Our hero Alex
Woods is an unusual teenager - equal parts wise and innocent. Hit by a falling
meteorite in a freak childhood accident, he’s growing up into a science
obsessed geek who is guileless, compassionate, and epileptic – in short he’s
just the kind of boy to be tormented by school bullies.
While fleeing from
a trio of his attackers Alex ends up seeking refuge in an unlocked greenhouse
that belongs to pot smoking Vietnam veteran, Mr Peterson. The bullies smash the
greenhouse, Alex gets the blame and his penance is to go over to Mr Peterson’s
place every Saturday and help him write letters for Amnesty International.
The weird kid and
the lonely old widower turn out to have much in common. Both are misfits who
share a love of reading, especially the works of Kurt Vonnegut. As the years
pass they meet regularly and their friendship deepens. Then Mr Peterson gets
sick and, knowing his friend is facing a slow and painful death, Alex is forced
to make a tough decision – can he help him die the way he chooses to? (I’m not
giving too much away here as when we first meet Alex he is driving through
customs with an urn full of Mr Peterson’s ashes on the passenger seat).
Alex is an Adrian
Mole for the new generation. I suspect there’s quite a lot of Extence in him
and there are points where the author over-indulges his own geekiness – a
section on the Large Hadron Collider for instance – to the mild detriment of
the book for anyone who happens not to share his obsessions.
In my opinion he
also isn’t entirely successful at thinking himself inside the head of a 17-year-old
kid. Alex is much too old for his age in some ways, much too young in others.
This is something Extence attempts to address late in the piece and not
especially convincingly. For the reader it’s better to just go with it because
if you’re going to get picky it’ll spoil some gloriously comic moments as well
as some extremely touching ones.
This book is no
right-to-die rant. While clearly pro-euthanasia, Extence has crafted an
eccentric and endearing story around the subject. Although aimed at adults it’s
a novel with an easy crossover into the teen market and would be a good
introduction to a discussion about end of life ethics.
In fact, with its
entertaining blend of facts and funnies, and its nimble handling of a serious
issue, The Universe Versus Alex Woods
might be just the novel to get reading-averse teenage boys interested in
fiction.
Nicky Pellegrino,(right), an Auckland-based author of popular fiction, is also the Books Editor of the Herald on Sunday where the above review was first published on Sunday 24 February, 2013.
Footnote:
Nicky Pellegrino,(right), an Auckland-based author of popular fiction, is also the Books Editor of the Herald on Sunday where the above review was first published on Sunday 24 February, 2013.
Her latest novel When In Rome is set in 1950's Italy and was published in September 2012.
Her next novel, The Food Of Love Cooking School, will be published later this year
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