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Larry doesn't want to know what keeps him heading for Witt's backyard, rich with weeds and rotting appliances, whenever he's not at baseball practice. All he knows is that there's no one he'd rather be with than these two friends, that the chaos of Witt's universe offers refuge from his own orderly home and an entrance into a world of change, growth, and unpredictability.
The Hotel Eden author Ron Carlson's first novel for young readers is a heady immersion in the first moments of adolescence, when nothing is as it ever was before.
Twelve-year-old Larry spends the summer before junior high school with his best friends, Witt and Rafferty, playing different forms of baseball and discovering the secrets of the universe.
Although they come from different backgrounds, Witt, Rafferty, and Larry (the narrator) are close friends who enjoy playing ball, conducting scientific experiments, and getting into mischief. Witt is a daring, tormented statistician of sorts, pushing himself to figure out the universe as an escape from his father's beatings, while nearsighted Rafferty thinks mainly about his appetite and, as it turns out, getting his family's attention by playing in the Little League all-star game. Through ups and downs, the boys take in all that comes their way, with growing awareness that things are slowly becoming different. As the summer comes to a close, Witt winds up moving to his uncle's, and Rafferty gets hometown acclaim during the ballgame. But mainly it's Larry who seems to make the biggest strides into teenhood throughout the book, when he gets his first kiss and even defeats a neighborhood bully. At the end of the summer, the three have parted ways both emotionally and geographically, but the bonds of their friendship linger in the memories that each of them shares.
A playfully sublime book that captures the spirit of boyhood and the strange time between youth and adolescence, Carlson's novel will touch you with its nostalgic atmosphere and poignant message. The characters are deep-feeling and thoughtfully developed, and readers looking for a taste of yesteryear will get caught up in The Speed of Light's summery charm. Shana Taylor
Overview
Larry, Witt, and Rafferty have a whole summer to play all the different kinds of baseball, to build structures in the backyard, to find out what makes the world tick. "We've got to keep busy," says Witt. "I want to know everything. Not just part."Larry doesn't want to know what keeps him heading for Witt's backyard, rich with weeds and rotting appliances, whenever he's not at baseball practice. All he knows is that there's no one he'd rather be with than these two friends, that the chaos of Witt's universe offers refuge from his own orderly home and an entrance into a world of change, growth, and unpredictability.
The Hotel Eden author Ron Carlson's ...