Review : Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick
Pages : 288
Genre : YA, Contemporary
Stand alone
My Rating : 3.5/5
About the Book :
But first he must say good-bye to the four people who matter most to him: his Humphrey Bogart-obsessed next-door neighbor, Walt; his classmate, Baback, a violin virtuoso; Lauren, the Christian homeschooler he has a crush on; and Herr Silverman, who teaches the high school’s class on the Holocaust. Speaking to each in turn, Leonard slowly reveals his secrets as the hours tick by and the moment of truth approaches.
My Thoughts :
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is a book I had been wanting to read for a very long time. Dealing with heavy themes, the book got plenty of great reviews from bloggers and readers, adding to all the praise I had often heard for Matthew Quick’s writing. After reading a lot of light fantasy and comics for the past few weeks, I was ready for something different.
And it was a good book. For me, something was missing to take it from good to great, but it’s hard to say how much of it was the book’s “fault”, and how much of it was simply me not being the demographic target for this story. But if I had one thing to say about it all, it’s this :
I am so glad this book exists.
And so, I mostly want to focus on what I did enjoy of the book.
I don’t want to spoil what all of Leonard’s story is about, but it was difficult and heart-wrenching, and very appropriately approached, I felt. While the first two thirds of the story were hit and miss for me, the last one made it all worth it. And it broke my heart. After that, I had to read something completely different and light and fluffy (hence my current Jenny Han reading). It’s a difficult book – the kind of book we need more of.
I love that the book was vague through the first chapters and very blunt in the end : it was an important contrast that perfectly highlighted Leonard’s pain and life. I loved his relationship with his teacher, too, who was an amazing man. And I loved that the author took a big risk with the conclusion, where not everything is tied up neatly and happily. There’s still a big mess of difficult things to deal with, but there’s also a hint of hope. It’s realistic, and because of this, much more comforting than the perfectly optimistic endings we often see.
Sure, as a book, it wasn’t perfect and some parts didn’t work for me; but its themes, and the way these themes were illustrated, made it a very important book. It’s one to read and share, and I highly recommend giving it a read to anyone interested.
I still haven’t read Quick but I want to. This book sounds gut wrenching.
I’m glad that even though you didn’t 100% love the book, you appreciated the need for books like this 🙂 I SO think powerful books about powerful subjects like this are important. And wasn’t Herr Silverman just the BEST?!!! I loved that Leonard had someone like him in his life. This book absolutely DESTROYED me– it just made me think so much about how sometimes it only takes one person to make a difference, and how often we as people are just too busy and self absorbed to be that person. It was definitely a sobfest for me 🙁