Book Review - "someday this pain will be useful to you" by Peter Cameron

It's hard to talk about James Sveck (the main character in someday this pain will be useful to you without comparing him to Holden Caulfield, the original intelligent, quippy, observant, but most markedly disillusioned and angsty teenager. Phew! Okay, now that that's out of the way, I have to say that this books really impressed me. I wasn't surprised to find out that Peter Cameron has written several acclaimed adult books -- the writing is really outstanding -- but I was surprised by how spot-on he captured New York and New Yorkers. Having known a lot of New Yorkers, I felt like I knew James. The thing is, on the outside James' life is not hard. He's just graduated from Stuyvesant, practically the best public school in the United States, and he's headed off to Brown in the fall. But on the inside, well, the real problem for James is that he's all stuck in his inside. He's a loner and he's been trying to surround himself with all these arguments for why he needs to be a loner, why it's actually a good thing. He thinks the purity of a thought is gone the moment you try to put it into words and share it with someone else, which is to say, he likes to keep his thoughts to himself. So, you have to wonder, how is a character like James going to lead you through an interesting story, given that he's a loner and he keeps his mouth shut a lot?

Well, here's how. Something happened to James when he went to a high school civics retreat in D.C. This event is alluded to in every way possible before you (the reader) finally find out what happens, in one of James's therapy sessions. It makes you reconsider James, this quietly cocky upper-class New Yorker, and see him for what he really is. I don't want to tell you what's really going on with James, but I will admit this. I read the book in one day, really two sit-down intense reading sessions. This is a book that will make you chuckle, but it will also make you think, think and empathize, and try to understand someone who may be very different from you, or maybe not.

* * * * *
Five stars
Recommended for: high-schoolers who like John Green's books, especially those headed off for college, readers looking for a quiet, thoughtful story that's also on the brief side at just over 200 pages