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Character, Driven

Review

Character, Driven

When I was in graduate school studying literature and literary theory, wordplay was quite the thing. That’s why the opening chapter title of David Lubar’s CHARACTER, DRIVEN brought such a smile to my face: “Intro [duction | spection | version],” a title that could have been pulled right from one of those critical papers I used to pore over. I could tell that this book, with its punny, playful but smart chapter titles was going to be right up my alley. Combine this kind of intelligent wordplay with ribald narration in the voice of a smart but underestimated teenage boy, and you’ve got the recipe for a winning YA novel.
 
Cliff (“by an accident of birth, I am well named for this story . . . Cliff Sparks. At the edge. On the verge. Dangling.”) is a senior in high school. He should be on the path to college, but his unemployed dad has increasingly dipped into Cliff’s college savings --- much of which Cliff earned himself through two part-time jobs --- so it now looks like next year, Cliff might be taking a class or two at the local community college instead of studying art anywhere else. To make things worse, Cliff’s dad, who used to be an accountant, has zero respect for someone trying to make their living doing something creative. So if Cliff wants to pursue visual arts, he’s going to have to find somewhere else to live.

"Lubar effectively immerses readers into the high school experience with characters who are witty but believable, situations that ring true, and a style that is fresh and sophisticated at the same time."

Cliff is sort of fumbling his way through senior year, buoyed by his best friends Butch, Robert, and Jimby, plus a handful of great teachers who help make up for the not-so-great ones (such as “Mr. Tippler” who Cliff sees being forcibly removed from a restaurant bar after having a few too many). But things start to ratchet up a notch when a new student --- the beautiful and artistically talented Jillian --- transfers into Cliff’s class. His attraction to Jillian sends him into a series of recollections of previous failed romances, even as he tries to figure out how to approach this new girl without falling off the precipice.
 
As you might be able to guess by those witty chapter titles and even by the title of the book, CHARACTER, DRIVEN is often wryly self-referential, as Cliff reflects on the process of writing his story even as he narrates it. At one point, for example, he becomes aware that the person reading his story might not, in fact, be a hormonal teenage boy just like him: “I’ve been talking to you like you’re one of the guys,” he writes, “But you could be older, or younger. And you might not be a guy. Which means, the whole time I’ve been extolling the glories of female breasts, recounting my overwhelming desire to have sex, or revealing thewild nature of my fantasies, you might not have been thinking Yay! Breasts! so much as You pig!” Cliff’s growing self-understanding, coupled with the (yes) character-driven nature of his story, means that readers will come to care deeply about this blunt-talking, flawed but likeable character by the end of his narrative.

Lubar effectively immerses readers into the high school experience with characters who are witty but believable, situations that ring true, and a style that is fresh and sophisticated at the same time.

Reviewed by Norah Piehl on March 3, 2016

Character, Driven
by David Lubar

  • Publication Date: March 14, 2017
  • Genres: Fiction, Young Adult 13+
  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Tor Teen
  • ISBN-10: 0765376946
  • ISBN-13: 9780765376947