I really don’t know how to explain this book. I liked it a lot, but anything I could say about it would make it sound like the kind of book that doesn’t appeal to me at all.

Like: A teenage boy learns lessons about life during the period of turmoil and chance in the 1960s.

(Ugh.)

Or: A teenage boy finds the plays of William Shakespeare surprisingly relevant to his life.

(Hm. Did you think of that one all by yourself, Gary D. Schmidt?)

No, but seriously. Both of these things are true, but The Wednesday Wars is excellent. It does a lot of things that have been done before, and I kept thinking, Oh, Jesus, just when I was starting to think this book was original, but then it turned out to be indeed quite unexpected and interesting.  I guess what kept surprising me was that it carried on being genuine even when I thought it couldn’t possibly be.

That’s the best I can explain it. But I quite enjoyed it. I wouldn’t buy it but I would certainly reread, and after a certain number of rereads I might conceivably become fond enough of it to buy it then.

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