Whitechurch

by Chris Lynch

Book Overview

Whitechurch is a tautly written portrayal of what happens when an intense triangular friendship begins to break apart. An explosive collection of short stories and prose poems, its experimental voice... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0064471438
• ISBN13: 9780064471435
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 247 Pages
• Weight: 0.63 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.9" x 8.1"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 and higher

Customer Reviews

Wow....A Page Turner for the Literary....

I happened upon this book at a work 'book sale' for a charitable cause. The cover struck me, the synopsis on the back caught me...but in looking in upon the words, it compelled me to buy it.And I was not at all disappointed.I had never even heard of 'Chris Lynch'....my philosophy has always been that 'modern' writers can't really capture the essence of what is really going on in real life...I was wrong...Lynch relates the story of three very modern teenagers, much too smart and too intelligent, for their surroudings...Pauly, the go-getter, would-be poet, with a hyperdramatic agenda...Oakley, the true poet...losing his will to do anything that would upset his calm agenda...Lilly...the college bound girl who is set to do something amazing, but she's watched by these two sensitive men...It's almost a stream of consciousness dialogue, but not quite...Pauly comes in with his own, realistic-like musings...Lilly is there, like a pawn in the game...beautiful, as if who can capture her first...The structure of this novel is first rate...a first person commentary...the one moment that holds me the most is 'Chelle'..trying so hard to make the classic movie, restauraunt vision her own...in her beautiful rust velvet gown....only to see it vanish before her, her own town letting her down...she is the one bright vision, besides Nestor, that wants this thing to happen...

Snapshot portraits of a friendship

Whitechurch tells the story of Pauly and Oakley, best friends in the town of Whitechurch, their love for Lily, Pauly's girlfriend, and for each other. Pauly is the wild one, dependent upon Oakley to keep him grounded. However, from the very first incident the book relates--including a scene where Pauly puts a gun in Oakley's mouth--it becomes clear that Pauly is a ticking time bomb, and the best thing Oakley can hope to do is just get out of the way before he explodes.Told through poems and short stories, Chris Lynch reveals the relationships between his characters through the little incidents that make up life. Very few people live lives structured like a well-plotted novel, and that goes double for this group of aimless teenagers. As the book progresses, the connections between the pieces become more and more apparent, with the final poem bringing it all together.This is the second Chris Lynch novel I have read (after Iceman). Both books feature dark-edged plots and emotionally dysfunctional characters, rendered starkly and unsentimentally. It's that air of grim realism that draws me back to Lynch's books. I find them compelling, without the sense that everything will end up happy just because that's how audiences prefer their stories to end. Because, again, real life is never as well planned as a novel. Lynch kept me engrossed in this story because I needed to find out how it all turned out, if things were as inevitable as they seemed.

Read it again, Sam.

I whined to my friends about this book as I read the first few chapters. I hated it, but I have never stopped reading a book. I always finish what I start. Boy am I glad that's my mentality.I don't know what did it, but something happened during the chapter called "Will." The chapter really wasn't any better than all of the ones before it, but I suddenly found myself really pulled into the characters.I mean that. You will neve be pulled into the story. The book is a bundle of short stories and poems. The chapters do not really follow through until the end of the book when everything explodes into a Fourth of July firework show. It's a powerful book about powerful characters.These characters are three teens, two boys and a girl. They are quite real and could easily be real considering some of the recent happenings in the news. I actually wouldn't mind knowing any of them. Well, there is one that I would watch really carefully.That character is the one unsolvable problem of the story. We never really get to see what motivates this character. His or her (don't want to ruin it for you) family is not described so we have many questions hanging. This character isn't really even seen very often. In a way, this adds to the reality of the story. In real life, there are just some things we never know (Tennessee Williams wrote with this in mind).The poems are also distracting until the very end when everything suddenly makes sense. Another reviewer recommended rereading the poems are completing the book. I have to echo those words. The opening poem "Kiss" will haunt me forever. The first time you read it, it's easy to forget. After reading the entire story and then reading the poem again: Boo.

Whitechurch suggests much more than it says

I enjoyed Lynch's "Whitechurch", but I felt a bit like a voyeur as I read it. The book focusses on the three main characters' desires and weaknesses, and the foreshadowing had me repelled and hypnotised simultaneously. The teenage characters seemed real to me: they are pitiful, yet somehow powerful at the same time. The characters in this book often do not do what we readers would like them to do, but doesn't that just sound like "real life"? A good read with a realistic ending.

Wonderful story of Friends in a small town

This is one of my favorite books, all time. I love the author's style, they haven't forgotton how to be a real person with real feelings. You get cought up in this small world of friends and heartache- Life doesn't nececarily turn out perfectly, and at the end of the story, you still hurt. Each chapter is a story in and of itself, yet each chapter gives you a better idea of Oakley's world. About every two chapters, there is a cryptic poem. I suggest reading them once, then going on to the next chapters, and after your done reading them again. they make so much more sense then. overall, i loved this book.