The responsible authoritarian with secrets of his own, the old man who acts as a mirror to Leonard’s behaviour, the peer who is increasingly baffled by Leonard’s attentions and the possible romance. They are a cast of archetypes flipped on their heads. Quick’s secondary characters are few, but they are vital to Leonard’s journey of self-discovery.
It is an exercise in futility, precisely the kind of behaviour that Quick’s protagonist abhors. Even more distressing is the instances throughout the story where Leonard encounters people who know that there is something amiss with him, and yet their lacklustre efforts to ‘help’ are easily placated by his ability to talk around the issues at hand. As Leonard laughs at himself, it becomes unnerving for the reader to realise that they too are amused. He observes his own absurd behaviour like cutting off his signature Kurt Cobain hair and placing it in the fridge wrapped in pink paper for his mother to find. Leonard’s narrative voice trips over the edge of hysteria. Quick’s ability to reveal uncomfortable truths through troubled eyes once again delivers a powerful and unmissable text. With the plot focusing on Leonard’s plan to commit murder-suicide, and his bringing his grandfather’s WWII gun to school in order to carry out his fantasy, the story is dark and yet terrifyingly plausible.
#MATTHEW QUICK QUOTES SERIES#
Leonard lets us glimpse his past in a series of shockingly left field reveals. Despite the unapologetically difficult subject matter, Quick’s novel is laugh out loud funny, and Leonard is unforgettable.ĭelivered in a drawling stream of consciousness, as Leonard goes about his final days, footnotes annotate the text with important background information and tangents. The novel is packed to the brim with the pain of adolescence coupled with Leonard’s realisation that for most people, life is wasted on a day to day basis. Quick’s blunt prose punches Leonard’s spiralling thoughts in part confession, part journal, part suicide note. But first he has some unfinished business. Worst of all is Asher Beal, the ever present spectre of Leonard’s former best friend, whose mere memory is a constant torment. With revenge plaguing his thoughts, Leonard decides to put an end to the problem.
Frustrated by the blank faced monotony of his peers, with an absentee father and a reluctant mother, Leonard has just four friends – his elderly Humphrey Bogart obsessed neighbour, a schoolmate who plays incredible violin music, a tract distributing pastor’s daughter, and his Holocaust teacher Herr Silverman. Self-confessed weirdo and terminally sad, Leonard is an eighteen year old high school senior, completely disillusioned with the promise of growing up. How would you spend your birthday if you knew it was your last? Matthew Quick, author of Silver Linings Playbook, introduces us to social outcast Leonard Peacock in this heart in your throat young adult novel.
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