Huge: A Novel Review

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Huge: A Novel ReviewThe story is set in a middle-sized New Jersey town in the mid 1980s. Eugene Smalls is called "Genie" by everybody but he wants to be called "Huge." He isn't huge though. He's small. He's 12 years old (almost 13.) He is smarter than everyone around him, but he has trouble expressing himself, and other people's stupidity makes him furious. He lashes out violently, and has been branded a "problem child." During a long suspension from school (sometime before the novel starts,) he read a lot of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Sherlock Holmes. He also built a totally sweet bike out of spare parts. Summer is ending, Huge is going to be going to Junior High in the fall, and this is when our story unfolds. It is told in a semi-noir manner, in first person with lots of introspective flashbacks and sidetracks.
His senile grandmother (who gave him all the detective books) hires Huge to solve the mystery of the vandalized sign at the retirement home, and he gradually uncovers a tangled web of treachery and deceit among the kids in his town. Or does he? Huge may be freakishly smart, but he's still a kid. He misses a lot. Plus, he has a sidekick named Thrash (given to him by his guidance councilor) who tends not to give Huge the best advice...
The language of this book is vulgar but funny. Some of the vernacular sounds more like 2000s than 1980s. I don't remember kids talking like that when I was in 6th grade back in 1986, but I didn't grow up in New Jersey. Huge himself is so furious, so off-kilter, and so full of hard-boiled detective fiction, that for the first third of the book I kept picturing him as a grizzled 40-year-old midget instead of a kid. His dialogue and thought processes are hilarious yet incisive.
Lots of 1980s period details reminded me of my own childhood, but it was difficult to pin down an exact year. Seems like 1986 to me; I don't see how it could be earlier than that.
The climax of the novel and the breaking of the case seemed somewhat labored. At some point the story metamorphoses into a "coming-of-age" tale, and everything gets sort of wanky and epiphanic near the end. Then the book goes on for another chapter AFTER the apparent ending, only to stop abruptly without a clear resolution. Sometimes it's nice to be left hanging, but in this case it felt like a trick.
This book was enjoyable but not great. Good summer reading.Huge: A Novel Overview

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