Naked without a hat

Publishers Weekly

Readers may have difficulty getting a handle on the characters for much of this British novel by the author of The Truth or Something. Protagonist Will, who moves out of his mother's home at age 19, appears weirdly naive for his years ("When I said goodbye, I told her there were raindrops on the inside of her glasses. She said yes, that's what they were and to ring if I needed anything"). Will's new boarding-house roommates, Rocko and James, also seem out of touch with the world. Their obsessions and eccentricities (like Rocko's refusal to remove a month-old, half-eaten sausage from the refrigerator and James's tendency to blurt out whatever sexual images are on his mind) are more puzzling and offensive than comical. The role of the boys' landlady, Chrissy, proves to be as confusing as Will's sudden romantic interest in a Gypsy girl who stole his wallet. At last Will's mother re-enters the scene to reveal some family secrets (namely, that Will has Down's syndrome and has had plastic surgery to conceal it). However, the information comes too late to revive interest, and while the news that Will is developmentally disabled helps makes sense of some of the fragmented components of the novel, it does not turn Will into an especially convincing or engaging narrator. Ages 14-up. (May) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

VOYA

Programmed by his mother never to share his secret, sweet, simple, nineteen-year-old Will Avery guards some past trauma so shocking that it caused his father to leave home while Will was a baby and prompted his mother to move from England to Denver. There she could rely on her sister, Caroline, to manage Will's development. But recently Sweet Caroline died of cancer, the Averys returned to England, and Mom started dating a policeman. Will, a charming and unreliable narrator, moves out when his mother's boyfriend cannot stand his incessant playing of "Wild Thing" on his guitar. Taking a room in a house with two other young men—both of whom are limited either intellectually or emotionally—and where the endearing, eccentric landlady, Chrissy, is more like a housemother, Will attains sexual maturity and a level of independence previously unknown to him. Now that Will has moved to Chrissy's, he takes work at Trent Park (much like a petting zoo) and falls passionately in love with Zara, an illiterate Gypsy temptress who dreams of clerking in a shop and wants to marry Will. Although Willis's narrative style makes beginning the novel difficult, Will's story is ultimately an engagingly hilarious combination of zany characters and various misadventures. When the conclusion reveals Will's secret to be Down syndrome—masked by childhood plastic surgery—the reader better understands Will's simple, trusting nature and his surprise at discovering that Chrissy provides a sheltered living situation. Coarse language and explicit content make this novel suitable for older audiences. VOYA Codes 3Q 3P S (Readable without serious defects; Will appeal with pushing; Senior High, defined asgrades 10 to 12). 2004, Delacorte, 224p., and PLB Ages 15 to 18.
—Cynthia Winfield

Children's Literature

Eighteen-year-old Will is no longer happy living in his mother's home. His mother criticizes him for constantly wearing a knit hat. Her boyfriend, Ray, nags him for playing "Wild Thing"—the only song he knows—over and over on his cherished guitar. Fed up, he decides to move out. He finds a spot in a shared house with three roommates. Rocko is a temperamental artist who has his own lucky hat; he and Will immediately connect. James is oversexed and girl-crazy; he and Will end up working together at the park. Chrissy is the owner of the house; she ends up being a sort of sister-advisor to Will. Life seems to be looking up for Will. He enjoys his new home, he likes his new job, and he's just met a great girl: sixteen-year-old Zara, an Irish gypsy. However, when his mother finds out about this relationship and threatens to expose Will's long-held secret, he just might lose everything he holds most dear. Some readers may be troubled with the speed of Will and Zara's relationship; Will believes he is "in love" with Zara before they even have a date, and he drinks himself blind out of misery when she misses their first date. Later, the young people talk of eloping, but they can't even admit to their closest friends that their "engagement party" is just that. In short, their fantasy of a brilliant home and future seems far from grounded. The story does raise interesting themes of prejudice and identity, but it may not be suitable for all teens. 2003, Delacorte, Ages 15 to 18.
—Heidi Hauser Green

School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up-Will Avery, 18, has had it with life in the English suburbs with his mother and her boyfriend, so he takes a room in a house with three roommates. Rocko, a painter, is sweetly, childishly innocent, yet prone to fits of rage. James is loud, oversexed, and lives to inflame Rocko. Chrissy owns the house and takes casual, sisterly care of them all. Will falls in love with Zara, an Irish Gypsy who insists that he keep her background a secret from his mother. Unfortunately, that's not even the half of his mom's hang-ups-she freaks out when she finds out Will has sex at all, let alone with a dirty, thieving Gypsy. She forbids their relationship and threatens to divulge Will's own terrible secret to break them up. The first-person narration moves slowly, accentuated by Will's somewhat simplistic telling. The author overwrites her protagonist's wide-eyed wonder at adult life-he falls in love with Zara before they even have a date. Willis has a great ear for the snappy colloquialisms of Irish/English speech, and the story gains pace and humor when she lets the characters talk, especially Zara and her cantankerous parents. Despite believable dialogue, the major characters, especially Will, are one-dimensionally quaint-Zara is sprightly, the Gypsys are scrappy, Rocko's a nutcase, and Will watches, innocent. His deliberate telling makes more sense when his secret is revealed, but this comes too late in the narrative to captivate readers.-Johanna Lewis, New York Public Library Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Will Avery, who's slow, deliberate, and unusually kind to both people and animals, narrates his love story in an unsophisticated voice. At 19, he values his first chance to live away from home and hold down a job, even one cleaning up at a park. When he meets the volatile Zara, who describes herself as part Gypsy and part Irish, they fall in love and soon become close, sexually and emotionally. But Will and his mother have a secret that threatens to undermine his relationship with Zara. The secret, which comes out near the end, prompts readers to see the narrative up to that point in a new light. The revelation, only one of several plot elements that deal with prejudice, emphasizes how labels diminish everyone involved. With strong secondary characters and an original final twist, this British story, which was shortlisted for the Whitbread prize, moves slowly at times but ultimately rewards the reader in full measure. (Fiction. YA)