Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Apr 2010
328 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
A sparkling coming-of-age novel that has sold over 300,000 copies in Holland, in which the inhabitants of a sleepy rural town are awakened by the arrival of a kinetic young visionary, Joe Speedboat.
After a farming accident plunges him into a coma for six months, Frankie Hermans wakes up to discover that he's paralyzed and mute. Bound to a wheelchair, Frankie struggles to adjust to a life where he must rely on others to complete even the simplest tasks. The only body part he can control is his right arm, which he uses obsessively to record the details of daily life in his town.
But when he meets Joe—a boy who blazed into town like a meteor while Frankie slept—everything changes. Joe is a centrifugal force, both magician and daredevil, and he alone sees potential strength in Frankie's handicaps. With Joe's help, Frankie's arm will be used for more that just writing: as a champion arm-wrestler, Frankie will be powerful enough to win back his friends, and maybe even woo P. J., the girl who has them all in a tailspin.
Alive with the profundities of adolescence, Joe Speedboat is the supersonic story of an unlikely alliance and a lightning-quick dash to grow up.
"Starred Review.There are more coming-of-age novels than dikes in Holland, but this wonderfully weird novel is not one to miss." - Publishers Weekly
"The setting of rural Holland is convincingly rendered, and the low-key freakishness (think Garp) keeps things at just the right degree of weird." - Booklist
"Despite a somewhat pat ending and exclusively male viewpoint, the strength of the wacky characters and situations prevails." - Library Journal
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Translated by Sam Garrett.
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