Thumbsucker: A Novel

Thumbsucker was an enjoyable read, I found it to be very well-written and would read more by this author. It's a fairly short novel that I read through in an afternoon. There are some great characterizations; from stoners to Mormon elders, a bleary english teacher and a TV star, and four close-knit family members that paradoxically do their best to avoid dealing with one another. The characters and their dialog sustain the arc of this story and there are some tremendously funny scenes.

loved it!

The sucky life of Justin Cobb is nicely related in hilarious and sad episodes. The first-person narration isn't self-delighting or annoying, it's casual and honest. A fast, funny read. The pot-addicted infant is one of the most disgusting and beautiful characters in recent times.

Because I read this on a Kindle, I was taken by surprise that the last page was the last page! It seemed that the book was on the verge of developing into more of a story than the series of vignettes that it is. Justin, the protagonist, ages and survives being part of a family of unhappy somewhat stereotyped people, but he never really develops or changes in a meaningful way. However, it could be argued that that is the point. He never gets out of the place he considers being “stuck in the middle.” Neither does the book.

Thumbsucker follows the up, down, and all around trajectory of Justin Cobb, a teenager living in the Upper Midwest in the 1980s. At the beginning of the novel, it appears that Justin's life will revolve around the tension of his thumbsucking habit. There is enough there for a good book, considering the context of his life. Justin is the son of Mike Cobb, a failed athlete turned failed sporting goods entrepreneur and overzealous hunter. Justin rarely meets with his father's satisfaction. Justin's dentist turns to hypnosis to solve his thumbsucking, and then later to Ritalin. It is with the latter fix that the book shifts into its true path.Once on Ritalin, Justin is freed to pursue an erratic smorgasbord of passions -- working at a gas station, debate club, girls, fly fishing, recreational drugs, and finally Mormonism. With each he immerses himself in the totality of such a livelihood. In almost every encounter, he meets adults who engage his passion. At first, those adults appear to be principled mentors. In almost every case, though, the adults turn out to be thwarted by self-interest and deceptive moral ambiguity. The contradiction between Justin's earnest searching and the acts of those adults sets up the book for the comparisons it makes to the story of the Catcher in the Rye. Perhaps Justin Cobb is a new version of Holden Caufield. I suppose there's a bit of Ferris Bueller here, too.This book is described as a story of the 80s. Refreshingly, that effort is done without using a bunch of symbolic shortcuts. There are no references to popular music, politics, or current events. I suppose the Ritalin marks the book within a specific time frame, but that is about it.This is a fun book to read, not something that will take weeks. It would be good for a book club. It would be ideal men's book club.

Each chapter is like a short story with a complete arc and fresh setting. Some of the vignettes worked well -- the opener about thumb sucking, the nurse-to-the-stars chapter -- but the overall effect is one of diminishing returns. Still, it is interesting ( and encouraging) to read an early work from a master reviewer and writer.

So, I saw the tralier for Mike Mills' film adaptation of this book a few weeks ago and decided that since I live in North Louisiana and I probably won't get to see the film until it comes to DVD (unless I drive a few hundred miles to an independent theater), that I would buy the book. So, I ordered it and it came in the mail on a Saturday afternoon. Given that my life is pretty boring altogether, especially in the Summer, I unwrapped it, opened it up, and dived in. And, I kid you not, I did not stop reading until I was done. From the first paragraph, scratch that...the first LINE, I was hooked. Now, I will admit that I am a sucker for a good coming of age, Holden Caulfield-esque novel, but this one really surpassed my expectations. As an English major and hopeful writer (fingers crossed), I found this to be one of the most thoughtful, insightful, dramatic, and darkly humorous novel's I've ever read. I think Walter Kirn did a fantastic job of portraying his characters as authentic specimens and I am extremely jealous of his writing style altogether. All in all, I would recommend this book to anyone with and open mind and an afternoon to spare, because they won't be able to put it down.

Who can resist a title like that? I ordered this book a few years ago based on the author's reputation. I finally got around to reading it, because a movie adaptation is coming out soon. Thumbsucker is about sixteen-year-old Justin Cobb. His Midwestern coming-of-age story is not your grandfather's coming-of-age story. His painful adolescence is marked by thumb sucking, Ritalin, hypnosis and eventually conversion to Mormonism. A quirky and amusing tale that reminded me of The Sleeping Father by Matthew Sharpe.