Growing Up on Route 66

 (3 customer reviews)

If given the choice, I suspect that most people wouldn't really want to go back and relive those tumultuous, confusing years of adolescence. But wouldn't it be great if you could do it, knowing what you now know as an adult? You'd probably worry a little more about a few things, a lot less about most things, and you'd certainly have a lot more fun! That's what writer Michael Lund has done through his first novel, "Growing Up on Route 66." We get to experience all the intimate thoughts, embarrassing situations, comedic escapades, and triumphs of teenager Mark Landon and his friends, through the eyes of the adult Mark. Some things have changed since the 50s, and perhaps today's teenagers, sadly enough, aren't quite as naive as Mark. But his struggles and questions are still universal, and you'll have a great time reliving your own adolescence as you read about Mark's experiences. I wish I had known what those guys were thinking when I was Mark's age, and as the mother of two...Read more

I loved the books in this series. Brought me back to a time before computers and video games made neighborhoods seem like no children resided in them. The characters were amusing and confused about life in general. The story takes place in a small neighborhood. Kick the can, hide and seek, exploring the woods, exploring themselves. If you remember having to be home before the streetlights came on, this book is for you.

While William Frank (Farmville Herald 12-22-00) speaks of the undeniable "moral content" in Lund's "novel of initiation," this reader, on the other hand, would argue that the novel fits more comfortably in the genre of the Antibildungsroman, a niche in the literary cavalcade heretofore filled by a few notable works, most prominent of which would be The Tin Drum of Gunter Grass. Here, Mark Landon, the midwestern Everyyouth, is enveloped by a repressive sexual environment which conspires against his sensual enlightenment in such an overpowering manner that his growth (or non-growth, as with Grass' Oskar) is best described as a hopeless status of sexual cluelessness until it flowers in--or, better yet, bumbles into--the unexpected climax described on pp. 256-58. Lund's humorous conclusion, hinted at as early as the introduction, lends credence to the assumption that Landon will not change in any palpable way, but, unlike Oskar, whose stunted overall growth was at...Read more