Penrod by Booth Tarkington has been on my imaginary to read list for ages and ages. I was asking around for suggestions on what to read on our long airplane flights and someone suggested this book. Oh yeah, I thought! I've been meaning to read that book! So I did! And I thoroughly enjoyed it and laughed a lot too because it is a very funny book.
Penrod is an 11 year old boy at the turn of the last century, living somewhere in the northeast, I think. He has a mother and father and a pretty older sister named Maraget. Penrod is a bit like Tom Sawyer, in that he is always getting himself into scrapes and rebelling against the niceties that society is always pushing on him. Penrod gets himself in and out of trouble in many different ways. Tarkington writes about it all from Penrod's perspective and we can see how one thing he does leads to another and the whole catastrophe is laid out with perfect reasonableness and with the reader knowing what must ensue. I started this book on the plane but I finished it sitting in a little outdoor cafe in Avila, Spain. The book transported me into Penrod's world and had me laughing out loud all alone in an exotic, foreign place. Tarkington's pacing, wording, and wry wit are excellent!
Apparently Penrod used to be as popular as Tom Sawyer, but fell from favor because Tarkington does have some racist language and caricatures in his book. While there is some for sure, it is not prominent. I found it ironic though that the two black boys who are introduced as new neighbors of Penrod's are wonderful characters, screamingiy funny and often a bit smarter than Penrod in a way. Penrod definitely is in awe of them. So while there is some racism there, there is also, rather astonishingly, some admiration and wonderful character drawing as well.
I give Penrod two thumbs up!
For more book reviews see 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
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