As Cool As I Am : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: A Sometimes Implausible Coming of Age Novel
Review: As Cool as I Am is an entertaining, well-written coming of age novel with one major flaw in it. The story follows Lucy, the young heroine in the novel, from about the ages of 14 to 16. She lives with her mom while her dad works as a logger, visiting only intermittently. She has only one close friend, a boy with whom she ultimately has what is pretty much an implausible physical relationship with. He moves away, and she takes up with another young man. Lucy is a fairly complicated character and I think Fromm does a very good job with her, other than her relationship with the young men--that struck me as a male fantasy more than anything else. Still--the novel kept me reading--the story is interesting and entertaining--a quick and easy read.

Rating:
Summary: A Sometimes Implausible Coming of Age Novel
Review: As Cool as I Am is an entertaining, well-written coming of age novel with one major flaw in it. The story follows Lucy, the young heroine in the novel, from about the ages of 14 to 16. She lives with her mom while her dad works as a logger, visiting only intermittently. She has only one close friend, a boy with whom she ultimately has what is pretty much an implausible physical relationship with. He moves away, and she takes up with another young man. Lucy is a fairly complicated character and I think Fromm does a very good job with her, other than her relationship with the young men--that struck me as a male fantasy more than anything else. Still--the novel kept me reading--the story is interesting and entertaining--a quick and easy read.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing Book
Review: Fromm has captured what it's like to be a 14-16 year old girl. Granted, I didn't do the things Lucy did at that age, she shows a maturity and fragility at the same time that most teen girls have. I really liked this book, and was surprised when I found I could not put it down.
Lucy's voice is so clear, and when she finally decides what she wants to do, the reader just knows it'll turn out well for her.
What really surprised me was that the author is a man, and I wondered how he could capture what it was like to grow up as a young woman. Wow! I recommend this book to anyone and everyone who is interested in reading a book that isn't like all the other books on the shelf.

Rating:
Summary: Angie's Review
Review: How do you face the realization that your parents really didn't want to raise you, and at any moment may stop trying altogether? Lucy Diamond sparkles with sarcastic humor and raw wit through the heart breakingly honest truth that unfolds before her eyes as she blossoms into womanhood. Pete Fromm is the author of "As Cool As I am", a gritty yet charming story of Lucy Diamond shining on while her heart takes a stomping from her nearly absent mother Lanie and father Chuck.

We meet Lucy as an almost boyish adolescent, with her freshly shaved head, chasing her father's pickup truck down the street as he leaves again to "send home the bacon". As a logger, Chuck follows the work, while Lucy and Lanie are left alone for long periods of time to fend for themselves. Lucy transforms in a matter of months from slat to saucy, like her mother, and the teenage boys start going crazy for her. The only adult guidance in Lucy's life is her lonely and disenchanted mother, who stays out late with what Lucy refers to as "uncles". This aggravates the mother-daughter relationship, especially when Lucy has to cover for Lanie on Christmas when Chuck calls and Lanie is out on a date, because both fear Chuck's reaction. One of the most fiery moments in the book is after Chuck has been gone for over a year, and returns catching Lucy having sex with her boyfriend. The boyfriend easily fends off Chuck, but Lucy is not so lucky, sporting a black-eye. The sting of the smack to the face couldn't hurt half as much as what Chuck tells Lucy, a twist in the story that will make your jaw drop.

I admired Lucy for her strength and intelligence throughout the story, and could understand Lucy's feelings about sex. To Lucy, it seemed she felt it was a tool or way to control the men around her, and escape from loneliness. Naturally, this is what Lucy saw her mother Lanie doing, and it seemed inevitable for Lucy to subconsciously pick up the characteristic. All in all, this was a deep and profound story of Lucy growing up, and growing into herself. The book is full of salty phrases, real characters you will never forget, and will leave you with an endless connection to the one and only Lucy Diamond, the coolest chick since bread came sliced.


Rating:
Summary: interesting coming of age story
Review: I picked up this book at the library cause i liked the look of the cover. i found myself loving the characters especially Kenny who loves lucy so intensely with a love i think you only have when you're that young. the characters were old beyond thier years but it works because of the dialog and depth of the people. it was a rare library find that i think i may buy in paperback for my own home collection. i would definately recommend it for reading.

Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: I thought that this book was excellent and I congratulate the author on a job extremely well done. Lucy is a fascinating and memorable character, as is the entire story. I recommend it strongly.

Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: I thought that this book was excellent and I congratulate the author on a job extremely well done. Lucy is a fascinating and memorable character, as is the entire story. I recommend it strongly.

Rating:
Summary: Gritty, erotic and genuine
Review: Just when "chick-lit" seems to have probed every female niche, Pete Fromm -- a guy -- comes along with one of the more startlingly beautiful and evocative tales of young womanhood in "As Cool As I Am."

Lucy Diamond's father is a wise-cracking lumberjack who says dumb things like "sharp as a bowling ball" and adios, amoebas!" and sends home lewd postcards from his job in a distant Canadian forest. He comes home to Great Falls, Mont., only a few times a year, and only for a few lusty days. And always, he buzz-cuts Lucy's hair.

Lucy's mother is present but often unaccounted for. With her husband gone and Lucy entering high school, she's taken a job and maybe a lover or two, leaving her daughter to contemplate life, love, sex and loyalty -- mostly her mother's -- on her own.

Lucy quickly proves to be a clear-eyed, graceful and immensely funny narrator. While she hurtles toward womanhood -- and all that entails -- she heaps insecurities upon uncertainties as she explores her own budding sexuality. But as Lucy blooms, her mother's youth is fading. The syncopation of their separate rise and fall provides the book's most tender and most trying elements.

Fromm's voice -- on loan to Lucy -- is provocative, gritty, erotic, hilarious and genuine, and this book is a fresh breath of teen spirit.