The Buffalo Tree

Rating:
Summary: Making Huck Finn look like a whimp.
Review: Adam Rapp could stare into the eyes of J.D. Salinger, and guess who would blink? Furthurmore, Sura--the lead character in Rapp's book--could wrestle Huck Finn to the ground and stomp him. The Buffalo Tree is the best story of a young man I have ever read. It is all at once incredibly intense, hysterically funny, timeless and true. A must read for the old and young.

Rating:
Summary: A great writer
Review: Adam Rapp's style is vivid and enchanting; he's the first stylist I've encountered in a long time whom I'd call "original", and that's as high a compliment as I can give an artist. But 'The Buffalo Tree' is tremendous because his powerful writing is at the service of a story and characters more humane and thoughtful than most writers could make possible. Like 'The Catcher in the Rye', I'd also suggest that Rapp's novel shouldn't be restricted to the Young Adult category, although it does credit to the genre; everyone can appreciate this kind of nuanced, compassionate perception. I certainly think he's a more powerful writer than most "literary" (ie. adult) writers of his generation.

Rating:
Summary: the onley book I ever finsh
Review: all other books are boring and i lost interst in the book but this book was vary differnt it kept me reading it till it was finshed.

Rating:
Summary: An incredibly humane, incisively written tale of redemption.
Review: At first glance, the subject matter seems to lend itself to the stuff of melodrama: a young man, Sura, incarcerated in a juvenile detention center for stealing hood ornaments ("hoodies," as he calls them), is subjected to terrible degradation at the hands of its staff and his fellow "juvies." But where some lesser writers would manufacture a simplistic morality tale, Adam Rapp has constructed what is ultimately an incredibly humane, incisively written tale of redemption. In Sura, Rapp has created a truly unforgettable hero, whose distinctive voice propels this moving, absorbing story forward with remarkable humor and insight. I can't recommend this book highly enough

Rating:
Summary: A welcome addition to the world of young adult fiction.
Review: Being an active fantasy reader (and not usually daring to go any further than the bounds of wizards and dragons), I don't know why I picked up this book. Maybe name recognition--I'm a big Broadway fan, and when I saw the last name Rapp, well... oh, you theater rats know. But I read the back, and my imagination started to tingle... I bought the book (eleven dollars, OUCH) and read it in the car as my parents shopped.

Four hours later, I was mesmerized as I finished the last page. Sura's journey is poignant, breathtaking, and has changed the way I view young adult fiction. No longer with contempt, but perhaps that the books are like this one--plain-speaking, but speaking nonetheless. Adam Rapp is a fantastic storyteller, and I hope that his later novels are as good as this one.

I'm sorry, this wasn't a true review--but for the plot, read the official critiques. Just know that The Buffalo Tree is a moving novel, and reading it is a wonderful idea.

Rating:
Summary: A welcome addition to the world of young adult fiction.
Review: Being an active fantasy reader (and not usually daring to go any further than the bounds of wizards and dragons), I don't know why I picked up this book. Maybe name recognition--I'm a big Broadway fan, and when I saw the last name Rapp, well... oh, you theater rats know. But I read the back, and my imagination started to tingle... I bought the book (eleven dollars, OUCH) and read it in the car as my parents shopped.

Four hours later, I was mesmerized as I finished the last page. Sura's journey is poignant, breathtaking, and has changed the way I view young adult fiction. No longer with contempt, but perhaps that the books are like this one--plain-speaking, but speaking nonetheless. Adam Rapp is a fantastic storyteller, and I hope that his later novels are as good as this one.

I'm sorry, this wasn't a true review--but for the plot, read the official critiques. Just know that The Buffalo Tree is a moving novel, and reading it is a wonderful idea.

Rating:
Summary: An amazing story from a Great Author
Review: I loved this book. At the time I read this, a friend of mine was in a juvinile detetion center, and The Buffalo Tree painted a very vivid picture for me. Sura was one amazing kid....hes someone I wish I could be. He dealt with a lot, he learned a lot, and he became a very good person during those months. This was on of the most intriging books I've read, and I never went anywhere without it, always trying to find and extra two or three minutes to read some of it.

This book ruled.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite book.
Review: I loved this book. At the time I read this, a friend of mine was in a juvinile detetion center, and The Buffalo Tree painted a very vivid picture for me. Sura was one amazing kid....hes someone I wish I could be. He dealt with a lot, he learned a lot, and he became a very good person during those months. This was on of the most intriging books I've read, and I never went anywhere without it, always trying to find and extra two or three minutes to read some of it.

This book ruled.

Rating:
Summary: Juvenile detention through the eyes of a young inmate
Review: I work in forensic nursing, and presently provide medical care to adult inmates. My interest in the novel was to gather understanding of the early phases of delinquency and apply that knowledge to the repetitive offender after age 18. Although this novel is targeted for the young adult, it is certainly a worthy book for older readers.

Adam Rapp writes about a young kid serving his time in Hamstock, a juvenile detention center that promotes violence, abuse, negative reinforcement, and a social structure worse than the kid's home and street situations. The kids learn quick to be just like adult cons. Although many of them have hardened beyond hope, some of them balance on a fine line of possible rehabilitation. Sura is one of these kids, a sensitive, troubled youngster that tries to keep himself and his bunkmate on top of things and out of trouble. This is not easy when kids victimize each other and the administration steals any self respect they may have left.

At night, Sura lies in his bunk staring out the window at a lifeless tree standing stark and barren outside. He must take turns with his bunkmate to stay awake, alert to the possibility of other juvies slipping into his cell to victimize them. Night after night he fights sleep and despair, counting the days and nights until he is out, but drawing plans for an escape. He cries like a little boy, but has to fight like a grown man. It is a situation beyond his years and coping skills, and he lies there on his bunk in the pitch black dark, forever gazing out at the buffalo tree.

Rating:
Summary: Juvenile detention through the eyes of a young inmate
Review: I work in forensic nursing, and presently provide medical care to adult inmates. My interest in the novel was to gather understanding of the early phases of delinquency and apply that knowledge to the repetitive offender after age 18. Although this novel is targeted for the young adult, it is certainly a worthy book for older readers.

Adam Rapp writes about a young kid serving his time in Hamstock, a juvenile detention center that promotes violence, abuse, negative reinforcement, and a social structure worse than the kid's home and street situations. The kids learn quick to be just like adult cons. Although many of them have hardened beyond hope, some of them balance on a fine line of possible rehabilitation. Sura is one of these kids, a sensitive, troubled youngster that tries to keep himself and his bunkmate on top of things and out of trouble. This is not easy when kids victimize each other and the administration steals any self respect they may have left.

At night, Sura lies in his bunk staring out the window at a lifeless tree standing stark and barren outside. He must take turns with his bunkmate to stay awake, alert to the possibility of other juvies slipping into his cell to victimize them. Night after night he fights sleep and despair, counting the days and nights until he is out, but drawing plans for an escape. He cries like a little boy, but has to fight like a grown man. It is a situation beyond his years and coping skills, and he lies there on his bunk in the pitch black dark, forever gazing out at the buffalo tree.