Boy's Life by Robert R. McCammon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Do you know the feeling of eating some fresh-fresh-from-the-oven cornbread drizzled with some honey butter?

That's this entire novel.

A 12-year-old boy getting out of school, enjoying summer, then going back to school, in 60's Alabama. Sounds simple, right? But this is charming in not just a nostalgic kind of way a-la Stephen King's IT, but full of love, consideration, adventure, magical realism, murder, mystery, courage, and some of the best Coming-Of-Age writing I've ever come across.

It's more than a horror or a YA or an in-depth real piece of homegrown Southern American Literature.
It's genuine. It deals honestly about racism and jerks and the Normal Rockwell way of life in a way that never comes off preachy or overwritten. But it deals with all of this and much more, including large swamp creatures and mythical stags in the forest, bootleggers and organized crime, and even the KKK and the new neo-nazi movement. But at no point did this diverge very far from the Boy's Life. :)

Trust me. If you love writing like fresh cornbread, this novel will be like coming home.

After all these years, I've just found a new favorite. I wasn't even close to being born when these events happened, but damn, I feel like I was THERE. :) Easily one of the very best novels of its kind.

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