Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What the heck have I been doing with my life! Wonder Boys has been one of my favorite movies of all time because it hits all the wonderful buttons of writing and reading and being deliciously messed up and being so HUMAN.

And then somewhere along the line I read The Yiddish Policemen's Union and I still didn't make the connection.

So when I DID finally make the connection that one of favorite movies was really based on a book by an author I already described to myself as "wonderfully inventive and crazy", I made a facepalm that even my great-grandfather felt.

So here I read the novel at long last. And it was like coming home. It was the greatest comfort food. It was all of the joyous mess and the compilation of all cautionary tales about writers and writing that I've ever seen. :)

It was pure joy.

Grady is such a mess. But his problem isn't that he has writer's block. He has the other problem. No constipation here! He also has a bit of the Midnight thing, too. And a drug problem. But he's also got heart and he still believes that he'll conquer the world. You know. Eventually. :)

And then here comes another mess to compliment his own in the form of his editor. And then a young student who's just as nuts but who has at least finished his novel, and all of them get into one horrible mess after another.

Expect dead dogs, Marylin Monroe, Vernon's butt-cheeks, elevators and expulsion. :) I can't describe how wonderful this novel is because it just feels like a puzzle piece that slides right in and tells me that I'm not only just as flawed as these kids, but that I must be just as crazy as them if I can identify so strongly.

Oops. There goes my right to carry around my Sanity Badge... well at least I don't have to keep paying the monthly dues. :)

This is going to be one of my long time favorite novels and I might just revisit it regularly. It is SUCH a delight. :) Crazy delight. :)

Go write! :) LOL.

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