Tales of the Madman Underground -- Review by Hope Austin

Tales of the Madman Underground
by John Barnes
****stars

The year is 1973 and it's the first day of senior year, and there's one thing Karl Shoemaker wants to be: normal. No funny looks, no forced sympathy. That's easier said than done. Normal kids don't have boozers for parents, nor do they have to work five jobs to support themselves. Worst of all for Karl, normal means distancing himself from the Madmen, a group of kids who, for whatever reason, are sent to group therapy from people who don't know how to deal with them to people who don't want to deal with them. Over the years, they've been like a slightly more stable family for him. Luckily, Karl has has his two best friends, Paul and Squid, and the new girl Marti (a "genius" whose parents were forced to let "take it easy" for a year) to help him figure out what normal really is.

There is a definite Catcher in the Rye-esque feel to this book. Not so much in the subject matter, but more so in the tone of the story. Karl is an angry, angry boy and has every reason to be. The thing I like best about this book is the realism. No one is cartoonishly evil, nor is anyone ridiculously beautiful. it also really ties in to one of the main themes of the book: you never really get the whole story; everything has layers. As for the setting, you don't really notice that it's the seventies that much. There aren't obnoxious pop culture references on every other page reminding the reader that the story does, in fact, take place in 1973 and like that. Overall it's a pretty phenomenal coming of age story. Definitely check it out.