There are some books and movies that capture summertime like nothing else: the long, languid days; the limitless stretches of time; the danger and excitement that comes from the combination of good friends and boredom; and the freedom from school, adult supervision and rules. Ron Carlson’s The Speed of Light, is just such a book.
So much, and really nothing at all, happens to Larry the summer between elementary school and junior high. Set sometime in the 1960’s, Larry and his best friends, Witt and Rafferty, spend their days playing all kinds of variations of baseball, conducting “scientific” experiments, horsing around with the other neighborhood kids, and getting into plenty of scrapes. They’re going for a record of most consecutive nights slept outside and just trying to hang onto that carefree era before their teenage years set in.
Larry’s a smart, conscientious kid who often thinks that his parents deserve a better kid than he is; Rafferty tries hard at baseball and feels the sting of his awkwardness more sharply than the other guys; and Witt’s a troubled kid whose dad, Budd, “hits what he can’t understand,” and leads the 3 guys into one crazy situation after another as he doggedly tries to “find out everything. I don’t want to know just part.”
Carlson’s languid, descrptive prose, combined with the artful, yet simple, way he captures his characters’ thoughts and feelings as they gradually leave behind their childhood, makes The Speed of Light an enjoyable coming of age story without coming across as overly sentimental.
- Posted by Cori