The Book of Ralph : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Great sense of place and respect for his characters
Review: After Troublemakers and The Book of Ralph, John McNally would seem to rank behind only Stuart Dybek as a contemporary literary portraitist of working-class Chicago. Specifically in McNally's case, we're on the southwest side. But the locale stands in for lots of places-I saw Milwaukee and parts of Long Island in this book. From the standpoint of era, while we're mostly in the mid to late 1970s, it's hard to imagine a reader who was a teenager a few years earlier or later feeling out of sync with the goings-on in these interconnected stories. McNally writes smooth, poignant fiction, and maybe best of all, he never sells his characters short.

Rating:
Summary: A Winner
Review: I first became acquainted with John McNally's work when his collection of short stories, Troublemakers, won the Nebraska Book Award. In The Book of Ralph, McNally presents a hilarious (and often slightly ominous) cast of characters who populate a working-class neighborhood in Chicago. Hank Boyd, the narrator, grows older but only slightly wiser over the course of the novel; it is Ralph--conniving, creative, and eternally misjudged by everyone around him--who achieves his slice of the American Dream: business success, true (or true enough) love, and respect.

The Book of Ralph is vivid, moving, and funny--a definite winner.

Rating:
Summary: A Brilliant Book
Review: Several years ago I came across McNally's short-story collection Troublemakers, and enjoyed it immensely. Three of the stories from that collection (The Vomitorium, Smoke, The Grand Illusion) reappear here in slightly different form as chapters, and almost every other chapter has appeared in various lit journals or alternative media. Indeed the book is really an anthology of related stories about one character which share a tone that mixes humor, pathos, and keen observation. Those looking for a strong narrative framework may be disappointed, but this free-form approach allows McNally to create a series of extremely strong stories that form a very compelling coming of age story.

The book is about Hank, a 13-year-old kid growing up in southwest Chicago in the late '70s, and develops his friendship with Ralph, who is two years older. Hank is a prototypical lower-middle class white kid, average grades, unremarkable looks, dead center in the pecking order, and nothing to distinguish himself except being friends with Ralph. Ralph, on the other hand, is known throughout the junior high and neighborhood as someone to avoid at all costs. Without firm parental authority at home, he's turned into a bit of a bully and small-time juvenile delinquent, but is also wildly imaginative, and constantly dreaming up bizarre schemes to raise money and extract revenge on the world. Their friendship is unlikely, and Hank ascribes it to an innate politeness. From their first encounter, Hank has always been too polite to reject Ralph, and so he becomes a kind of default sidekick. This creates a tension that runs throughout the first section: will Hank ever be able to break free of Ralph, or will he get caught up in and dragged down by the effects of the older boy's wildness?

The book's style is very direct and full of satirical and deadpan humor. Hank and Ralph are vivid fictional versions of instantly recognizable types that will be familiar to anyone who's spent their early teen years in America. Beyond Hank and Ralph, most of the supporting characters are equally vivid. Hank's father is a factory worker at the 3M plant who's always drinking and thinking about how the world is trying to screw him over. Hank's sister Kelly is a sardonic mystery who can't wait to grow up and move on to her real life. Ralph's 20ish cousin Norm and his best-friend Kenny are the quintessential Midwestern metalhead hoodlums who hang out with younger kids and inexplicably involve them in their own bizarre schemes.

The first thirteen chapters (over half the book), are set in that late '70s period, and are only connected in time and place, with little if any linkage between stories. Topics include a scheme to sell a trunk full of stolen Tootsie Rolls, Hank's kleptomaniac grandmother, a creepy ex-hippie record store owner, Hank's father's attempt to win a neighborhood Christmas decoration contest using salvaged junk, a trip to the shopping center, a trip to the drive-in, a trip across town to spy on an alleged fellatrix, a day dressed up as Big Bird to promote a new auto dealership, dressing up for Halloween as Gene Simmons, trailing a nerdy collector of Star Wars cards to bite his ear off, falling in love with CB radio, and other random encounters with life. Although set in the past and ripe with period details about clothing, pop culture (Styx, Kiss, etc), and cars, this isn't particularly a nostalgia-driven story. Rather, it shares a deft sense of discovery tinged with loss of innocence, in the vein of books like Tom Perrota's "Bad Haircut" and Chris Fuhrman's "The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys." At the end of the first section, the relationship between the two boys comes to its natural conclusion, and the curtain is drawn.

The book then flashes back to a brief interlude in 1975, where Hank encounters Ralph for the first time. What at first seems like an odd choice (why wouldn't this come first?), the story would lack meaning without the reader knowing the friendship that would later develop between the two boys. A final 75 pages picks up the story of Hank and Ralph in 2001, when they bump into each other on the street. This reacquaintence comes at a particularly low point for Hank, and he is rapidly drawn back into Ralph's world ó which hasn't changed much. Living at home and subsisting on income derived from selling fake "Made in Occupied Japan" items on eBay, and a job cleaning up crime scenes, Ralph is same as he ever was. Soon, Hank is living a strange life as sidekick again, and is slowly trying to rebuild his life. This section is rather more madcap and improbable than the rest of the book, but it makes a hilarious and kind of sweet sense as McNally ends things on just the right note. Full of compassion and sharp-eyed wit, this work confirms the promise of McNally's first collection and leaves one anxious for more.