First Boy

by Gary Schmidt.

Listened to this book on the way to E.'s party in NYC. The pacing in it is off, there is too much time spent on description, not enough on plot points, and certain things are implausible. For instance, the author wants us to believe that the main character (and thus the audience should be) fine with not resolving one of the major plot points in the book. I'm okay with ambiguity in general, but in this case, that fact that nobody's pursuing (at least privately) something that could easily be settled by an honest conversation or basic lab tests seems dishonest and insincere. Also, there's no real shading of characters in this novel - there golly shucks good and greedy violent evil. And a lot of talk about means justifying the ends (which we're Left to Ponder).

There's not a whole lot of subtlety in this book. But it did pass the time.