Clara McComsey

The brilliance I found in this book was the way satire is used on the reader. The characters are the antithesis of their own goals, the title is in opposition to the events that the main characters find their journey halted by. And instead of sense of self, or coming of age, the theme seems colored by a character against the world mentality. That is to say, the further selfish or self-serving the character's goals become, the greater natural pushback, culminating in something more powerful than the likes of Hemingway's Jake Barnes or Salinger's Holden Caufield. It's very easy to take this book at face value and find it repetitive in its story, but at its core I truly believe the tone is exasperated instead of searching, unique in the time and situation it represents. Rarely does coming of age have a main character who's aware their journey is a sham, and I think that's the point. 5/5 for me.