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ncrabb's review against another edition
5.0
I’ve never read this author before, but I’m far from done with his books. This was compelling reading. Maybe it’s not quite Harper Lee “mockingbird” standards, but it’s way up there.
It’s 1976 as the book opens, and Eskens whisks you off to a small Missouri town—a place where civil rights laws may or may not apply. Boady Sanden is a poor, white kid who started hanging out with a bad crowd in public school. So, his mother moved him to a Catholic high school. He doesn’t fit in, but neither does the school’s only black girl, Diana. When some youthful Ku Klux Klan wannabes decide to pour chocolate pudding on her uniform at lunch, Boady trips the kid who reluctantly agreed to do the job. From that day forward, tensions build, and Boady’s life is never the same.
In a current events class, he reads a newspaper story about Lida Poe, a black woman who allegedly embezzled money from her employer and split town.
He thought little of it and the pudding incident until a black family move in across the street. This is fascinating to Boady. He assumed blacks in town stayed in the Goat Hill section. He never thought they could just live anywhere in town.
He has a wise and often sad neighbor who advises him on a variety of life issues, not the least of which is the new family. Boady’s dad died in a work accident when the boy was five, so the neighbor played a crucial part in his upbringing. His mom is painfully shy and suffers from bouts of severe depression. Boady just wants out of the small constricting town, and the day he turns 16, he’s dropping out of school and hitting the road. He has some money buried in the woods near the house, and he figures he can get an old pickup with some of it and live on the rest until he finds work. But the existence of the new family in the neighborhood changes things. Boady and Thomas become friends despite a rough start, and the friendship carries a high price. Many of the kids at St. Ignatius High School don’t like the idea of young men of different races hanging out together, and the problems mount for Boady and Thomas.
This is at once a hope-filled and heartbreaking story of racial divisions and the courage necessary to find common ground and focus on that in the spirit of love, friendship, and unity.
In addition to the racial elements here, there’s the mystery of whatever happened to Lida Poe and all that money. Boady and Thomas work toward a solution, and in so doing, they must deal with a recalcitrant sheriff.
Tensions run high at various points of this book, and I couldn’t help thinking as I read it what a splendid discussion it would make for a book club.
I loved the writing style. It drew me in and kept me reading and enthralled to the final page. The narration is excellent, too.
It’s 1976 as the book opens, and Eskens whisks you off to a small Missouri town—a place where civil rights laws may or may not apply. Boady Sanden is a poor, white kid who started hanging out with a bad crowd in public school. So, his mother moved him to a Catholic high school. He doesn’t fit in, but neither does the school’s only black girl, Diana. When some youthful Ku Klux Klan wannabes decide to pour chocolate pudding on her uniform at lunch, Boady trips the kid who reluctantly agreed to do the job. From that day forward, tensions build, and Boady’s life is never the same.
In a current events class, he reads a newspaper story about Lida Poe, a black woman who allegedly embezzled money from her employer and split town.
He thought little of it and the pudding incident until a black family move in across the street. This is fascinating to Boady. He assumed blacks in town stayed in the Goat Hill section. He never thought they could just live anywhere in town.
He has a wise and often sad neighbor who advises him on a variety of life issues, not the least of which is the new family. Boady’s dad died in a work accident when the boy was five, so the neighbor played a crucial part in his upbringing. His mom is painfully shy and suffers from bouts of severe depression. Boady just wants out of the small constricting town, and the day he turns 16, he’s dropping out of school and hitting the road. He has some money buried in the woods near the house, and he figures he can get an old pickup with some of it and live on the rest until he finds work. But the existence of the new family in the neighborhood changes things. Boady and Thomas become friends despite a rough start, and the friendship carries a high price. Many of the kids at St. Ignatius High School don’t like the idea of young men of different races hanging out together, and the problems mount for Boady and Thomas.
This is at once a hope-filled and heartbreaking story of racial divisions and the courage necessary to find common ground and focus on that in the spirit of love, friendship, and unity.
In addition to the racial elements here, there’s the mystery of whatever happened to Lida Poe and all that money. Boady and Thomas work toward a solution, and in so doing, they must deal with a recalcitrant sheriff.
Tensions run high at various points of this book, and I couldn’t help thinking as I read it what a splendid discussion it would make for a book club.
I loved the writing style. It drew me in and kept me reading and enthralled to the final page. The narration is excellent, too.
momsplans's review against another edition
5.0
This book started slow for me, but about 100 pages in, I was hooked and read it quickly. The story's narrator, Boady, finds his life in small town Missouri disrupted when he confronts the racism all around him. The year is 1976, and when a black family moves in across the street from Boady, he finds his world open up and his life in danger.
jesstele's review against another edition
5.0
Great book about racial tensions in Missouri and a teenage boy’s strength to do right.
ldcornell's review against another edition
5.0
I really enjoyed this book. The years he worked on this show in the depth of understanding of the characters and the craftsmanship of writing the story are evident.
The book is set about 40 years after "To Kill A Mockingbird" and 40 years before the present, and it is good to think about the lessons that are yet to be learned.
The book is set about 40 years after "To Kill A Mockingbird" and 40 years before the present, and it is good to think about the lessons that are yet to be learned.
ehartsbooks's review against another edition
4.0
I’m a big fan of coming of age stories and this is no exception. I really liked the character of 15 year old Boady- who lives in the Osarks of Missouri with his widowed mother in 1976. The story centers around a missing black woman and how Boady and his friend Thomas get involved. But the story is also about how racism is alive and well on this small town and Boady has to decide what side he sits on. I loved the character of Hoake who is the wise older man who lives next door to Boady and offers all kinds of life lessons. I really liked the story from start to finish and was invested in what happened to the characters.
sunbear98's review against another edition
5.0
I listened to this book and found the reader and story to be very good. I read some negative reviews of this book and almost passed it up, but then I found a positive review and decided to give it a go. I am really glad that I did. I have read all of Eskens' books now and loved every one of them.
eleellis's review against another edition
5.0
The novel Nothing More Dangerous by Allen Eskens follows fifteen-year-old Boady Sanden in the Ozark Hills of Missouri during the mid-1970s. America is in the midst of celebrating its 200th anniversary, while young Boady feels little to be found celebratory.
Boady is a freshman at a private school, not by choice, but for punishment and is struggling to make good enough grades for him to avoid summer school. Boady, an obvious isolated outsider within the school, desperately wants to avoid summer school so he can work and save money with plans of leaving town as soon as he can.
Boady lives with his widowed mother on a short, dead-end hollow road with just a few houses. One house is empty, with the one across the gravel road containing a mysterious, disabled man, known to sit on his porch and from time to time, offering Boady words of wisdom. The employer to both Boady and his mother lives in the third house at the end of the hollow road.
One day at school, in an act of kindness toward another student, Boady opens himself up to the violent ire of a group of fellow high school students with an association to a secretive group known as the "CORPS."
As the novel unfolds, more details are revealed about the neighbor across the street and of a new family moving into the empty house along the hollow road.
The story also includes an underlying major plotline that focuses on a missing woman, believed to have embezzled a large sum of money from a local factory before fleeing.
There is more to the novel than in this review and to reveal more would require spoilers.
One thing I enjoyed about this novel is how the writing of Allen Eskens so easily invokes mental imagery of the descriptions within the printed words. Being from the country and river bottoms, clear imagery of sites described in this novel were vividly seen in my mind's eye.
Another thing I enjoyed about this novel was how the author avoided one specific plot path often found in novels of this nature.
This novel is highly recommended to readers. Especially to readers who enjoy Southern writing, novels about friendships and rural tales.
Boady is a freshman at a private school, not by choice, but for punishment and is struggling to make good enough grades for him to avoid summer school. Boady, an obvious isolated outsider within the school, desperately wants to avoid summer school so he can work and save money with plans of leaving town as soon as he can.
Boady lives with his widowed mother on a short, dead-end hollow road with just a few houses. One house is empty, with the one across the gravel road containing a mysterious, disabled man, known to sit on his porch and from time to time, offering Boady words of wisdom. The employer to both Boady and his mother lives in the third house at the end of the hollow road.
One day at school, in an act of kindness toward another student, Boady opens himself up to the violent ire of a group of fellow high school students with an association to a secretive group known as the "CORPS."
As the novel unfolds, more details are revealed about the neighbor across the street and of a new family moving into the empty house along the hollow road.
The story also includes an underlying major plotline that focuses on a missing woman, believed to have embezzled a large sum of money from a local factory before fleeing.
There is more to the novel than in this review and to reveal more would require spoilers.
One thing I enjoyed about this novel is how the writing of Allen Eskens so easily invokes mental imagery of the descriptions within the printed words. Being from the country and river bottoms, clear imagery of sites described in this novel were vividly seen in my mind's eye.
Another thing I enjoyed about this novel was how the author avoided one specific plot path often found in novels of this nature.
This novel is highly recommended to readers. Especially to readers who enjoy Southern writing, novels about friendships and rural tales.
joedeb90's review against another edition
5.0
Excellent story, and very fitting for the times we are living in.
ccopeland28's review against another edition
4.0
This was a fantastic read. It already feels like a classic - right up there with To Kill a Mocking Bird. Also, it reminds me of John Grisham's writing. So kudos to Allen Eskens - I think he has a winner sitting here.