A review by earthlings
Thanks for the Trouble by Tommy Wallach
5.0
this is the first tommy wallach book i have read. i have known about wallach and his rise to fame for a while now.
this book is written in a rally interesting style: the whole novel is the answer to the university admission essay question of the single most important experience of your life. the weekend during which parker meets silver-haired zelda. the novel is all over the place in some ways: parker switches between first and second person narration, uses direct address every so often, pops in memories and stories he’s written, as well as the main arc of the novel.
the story of parker and zelda is definitely fresh and new and also what wallach is trying to do with the voice, so i guess the concept of the whole book is trying to be fresh. the way the characters are developed in the great writing is almost a complete snap shot of teenagers in the world, as though wallach took inspiration from people he knows well.
wallach discussed mental health in a really interesting way in Thanks for the Trouble. parker's journey and relationship with his illness is unlike anything i've read before: he's comfortable with it. he's become used to his silence and uses it as a defense against the world and it takes him a long time to even make an effort to get help and so there was no sign of a miracle cure at the end of the novel. it felt much more natural in that way.
i was pleasantly surprised by how much i enjoyed Thanks for the Trouble and if you are looking for a far-fetched out of this world kind of teenage real life book than Thanks for the Trouble is the book for you.
this book is written in a rally interesting style: the whole novel is the answer to the university admission essay question of the single most important experience of your life. the weekend during which parker meets silver-haired zelda. the novel is all over the place in some ways: parker switches between first and second person narration, uses direct address every so often, pops in memories and stories he’s written, as well as the main arc of the novel.
the story of parker and zelda is definitely fresh and new and also what wallach is trying to do with the voice, so i guess the concept of the whole book is trying to be fresh. the way the characters are developed in the great writing is almost a complete snap shot of teenagers in the world, as though wallach took inspiration from people he knows well.
wallach discussed mental health in a really interesting way in Thanks for the Trouble. parker's journey and relationship with his illness is unlike anything i've read before: he's comfortable with it. he's become used to his silence and uses it as a defense against the world and it takes him a long time to even make an effort to get help and so there was no sign of a miracle cure at the end of the novel. it felt much more natural in that way.
i was pleasantly surprised by how much i enjoyed Thanks for the Trouble and if you are looking for a far-fetched out of this world kind of teenage real life book than Thanks for the Trouble is the book for you.