Danielle Levine is gearing up to begin her senior year at Meadow Oaks School, which is for "high-potential students with learning disabilities". She, as you may have gathered from the title, has OCD, and spends a lot of time organizing her snowglobe collection when she gets nervous or is feeling uncomfortable.
She's lonely, she has no close friends, and she has a crush on a boy who she knows will never reciprocate her feelings. She's unhappy about her weight, about her impossible hair, and about the fact that SHE'S BEING FORCED TO ATTEND A SOCIAL SKILLS CLASS. Which is not exactly filled with people who have the sort of social skills anyone would want to emulate.
OCD, the Dude, and Me is a compilation of Danielle's journal entries (both private and for school assignments), emails, letters, postcards, and notes back and forth between her and her school's therapist. It's been quite a while since I've read a book written in this format—a la The Year of Secret Assignments, etc.—and reading it made me realize that I've missed them. So if you've read any real stand-outs over the last couple of years, would you sling their titles my way, pretty please?
Anyway, this book. As you ALSO may have guessed from the title (and the bowling ball on the cover), Danielle gets involved in the culture that surrounds The Big Lebowski*. Which is a super-fun microcosm to explore. And Vaughan does a nice job of explaining it without over-explaining it—there's enough information for a non-fan to understand the whys and hows and whats, but not so much that a fan will be all, "Yes, yes, DUH."
What else? I LOVED THAT THERE ISN'T A ROMANCE. There is a new friendship—and maybe possibly the possibility of a romance (with a different character), or at least the possibility of someone crushing on Danielle—but not a romance. Romantic lurrrve is not portrayed here as curing grief, or loneliness, or being misunderstood, or anything else. Not that I have a problem with Romance Lurrrve. *waves at Josh* But it's nice to read a YA novel in which it doesn't really factor in. (See this post at Chasing Ray for more in that vein.)
Danielle's voice is loads of fun. She's smart and funny and self-deprecating, so while the story ultimately deals with some very difficult issues, the tone of the book stays pretty bouncy throughout. Her constant negative references to her weight made me uncomfortable/sad, but they were also in keeping with her personality and her outlook, and especially believable given that she lives in the Los Angeles area.
BONUS POINTS: Her relationship with her parents is wonderful. When she was reading Wuthering Heights for school, the family dressed up in costumes and read it aloud (at home! not in public!). Also, her Aunt Joyce? Is awesome.
BONUS BONUS POINTS: Her teacher's comments at the end of each assignment are fantastic, and I loved how even though Ms. Harrison doesn't get much actual screen-time, those comments show their relationship morph over the course of the book.
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*Yes, she smokes some pot. No, it doesn't turn into An Issue. Thankfully.
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Author page.
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Book source: Review copy from the publisher.
Oh, I was already on board to love this one, and this review makes me think it's gonna be a real gem for me. The dude references, the lack of romance, the format...it all sounds very refreshing. One book that kind of reminds me of it based on your review is Colin Fischer -- it has that diary format and is heavily footnoted, is about a kid with autism solving a mystery at school, and is also light/nonexistent with regards to romance (like, a crush might be developing). It was cute for what it was.
Posted by: molly | 29 March 2013 at 12:30 AM
Be sure to tell me what you think! It really was such a joy.
Posted by: Leila | 29 March 2013 at 06:46 PM