Huge

✍ Scribed by Fuerst, James

• Book ID: 106870804
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: en-GB
• Weight: 246 KB
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN-13: 9780307452498

✦ Synopsis

From Publishers Weekly

In his mind's eye, precocious 12-year-old Eugene Huge Smalls, the narrator of Fuerst's quirky debut, is the lineal descendant of Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade and other pulp detectives he admires. When the nursing home where his beloved grandmother stays is vandalized, Huge sees a chance to follow in their footsteps by solving the crime. What follows is a picaresque romp around suburban New Jersey as Huge misreads clues, misinterprets motives and mistakes mundane incidents for diabolical schemes as only an inexperienced adolescent with a restless imagination can. Largely plotless, this coming-of-age story is full of awkward digressions. Still, Fuerst demonstrates a sensitive ear for contemporary teen talk, delicacy at handling the amusingly contentious relationship between Huge and his older sister and mom, and skill at conveying a child's-eye view of the world that is full of nostalgia, humor, candor and emotions that all readers can relate to. (July)
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From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–Eugene Huge Smalls is a short, smart, blond going-on-13 outcast with anger-management issues, a stuffed-frog alter ego, a homemade tricked-out ride called the Cruiser, and a Philip Marlowe attitude. What Huge lacks in stature is made up for by his intense emotional reactions and overactive imagination. He lives in a boring small town in 1980s New Jersey where his father has abandoned him, his waitress mother, and his hot older sister to fend for themselves. While on a visit with his dearly beloved and somewhat senile grandmother at a retirement home, she hires him to solve his first real detective case. As he gathers clues, he tells about his past transgressions and feelings, a lost friendship, and various crushes and clashes including those involving retirement-home workers, his sister's friends, and a special girl his own age. Huge's coming-of-age musings seem mature for a sixth grader, yet these contemplations and Fuerst's portrayals of teenage relationships and experiences will resonate with older readers. Using humor and a narrative similar to Raymond Chandler's hardboiled detective novels of the 1940s, Fuerst entertains and draws readers into all the mysteries Huge tries to solve on his own, including those involving self-control, fantasy, friendship, and maturity.–Melanie Parsons, Fairfax County Public Library, VA END