John wray lowboy pdf

He turned and pressed his face against the glass. Skull was a skinny milkfaced man, not much to look at, but Bones was the size of a MetroCard booth. They moved like policemen in a silent movie, as though their shoes were too big for their feet. No one stood aside for them. Lowboy smiled as he watched them stumbling toward him: he felt his fear falling away with each ridiculous step they took.

Bones saw him first and started pounding on the doors. Spit flew noiselessly from his mouth against the scuffed and greasy glass. The train lurched then stopped then lurched forward again. Lowboy gave Bones his village idiot smile, puckering his lips and blinking, and solemnly held up his middle finger.

Skull was running now, struggling to keep even with the doors, moving his arms in slow emphatic circles. Bones was shouting something at the conductor. Lowboy whistled the door-closing theme at them and shrugged. The simplest, sweetest melody in the world. Everyone in the car would later agree that the boy seemed in very high spirits.

He was late for something, by the look of him, but he carried himself with authority and calm. He was making an effort to seem older than he was. His clothes fit him badly, hanging apologetically from his body, but because he was blue-eyed and unassuming he caused nobody concern. They watched him for a while, glancing at him whenever his back was turned, the way people look at one another on the subway.

The train fit into the tunnel perfectly. He kept his right cheek pressed against the glass and felt the air and guttered bedrock passing. The climate in the car was temperate as always, hovering comfortably between 62 and 68 degrees. Its vulcanized rubber doorjambs allowed no draft to enter. Its suspension system, ribbonpressed butterfly shocks manufactured in St. Louis, Missouri, kept the pitching and the jarring to a minimum. Welcoming, familiar, almost sentimental sounds.

His thoughts fell slackly into place. Even his cramped and claustrophobic brain felt a measure of affection for the tunnel. It was his skull that held him captive, after all, not the tunnel or the passengers or the train.

Hostage of my limbic system. I can make jokes again, Lowboy thought. Stupid jokes but never mind. I never could have made jokes yesterday. Lowboy was five foot ten and weighed pounds exactly. His hair was parted on the left. He had a list of favorite things that he took out whenever there was a setback, ticking them off in order like charms on a bracelet. He recited the first eight from memory:. His father had taken him snowboarding once, in the Poconos.

The Poconos and the beach at Breezy Point were items nine and ten. Lowboy stared down at his deadlooking arms. He pressed his right palm hard against the glass. The tunnel straightened itself without any sign of effort and the rails and wheels and couplings went quiet. Lowboy decided to think about his mother. His mother was blond, like a girl on a billboard, but she was already over thirty-eight years old.

She painted eyes and lips on mannequins for Saks and Bergdorf Goodman. She painted things on mannequins no one would ever see. He had these directions: transfer at Columbus Circle, wait, then six stops close together on the C. Slowly and carefully, with studied precision, he shifted his attention toward the train. Trains were easier to consider. There were thousands of them in the tunnel, pushing ghost trains of compressed air ahead of them, and every single one of them had a purpose.

The train he was on was bound for Bedford Park Boulevard. Its coat-of-arms was a B in Helvetica type, rampant against a bright orange escutcheon. He knows that he is ill. He understands that the voices he hears -- sometimes loud, sometimes as a murmur, sometimes sensed only as the indistinct roaring of a dynamo -- are part of his illness. He realizes that his symptoms increase and decrease over time. In fact, at the age of 12, when his symptoms first began but were still controllable, he read everything he could find in the library on the subject of schizophrenia.

But he doesn't -- he can't -- understand enough. The story reads partly as an adventure. We don't quite understand Lowboy's quest, but we want him to succeed. His quest takes place largely within the dark, subterranean realm of the subway system, itself a metaphor for a certain twisted, noisy, and confusing set of limitations on reality.

The book also reads as a detective novel, as Lateef attempts to untangle confusing clues he obtains from Lowboy's mother, psychiatrist, and one-time girlfriend, and to locate and apprehend the boy before he injures either himself or another person. Again the story reads at times as a peculiar story of romance, the same detective finding himself falling in love with the boy's mother, for reasons he doesn't understand.

But mostly, the novel is an immersion in the mind of a young man who is precociously bright and likeable and in a sense idealistic, but whose perspective on the world is far different from our own -- a kid who thinks deeply and observes much that we would miss, but who overlooks simple meanings and conclusions that we would find obvious.

The ending is exciting and unexpected. This book is unquestionably one where you want to learn how it ends yourself -- not hear it from a friend or read it in a review. Schizophrenia, some say, should be considered not a disease but simply an alternative way of viewing reality.

After reading Lowboy, none of us would voluntarily subject ourselves to that experience. But we understand better the peculiar logic -- and even, possibly, strange beauty -- of the thoughts circling within the confused minds of those crazy guys we see on the street.

View 2 comments. Mar 01, Jeff rated it it was amazing. I don't know what to say! This novel is truly a tour de force , a tense and suspenseful day in the life of a beautifully blonde, sixteen-year-old boy who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. I know the comparison is cliche, but imagine a Holden Caulfield-like figure off his meds having escaped the mental institution in which he's been placed while searching the streets of New York City to lose his virginity in order to save the world from global warming.

John Wray burrows deep into the manically I don't know what to say! John Wray burrows deep into the manically irrational yet poetically heartbreaking world of his central character. Wray's use of language is masterful. There is no logic to Lowboy's mental instability nor are we able to solve the mysteries of identity that lead him on this personal odyssey into the darkest corners of his psyche, but the novel burns brightly with compassion and intelligence.

What raises this novel above others is the way Wray juxtaposes Lowboy's journey with the African-American missing persons detective Ali Lateef who works with the boy's mother to find her son before he damages himself or others. Crosscutting between Lowboy's descent into the urban underworld and the growing, complicated relationship between Ali and Violet the boy's mother lends the novel a highly suspenseful narrative trajectory.

And, of course, there are major surprises and discoveries. This is a very, very good novel and worth the read. May 11, Mark rated it it was ok Shelves: fiction. The immortal poet Chastity in 10 Things I Hate about You once said, "I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?

Lowboy is a short, meandering book about Will Heller, a paranoid schizophrenic wandering around New York City, and also--in alternating chapters--about his mother and the police detective who have teamed up to search for him.

Will is on a strange, vague mission to cool down the earth before global warm The immortal poet Chastity in 10 Things I Hate about You once said, "I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed? Will is on a strange, vague mission to cool down the earth before global warming destroys it losing his virginity is a key component of the plan , and Violet Will's mother and Ali the detective are trying to locate him before he injures either himself or Emily, Will's former girlfriend whom he pushed onto a set of subway tracks as a train approached the station which is also the reason why Will ended up in the mental hospital from which he's just been released.

Above, you'll note, I described Lowboy as "meandering," which would probably take most of the book's fans by surprise, as they all seem to consider it to be fast-paced and thrilling and compelling and page-turning, etc. I don't agree. I struggled for nearly six weeks to finish this page book, but other things kept pulling my attention away from it--quite easily, in fact.

It just occurred to me, with a shock, that I read Moby-Dick in less time. I hate to dump on contemporary novels, especially when the author's intention was good and noble after all, I couldn't write one--despite trying on numerous occasions , but this is a case where the book just didn't speak to me. I'd been quite eager to read this one; its subject matter is right up my alley mental illness, New York City's underbelly, and young, confused love --but for some reason it just didn't click.

John Wray's prose is serviceable but not as rich as I'd hoped, and toward the end I was reading it not to find out what happened but merely so I could be done with it.

At no point did the ultimately shoulder-shrugging mysteries draw me in, nor did I care much about the fates of the three main characters. I didn't hate the book by any means, but I didn't particularly like it, either. The whole thing was simply. View 1 comment. Mar 26, christa rated it really liked it. There is this moment in John Wray's "Lowboy" where a character says to the schizophrenic hero: "Listen to me, Heller. You're beautiful and you make me laugh and I want you to take me to that place that we just saw, but you need to stop saying things like that.

They creep me out, okay? And you're not creepy. The story opens with him on the lam in the New There is this moment in John Wray's "Lowboy" where a character says to the schizophrenic hero: "Listen to me, Heller.

The story opens with him on the lam in the New York subway system after spending a year and a half institutionalized. He is hell-bent on saving the world from global warming, and believes he can do this by losing his virginity. In alternating bite-sized chapters his mysterious mother, a beautiful, hard-to-read immigrant with an indiscernible accent, is paired with detective Ali Lateef and is searching for Lowboy, hoping to find him before he hurts someone or himself.

Lowboy's chapters are a collection of dizzy sentences, more paintings than linear thought. One minute he is deciding to buy cupcakes, but then the simple acts of ordering what he wants and exchanging money become too complicated. It's like the wheel in his brain gets caught up on a cog and suddenly everything becomes distorted and chaotic until he can slow down and start again.

His mother, whom he calls Violet, provides Lowboy's backstory via Lateef's interrogation. Most chapters include some new piece of information that explains who Lowboy is, how he got there, and what he wants.

But also leaves questions and a growing suspicion that there is more to the story. This book is technically sound: Lowboy is likable and unpredictable and interesting. And like that character, I did want to beg him to stop talking like that. Meanwhile, Violet's day-long relationship with Lateef is tricky to define: antagonistic? I'm not sure how Wray invented this or juggled it, but there are no seams showing. My only complaint is that my own lack of familiarity with the subway system made it hard to envision exactly where the characters were, or where they were headed.

Especially when the descriptions are coming from Lowboy. So I got a little confused. Also, I have a question about the ending, so someone needs to read this ASAP so we can talk about it. May 14, Jessica marked it as aborted-efforts Recommends it for: everyone except me, they all love it. Shelves: social-work-or-relevant , here-is-new-york , leetle-boys.

It's always hard for me to read fiction about topics I know too much about, though I'm not so sure why. Is it because I'm irrationally, childishly possessive of my knowledge, or is it more respectable, like the research and inaccuracies are more obvious then?

I don't know. Everyone else loves this book, though, so I have to think my familiarity with schizophrenia was a distraction that kept me emotionally distant from what was probably a very well-written book. Similarly, being familiar with the It's always hard for me to read fiction about topics I know too much about, though I'm not so sure why. Similarly, being familiar with the setting didn't make this fun, just more irritating; for example the Dr.

Zizmor subway ad references struck me as inside-jokey and inorganic, instead of part of the story for real, though again, in this case, I don't know quite why.

For whatever reason I couldn't get into this book at all; the characters never seemed real to me, even for a minute, and I couldn't get away from my image of John Wray researching second-generation antipsychotics and mood stabilizers, riding the subways all around, taking copious notes. It all felt very researched and self-conscious to me, though I'm the first to admit that could just be because I'm too close to the material.

If you are not a New York City social worker who works with severely mentally-ill populations, you'll probably love this book -- everyone else does! If you are, though, there's a chance that it might just annoy you, even if you bought it really hoping that you'd like it a lot. I really wanna read some cool contemporary fiction!

Am I too cranky and curmudgeonly to realize this dream??? May 24, Jenn rated it it was ok. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I had hoped this book would be better. It's about a paranoid schizophrenic boy who is no longer taking his meds. There has been an "incident" with a girl before he was "sent away", and now he is back out on the streets of New York. Lots of time spent riding the subway , interspersed with some odd scenes of his mother and a cop looking for him.

I say "scenes" because it did feel like I was watching some sort of screenplay here. There is a supposedly shocking part where it is revealed that Well. There is a supposedly shocking part where it is revealed that the mom also is schizophrenic, although it didn't seem shocking or interesting. Of course Lowboy ends up finding the girl, who agrees to run off with him. And then there's the ending,which I won't spoil here, but I think I groaned out loud.

Aug 11, AdiTurbo rated it did not like it. Pretentious and annoying. Disjointed and does not add a thing to the understanding of mental illness in teens. Couldn't care less about the characters. Mar 07, Bonnie Brody rated it it was amazing. This is a brilliant book, a masterpiece. Because it has the ability to bring about such intense emotional reactions and is so riveting, writing an adequate review of it is very difficult. It is like trying to describe why I get goosebumps when I listen to my favorite symphony played by the greatest orchestra or trying to describe why I felt the way I did when I first saw Botticelli's paintings at the Uffizi Museum in Florence.

This book is about a schizophrenic adolescent named Lowboy. Lowboy lik This is a brilliant book, a masterpiece. Lowboy likes to ride the subways of New York.

He has recently run away from the psychiatric facility where he was detained for over a year after pushing his girlfriend onto the subway tracks. His mother and the police are searching for him. The chapters alternate between ones that are in Lowboy's voice and others that are from the vantage point of the detective, Ali Lateef, and Lowboy's mother, Yda,who are searching for Lowboy. In the chapters that are in Lowboy's voice we are taken into the world of a schizophrenic.

As a clinical social worker who has worked extensively with the seriously and chronically mentally ill, I have never read a book that catches so lyrically, poetically, and tragically the true sense of what it is to be a paranoid schizophrenic. John Wray gets it. He paints a picture with his words, creating a sensibility and truth about this disease. As Lowboy says on page , "The order of the world is not my order". He has been trying to buy some cupcakes and does not know how to convey the number of cupcakes he wants, what kind he wants or how to navigate the issue of cost.

The situation ends up with Lowboy being asked to leave the store. I found the following passage the most moving description of Lowboy's illness from his own perceptions. It is a passage from a letter to his mother. Fleisig slid- ing sideways down the hall. Fleisig is a friendly Medi- terranean man he looks a little bit like Jacques Cousteau. Because I knew by then it wasn't really Fleisig. His mother's grief and fear for his well-being are palpable. The detective is kindly and over time appears to be smitten with Lowboy's mother.

The story line is riveting. Lowboy is seeking his girlfriend who he is not supposed to see. He is also very worried about global warming. As he rides the subway lines we are privy to his inner thoughts, hallucinations and delusions.

Wray has done his research about schizophrenia very thoroughly. Nothing seems artificial or postured. This is a remarkable book, one that I believe has staying power over time and will be read for decades to come. It is rare that I read a book that thrills me.

This one has. I applaud Mr. Wray and am grateful I had the opportunity to read this book. Aug 03, Michael Shilling rated it really liked it. Some of the techniques listed in Lowboy may require a sound knowledge of Hypnosis, users are advised to either leave those sections or must have a basic understanding of the subject before practicing them.

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Loved each and every part of this book. I will definitely recommend this book to fiction, young adult lovers. Your Rating:. Your Comment:.