Skippy Dies
by Paul Murray
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Recommended by John Warner
There’s another big book released this year that’s getting a lot of attention and for as good as that book is (and it’s really good), this one is better. Set at a private Catholic prep school (Seabrook College) in current Dublin and centered around a group of fourteen-year-old boys and the adults who teach them, Murray kills off his titular protagonist who is in the midst of a donut-eating race with his best friend, Ruprecht van Doren, aka, “VonBlowjob.” Everyone assumes Skippy has choked to death, except that none of his donuts have been touched.
So yeah, it’s sort of a whodunit, or maybe a howdunit, but Skippy Dies is really about everything, being young, loving someone, impossible things that you want to believe could be true (like time travel, or the hottest chick in the girls’ school actually being into you, or your best friend coming back from the dead). The bulk of the novel traces Skippy’s life before his death, and when we arrive back at the moment of Skippy’s demise, it’s heartbreaking, even though, or maybe especially because we know what’s going to happen.
When the book isn’t breaking your heart, it’s busting your gut with the unique wisdom of the fourteen-year-old male on subjects like whether or not mermaids are desirable sexual partners. Murray captures the adolescent psyche better than anyone this side of J.D. Salinger. Even at better than 600 pages, I would’ve loved to spend more time in this world.
John Warner is the editor of The Staff Recommends and the author of Fondling Your Muse: Infallible Advice From a Published Author to the Writerly Aspirant.
13 Comments
Thanks for this thoughtful, well written review of a book I will now recommend to my book club. Good looking webpage, too. Congrats!
Love the website. I see hard work does pay off.
What a slick book review site. Tasteful. No weeds. I cover some non-fiction stuff these days, but will definitely come back to get fiction tips here. Well done!
Yes! As I’ve begun spending less time in brick-and-mortar bookstores, one of the things I find I’ve been missing are these kind of simple, neat, to-the-point little recommendations.
Real excited to see what you guys pick out next.
Better than The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole?
I would love to see some classic literature once in a while. It would be greatly appreciated.
Bought this book months ago & absolutely loved it. The only book I enjoyed more this year was Jonathan Tropper’s “This is Where I Leave You”.
i hope the big book you’re talking about at the beginning is the instructions
Brilliant site! Love the idea, can’t believe no one thought of it before. And John Warner has never steered me wrong. Looking forward to finding my new reads here.
Better get a few more books up here quickly. Your site appears to be smoke and mirrors swirling around a single book advertisement!
@william There are updates in the works, and you’ll start seeing them this week. Lots of terrific stuff on the way.
Great review. I read the book and it is an epic. Tears of joy, tears of laughter…a rollicking rollercoaster that will last long in my memory
How I love books and the reading of them. I will pick this one up as well as your other recommended titles. Congrats on a great site for readers like me looking for titles I may have missed otherwise.