Thumbsucker

October 18, 1999
Dark and witty, novelist (She Needed Me) and book critic Kirn's narrative of demoralized 1980s suburbia chronicles the coming-of-age of Justin Cobb, a 14-year-old who develops a series of addictions after his dentist-cum-therapist breaks his thumb-sucking habit. This premise is fortified by Kirn's uncommonly thoughtful treatment of Justin's humorously dysfunctional family--his sports-obsessed father calls his family "you people"; his beloved, increasingly New Age mother is a nurse at a celebrity rehab clinic; his younger brother, Joel, quietly cultivates a fetish for expensive designer clothing. Only Justin seems to realize how close his family is to emotional collapse. Unable to bear the weight of saving them himself, he cleverly engineers their conversion to Mormonism. Thankfully, their new-found spiritualism does nothing to stifle Justin's iconoclastic opportunism, which keeps the story bouncing along to its conclusion. Kirn's bildungsroman contains all the genre's essential themes (sexual exploration, intellectual flowering, etc.) but his plotting subverts any clich d revelations. When Justin joins his high school speech team, his gift for persuasion, and a new addiction to decongestants, makes him cocky, but he is quickly deflated by his melancholy speech coach. Many other neat reversals of fortune, peppered with taut, edgy dialogue, fit beautifully into Kirn's satirical style. However carefully Justin documents the changes in other characters, his own character remains oddly consistent, so that, despite all the laughs, the novel ends with the hero still on the brink of real transformation. But he's such a sharp, endearing lad, with psychic depths as fascinating as his glossy cynicism that readers will be satisfied with young Justin just as he is. Author tour.

August 1, 1999
Growing up is difficult, and adolescence especially so. Justin, firmly in the midst of puberty, is confused. When we meet him, at 14, he is still sucking his thumb. His wacky, hippie dentist offers to hypnotize him to rid him of this embarrassing habit; it works, but Justin realizes that he has lost his solace in a crazy world. Deprived of his thumb, Justin tries to find something that will help him make sense of the world and calm him down. He tries Ritalin, sex, the speech team, fly fishing, work, alcohol, marijuana, and even Mormonism, all to no avail. In addition, he has his family to cope with: Joel, his younger and more athletic brother, and his parents, who ask Justin to call them by their given names so they won't feel so old. Justin tries to bond with his family despite their eccentricities and manages to find some common ground. Funny and neurotic, this second novel from New York magazine reviewer Kirn is a good story about growing up and learning to cope. Recommended for public libraries.--Robin Nesbitt, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., OH

Copyright 1999 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2000
YA-In a voice reminiscent of that of Holden Caulfield, Justin Cobb recounts his efforts to kick his dependency-not on alcohol, not on drugs, but on his thumb. Dubbed "the King Kong of oral obsessives" by his hippie dentist, the 16-year-old is desperate to find a way to break this embarrassing habit he has retained since infancy. His father, a former football star, tries to help by providing a course of Suk-No-Mor, a nasty cayenne-pepper cream, and a healthy dose of fly-fishing. His mother, who works as a nurse helping the rich and famous sober up, seems more concerned with a fantasy romantic relationship with TV-star Don Johnson than with her son's problems. Hypnosis seems to work, but the problem surfaces in other forms. The thumb goes out, but beer, decongestants, nitrous oxide, cough syrup, Midol, and Ritalin go in. With hyperactive zeal, Justin also tries the school speech team, sex, honest work, and even Mormonism. In this funny but often bittersweet tale, the teen finally determines that growing up is hard to do and not an overnight process. He can only hope that people will accept him as he is: thumbsucking and all. YAs will surely identify with Justin, whose struggles may reflect some of their own.-Carol Clark, formerly at Fairfax County Public Schools, VA

Copyright 2000 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.