“Au Revoir, Crazy European Check” by Joe Schreiber

Um, okay. First and foremost, I must say that I like dark humor. Once upon a time, I read “Running with Scissors” and laughed out loud repeatedly. A colleague thought I was a bit of a sick puppy to laugh at a book she found “highly disturbing.” The same is true for this over-the-top tale of adventure and murder (and explosions and chases and such). Put simply, teenage boy Perry is having a rough night. A Senior in high school, Perry is pressured by his father to get perfect grades, get into Columbia, become a lawyer and join dad’s law firm. Knuckling under has become Perry’s art-form, although it makes him silently miserable. Add to this mix a shy foreign exchange student that Perry “must” take to the prom and you get the very beginnings of a fantastical night of action and horror in New York City. Adding to the perverted sense of humor are the chapter headings – which begin with essay prompts from a number of high-end, competitive colleges. Think “irony” with a capital “I”. The book is seriously twisted and readers who can appreciate an edge on things should enjoy it a great deal. Perry and Gobi’s journey takes them through the hottest spots in Manhattan – aficionados of NYC will like the insider’s take on the city. A short book, in short chapters, this one is a fast read. There were only a couple of things that nagged me about it. First, like so many books, the cover makes little sense at the beginning and it’s still not a good match for the “facts of the tale” as things progress. The second issue is that it is getting a little hard to laugh at random violence these days. 9/11 ruined “Independence Day” and other such books and films for me given that blowing things up isn’t really fiction anymore. This book is tremendously contemporary, so much so that it did evoke images of the Boston bombings, making it hard to read, at first. The truth, however, is that the actions of the tale become so increasingly ridiculous that you can’t take it seriously. Consider this one a roller-coaster – readers are just on for the ride. Take it at the surface level it is intended to be and the view is fine.  And yes, it's okay to laugh.