight into all of the characters.

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Knopf Doubleday for review purposes. ( )
  SheTreadsSoftly | Mar 21, 2016 |
It's taken quite a few attempts to read CASEBOOK, it's been one of the most picked up and discarded books in the review pile for quite a while.

The idea behind it was part of the problem – a young boy eavesdropping on his family as his parent's marriage falls apart. It feels therefore like it's going to be very personal. Devastating even. Unfortunately the storytelling relies heavily on the stream-of-conscious voice of young Miles – who frankly – doesn't feel “real”. Or maybe he just doesn't feel right – too voyeuristic. Odd. Creepy. Certainly tediously addicted to the sorts of injokes that some people like to use to keep others on the outside. It's not hard to get the hint you're not part of the cool group.

Which isn't a great way to be made to feel if you're reading something. It made every paragraph, every chapter, every page a drag. Constantly being reminded of not getting the joke, by a kid that was making your skin crawl a bit, and about people that frankly were considerably more dreary than anything else. I was bored. And annoyed. And then more I got so obsessed with how bored and annoyed I was, I found I was reading just to make myself more and more convinced that I was right to be bored and annoyed. About half way through I found I couldn't even remember who most of the characters were, but I was still bored. And annoyed.

So I threw in the towel on CASEBOOK about three-quarters of the way through. Which is most unusual – normally I can find something. But in this case the voice didn't work, the characters weren't interesting, likeable, identifiable or understandable and their path to salvation was definitely not heading in my direction.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-casebook-mona-simpson ( )
1 rösta austcrimefiction | Nov 11, 2014 |
The narrator is Miles Adler-Hart who retrospectively tells the story of the divorce of his parents and his mother’s subsequent relationship with another man. Miles, from the age of nine, is an old-fashioned snoop; because of his eavesdropping he learns his parents are separating. Later, when his mother begins dating Eli Lee, Miles and his best friend Hector set out to investigate Eli because his broken promises and long absences make them suspicious.

The novel is framed as an unfinished manuscript written by Miles with footnotes added by Hector. The problem is that Hector’s annotations serve little purpose. They could have added insight into the accuracy of Miles’ memory, but don’t. In my ebook the footnotes appear at the end of the chapter so by the time I read them, they made no sense. Having to go back to find context for those notations is tiresome.

Miles as a narrator is problematic. At times he sounds like the young adult he is at the end of the book; at other times he seems much younger, the age he was when experiencing the events described. This blend of childish befuddlement and adult perceptiveness is not illuminating. The passage of time is not clearly indicated so the overall impression is one of disjointedness. Sometimes large spans of time are skipped over; at other times, mundane events are detailed. This choppy flow with its erratic jumps in time adds confusion, not enjoyment.

None of the characters is particularly appealing. Irene, Miles’ mother, is especially frustrating. She is a mathematician, intelligent and educated, but totally clueless in many ways. Why she falls for Eli and remains devoted to him for years despite his evasiveness and deceptions is beyond my comprehension. I can understand that a young boy may not understand the romantic relationships of adults, but even as an adult Miles offers little insight.

This is a coming-of-age novel and Miles does learn a little about the complexities of the adult world. In particular, he learns about the strange compromises made in the name of love. Certainly the lasting impact of divorce is emphasized. Perhaps because his parents are divorced, Miles concludes, “Love ruined people’s lives.”

From several descriptions I read, this book sounded really interesting. Unfortunately, it proved not to be so for me. I found I had to force myself to finish it. ( )
1 rösta Schatje | Sep 22, 2014 |
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Fiction. Literature. HTML:From the acclaimed and award-winning author of Anywhere But Here and My Hollywood, a powerful new novel about a young boy??s quest to uncover the mysteries of his unraveling family. What he discovers turns out to be what he least wants to know: the inner workings of his parents?? lives. And even then he can??t stop searching.

Miles Adler-Hart starts eavesdropping to find out what his mother is planning for his life. When he learns instead that his parents are separating, his investigation deepens, and he enlists his best friend, Hector, to help. Both boys are in thrall to Miles??s unsuspecting mother, Irene, who is ??pretty for a mathematician.? They rifle through her dresser drawers, bug her telephone lines, and strip-mine her computer, only to find that all clues lead them to her bedroom, and put them on the trail of a mysterious stranger from Washington, D.C.

Their amateur detective work starts innocently but quickly takes them to the far reaches of adult privacy as they acquire knowledge that will affect the family??s well-being, prosperity, and sanity. Burdened with this powerful information, the boys struggle to deal with the existence of evil and concoct modes of revenge on their villains that are both hilarious and naïve. Eventually, haltingly, they learn to offer animal comfort to those harmed and to create an imaginative path to their own salvation.

Casebook brilliantly reveals an American family both coming apart at the seams and, simultaneously, miraculously reconstituting itself to sustain its members through their ultimate trial. Mona Simpson, once again, demonstrates her stunning mastery, giving us a boy hero for our times whose story remains with us long after the novel is over.


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