my take: this is a coming of age story in the line of the miracle life of edgar mint and the absolutely true diary of a part time indian … get a bunch of boys together and mischief will happen. in this case, it’s a black summer haven on the hamptons. even though i’m a white, mid-west girl, i could relate to the eagerness with which benji looks forward to summers away from his regular life…we spent 3 weeks of our summer at a family cottage. it’s a fun look back at the trends of the mid-eighties and a peek into the life of a prep school boy who spends the summer learning to fit in with his crowd. lots of use of the f-word and n-word, so don’t say i didn’t warn you. i laughed, i enjoyed.

my source: heard about it on NPR summer reads (for 2010)

my rating: great coming of age read