⇒ [PDF] Lowboy A Novel John Wray 9780374194161 Books

Lowboy A Novel John Wray 9780374194161 Books

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Lowboy A Novel John Wray 9780374194161 Books

"LowBoy" by John Wray is about William Heller, a schizophrenic teenage boy who flees a mental hospital into the New York City subway system. It's also about the detective who pursues Will, his elegant European mother, and his tragic girl love. But it's the NYC subway which emerges as the most captivating character of all, complete with mythical river, underground palace and hell, rat infested water logged tunnels, and thundering trains.

Mr. Wray does an admirable job of recreating the mind of a mad boy, and there is a hallucinatory and often beautifully worded layer to the book. But I never really got into Will's character (though I wanted to - I am fascinated by twisted perspectives) nor did I find his crux and solution compelling enough.

The chapters alternate between the surface world and the underground, which helps keep the pace of the book moving, but what kept me reading was the vividly described metro. Mr. Wray says he wrote the book while actually riding the subway. I believe it. I can feel, see, smell the surroundings. There are many fabulous passages, including the description of the glittering underworld otherworldly station, but the one I loved most was about the train shaped mass of air that preceded the entrance of each train into the stations, like a ghost of the future - palpable and brilliant.

I'll read more of Mr. Wray.


Tags : Lowboy: A Novel [John Wray] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <DIV><DIV>Early one morning in New York City, Will Heller, a sixteen-yearold paranoid schizophrenic, gets on an uptown B train alone. Like most people he knows,John Wray,Lowboy: A Novel,Farrar, Straus and Giroux,0374194165,Boys;Fiction.,Psychological fiction.,Schizophrenia;Fiction.,AMERICAN CONTEMPORARY FICTION,American Contemporary Fiction - Individual Authors +,Boys,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction Literary,Fiction-Literary,GENERAL,General Adult,Literary,New York,Schizophrenia,United States

Lowboy A Novel John Wray 9780374194161 Books Reviews

I had "Lowboy" on my Wishlist for a long time, so long I had forgotten exactly how I heard about the book or why it interested me. Trusting in the judgment of my 'younger self', I ordered the book recently and just finished it. I was NOT disappointed. This is a beautiful book written with exceptional sensitivity to the three main characters Lowboy, his mother and the NYC detective on the case to find Lowboy in the city's subway system. With amazing insight into the mind of the mentally impaired, Wray gives a window into a world we typically only catch unwanted glimpses of as we make our way through this world. It will be harder to look the other way when encountering one of Lowboy's brethren on the streets of our cities. And Wray doesn't stop there. His story causes us to reflect on ourselves, causing us to examine how we perceive and interact with the world.
It's not surprising to learn that the book was written on the subway because the author definitely captures the underground atmosphere and the subway is almost another character. It's an intense and somewhat unnerving reading experience - as the writer relentlessly delves into the schizophrenic mind of the main character. It's worth reading but be prepared to be a little uncomfortable.
This book came in great condition when I got it. I also enjoyed reading the book and I would buy from this store again. The book was very interesting to read and I was glad I got to read it.
Mr. Wray has crafted a funny, disturbing novel that takes us in the mind of a young schizophrenic man on a life altering journey. Mr. Wray's writing style is very inventive. In alternating chapters we are in the mind of young man and the detective that is chasing him. This is definitely a literary novel. It took a good deal of concentration to follow the young protagonists thought patterns. To say I "liked" this book would not be accurate, I found this book more interesting than likable.
This is a tough one for me to review because I don't want to sell the book short. Unfortunately, I read this one after I read Room A Novel by Emma Donoghue and Carry Me Down by M. J. Hyland. Both of these are outstanding, involving and emotionally gripping books (each in its own way). I guess I wanted Lowboy to take me to the same place emotionally, and it didn't.

This is not necessarily a fault of the book, as its objectives are different than either of the other two I mentioned.

As another reviewer mentioned, I wasn't able to connect to any of the main characters, but maybe that was because I just finished two books that were so powerful in their efforts to connect the reader with a young main character.

Overall, I would recommend Lowboy. And I would also heartily recommend Carry Me Down and Room.
I learned about the author, John Wray through a VeryShortList posting. The brief (VeryShort) description of this novel intrigued me, and I obtained a copy of Lowboy.

The story takes place mostly in the subterranean depths of the tunnels of the New York City subway system. Those intricately interwoven channels also serve as a metaphor for the labyrinthine thought patterns of the novel's protagonist, Will Heller, a sixteen year-old paranoid schizophrenic.

Wray's has a keen ear and eye for the detail of what life must look and feel like to a young man filled with paranoid delusions. His writing voice beautifully reflects the varied subcultures of New York. The pace of the action is breathtaking, as detective Ali Lateef and Violet, Heller's mother, set out to find the troubled boy before he has the possibility of harming a young woman with whom he is infatuated and whom, he believes, holds the key to his being able to save the world from global warming.

I liked this book enough that I immediately ordered another of Wray's novels, Canaan's Tongue.

Take a ride with Heller and Wray on the A Train of a troubled mind.

Enjoy!

Al
Three main characters a young schizophrenic man off his meds, his distraught & puzzling mother, and the detective whose job it is to find people who go missing. And the subway system of New York City is a kind of character in its own right, so vividly is it portrayed. The young man has a history of violence, and he's obviously delusional, so the book is suspenseful all the way through. Best of all is the writing John Wray seems incapable of an uninteresting paragraph.

The only reason I'm not giving it 5 stars is that I didn't like the way the book ends very abruptly. I was reading the version, and I failed to notice I was on the last page, and then it just ended—plunk. Oh well... Still, I highly recommend this novel!
"LowBoy" by John Wray is about William Heller, a schizophrenic teenage boy who flees a mental hospital into the New York City subway system. It's also about the detective who pursues Will, his elegant European mother, and his tragic girl love. But it's the NYC subway which emerges as the most captivating character of all, complete with mythical river, underground palace and hell, rat infested water logged tunnels, and thundering trains.

Mr. Wray does an admirable job of recreating the mind of a mad boy, and there is a hallucinatory and often beautifully worded layer to the book. But I never really got into Will's character (though I wanted to - I am fascinated by twisted perspectives) nor did I find his crux and solution compelling enough.

The chapters alternate between the surface world and the underground, which helps keep the pace of the book moving, but what kept me reading was the vividly described metro. Mr. Wray says he wrote the book while actually riding the subway. I believe it. I can feel, see, smell the surroundings. There are many fabulous passages, including the description of the glittering underworld otherworldly station, but the one I loved most was about the train shaped mass of air that preceded the entrance of each train into the stations, like a ghost of the future - palpable and brilliant.

I'll read more of Mr. Wray.