Book Review: My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger

My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park by Steve Kluger
Publisher: Dial
Publication date: March 2008
ISBN: 9780142413432
Source: Library

This is the story of two friends, practically brothers, whose most excellent year begins when they both fall in love.  They meet Ale, a pretty and spirited not-your-typical girl, who T.C. attempts to woo.  Meanwhile, Augie has fallen for a boy and seems to be the last one to realize it.  Told from the perspective of the three friends' English essay, it recounts that excellent year when they learned so much about love and life.

Things I Liked:
The characters.  Oh, the characters.  I really loved their interactions, their notes to each other, their snarky and sarcastic and witty and wacky comments.  I fell in love with Hucky, so completely.  I wanted to take him home.  I also really liked Augie, who couldn't talk or write once without a movie or musical reference.  He was a very real character - complex and so full of life.  Anthony (T.C.) grew on me.  At first I wasn't sure about him, but I began to like him, just as Ale did.  The writing is downright witty and I loved how everyone seemed to have a great sense of humor, even when they were laughing at themselves.  I nearly cried my eyes out near the end too.  It is a sweet story, but sprinkled liberally with laughs.

TCKeller: If I don't come back alive, cut me out in little stars and I will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will fall in love with night and pay no attention to the garish sun. p 29

AugieHwong: How did I get to be an A-list director already??  Where's all the torture you're supposed to go through before you click? And the hard knocks?  And the setbacks you're supposed to learn from?  I haven't suffered enough yet. p 38

By then I would have said yes to just about anything she asked.  I mean, the last thing I needed was to piss off Mary Poppins.  p 379

Things I Didn't Like:
Ale was not as developed as the other two, I think.  I would have liked more about her.  The style would occasionally bother me as well - IM messages and texting.  I guess this is the part where I admit I'm not a teenager anymore; it doesn't appeal to me if it's got too much of that style.  Then again, I still managed to enjoy it a lot...

Read-alikes:
Though I've never read either, Dramarama by E. Lockhart sounds a bit like it and possibly The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriatry

BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: !@
plenty

mrg-factor: X
mostly what they think of other's bodies

v-factor: none

Overall rating: ****

What was your last laughing-so-hard-you-embarrassed-yourself-in-public read?

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