Rats Saw God

Amazon.com
In order to pass English class and graduate, 18-year-old Steve York has to write a 100- page essay about his life. What sounds like a run-of-the-mill writing assignment, however, becomes an excuse for Steve to reflect on the last four years (from Texas freshman to California senior), and figure out where it all went wrong. Maybe it was when he discovered that he really couldn't relate to his father, the Famous Astronaut. Or it could be because his "heart had been run through frappé, puree, and liquefy on a love blender" by his ex-girlfriend, Wanda "Dub" Varner. No matter where the finger of blame ends up pointing, it's a wild ride of self-enlightenment as Steve discovers that not all relationships are permanent, and that some--like the one with his dad--can be mended with a little work. With Steve, author Rob Thomas has taken a teenage outsider and given him a funny, intelligent voice: "There are those males who merely fill ear holes with tiny studs hardly big enough to offend a Marine. Not me. Most days I wear big hoops. When I combine the look with a doo rag, I'm a regular pirate." As with his other novels--Doing Time and Slave Day--Thomas proves his thorough grasp of young adult issues and emotions. Teens will appreciate the author's empathy and humor, and teachers and parents will examine his work for clues to the mystery of adolescence. (Ages 13 and older) --Jennifer Hubert


From Publishers Weekly
In his first novel Thomas lays bare the pain, awkwardness and humor at the heart of one teenager's search for identity. Steve York has always lived in the long shadow cast by his too-perfect astronaut father. When his parents divorce just before he begins high school, Steve blames his father for the family's break-up, even though he doesn't know all the facts. Life with "the astronaut" (as Steve insists on calling him) is okay for a while as Steve juggles straight-As with a part-time job and hangs out with a wise-cracking crew of artsy, nonconformist cronies, one of whom, Dub, becomes his first love. But Dub's eventual betrayal causes Steve to flee his father's home and take a dive from scholar to stoner. His last chance for academic redemption lies in writing a 100-page paper for his new guidance counselor, a narrative that becomes the framework for this novel. Thomas, a former high school teacher, nails his setting with dead-on accuracy. The sharp descriptions of cliques, clubs and annoying authority figures will strike a familiar chord. The dialogue is fresh and Steve's intelligent banter and introspective musings never sound wiser than his years. Readers will likely enjoy the quick pace of Steve's journal-style flashbacks; on a deeper level, they will be moved by his emotional stumbles and impressed by his growing maturity. Ages 12-up. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up?"What happened in Texas?" asks Jeff DeMouy, the San Diego high school counselor trying to reach talented but stoned senior Steve York. The teen's 4.0 GPA has crashed so precipitously that he moves from Houston to live with his mother and her new husband. To fulfill a writing assignment that DeMouy requires for him to graduate, Steve begins to reflect on recent occurrences and his life in general. His first-person narrative flashes back to the years spent with his father, "the astronaut," who?the boy can't bring himself to recall?was either the third or fourth person to walk on the moon. Intelligent and mostly likable, Steve, along with his friends in the dadaist art study group at school, oozes a gently subversive strain of creativity. Through their club, he meets Dub (nee Wanda), with whom he journeys from first kiss to first sex to first betrayal, when Dub abandons him for their creative-writing teacher. The dead-on description of life as a bright underachiever makes the gradually converging stories, past and present, a delightful, challenging read. From the intriguing title to the final page, layers of cynical wit and careful character development accumulate achingly in this beautifully crafted, emotionally charged story. Steve's coming-of-age is not a smooth ballistic parabola, but more a series of explosive changes in relationships. These changes suggest to YA readers that, though complex and difficult, it is this weird willingness to establish interconnectedness that makes being human such a trip. This robust first novel is so hip and cool and strong it hurts.?Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Jr. High School, Iowa City, IACopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Gr. 8^-11. High-school senior Steve York isn't doing well. The former straight-A student is flunking, and his new friends are dopers. Where did it all go wrong? A counselor steps in and suggests Steve can write something to bring up his failing English grade. So Steve writes his story, and as the action flips between his former life in Texas and the present in California, readers will learn about Steve's cold war with his astronaut father, his dabbling with dadaism, and, most of all, his heavenly-hellish experience with first love. Thomas, a former high-school teacher, has a strong, funny voice, but the first-time novelist needs to learn how to trim a book; what should be left out is as important as what to put in. This is definitely for the YA crowd, not the preteens who often pick up this sort of book. The language is authentic, and a first-time sex scene, though not exactly graphic, has some memorable images ("I resisted the urge to cover the titanium love barometer between my legs. Was it the right size? The right shape? The right color?" ). The dadaist sensibility of the book's title and Chris Raschka's in-sync jacket illustration suit superbly. Ilene Cooper


From Kirkus Reviews
Driven by a rigid, controlling father and a broken heart, an overachiever tries drug-induced alienation but can't quite bring it off in this funny, high-energy debut. Given a choice between summer school and producing a hundred typewritten pages on any subject, high school senior Steve York taps out, a few pages at a time (and in a different typeface from the rest of the narrative), an account of his triumphant, traumatic junior year, from the high of falling in love with Dub, a classmate, to the low of finding her with a teacher late one night. In between, Thomas fills this--and a parallel plotline in which Steve straightens himself out in the course of his final semester- -with subplots and set pieces: the rise and fall of the school's Dadaist club; dates, buying condoms, and fumbling through first sex; the thawing of Steve's relationship with his astronaut father. Readers will take heart from the way Steve grows past his rebellion as they laugh at the plethora of comic situations and sharply set up, well-executed punchlines. (Fiction. 13+) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Card catalog description
In hopes of graduating, Steve York agrees to complete a hundred-page writing assignment which helps him to sort out his relationship with his famous astronaut father and the events that changed him from promising student to troubled teen.


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A distant relationship with his divorced father, whom he refers to as The Astronaut, combined with the betrayal of his first serious girlfriend, sends Steve York running off to live with his mother. There he begins to do drugs and fail in school. The only way he�ll graduate on time is to complete a 100-page paper. This touching, funny, coming-of-age story has received rave reviews, and the audiobook lives up to the print version. Utterly convincing as a 17-year-old, Heller captures perfectly adolescent attitudes, mannerisms and sarcasm. The decision not to differentiate the characters� voices makes sense for a novel that is constructed as an autobiography. The pacing and tempo never drag, and the humor is particularly effective, more in the listening than the reading. S.S.R. Winner of AUDIOFILE�s Earphones Award �AudioFile, Portland, Maine Read all 6 "From The Critics" >


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