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“There was a boy who wrote a book about a town. And he wrote this book about the town, and the people in it who made it what it was. And maybe there wasn’t a real plot to it, maybe there wasn’t anything that grabbed you by the throat and tried to shake you until your bones rattled, but the book was about life. It was the flow and the voices, the little day-to-day things that make up the memory of living. It meandered like the river, and you never knew where you were going until you got there, but the journey was sweet and deep and left you wishing for more.”
You’ll come across this quote about halfway through Robert McCammon’s “Boy’s Life.” It’s said to the main character by one of the more eccentric denizens of the town. Cory Mackenson lives in Zephyr, Ala., in 1964. He’s a 12-year-old whose life is thrown off kilter when he and his father see a car drive into a lake with a dead man handcuffed to the steering wheel. His father’s attempt at rescuing the man before realizing he was dead changes the boy forever.
Like many people, I’ve been completely sucked in by Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” a fantastic mini-series filled with horror and 1980s nostalgia. I discovered “Boy’s Life” was on a list of books meant for people who love “Stranger Things.”
There is magic in “Boy’s Life.” There is a beloved dog who comes back to life but is caught in a zombie state, only happy when the ghost of a dead boy visits him. There’s a mysterious green feather found on the spot where the man drove into the river. There are monsters: both real (a seemingly possessed monkey, an enormous river serpent, a hornless rhinoceros) and the darkness that lies within men.
The plot takes place during a tumultuous time in American history. Race tensions are mounting as the KKK and American Nazis rise in power and yet there is still time for a boy to be a boy, even as he’s on the cusp of growing up. Every day is an adventure for Cory and his friends. Some of these adventures are terrifying. They come face- to-face with a creature from “the lost world” at a carnival, have a frightening encounter with the local moonshiners and discover why the piano teacher’s parrot speaks German.
Life in Zephyr was simple. Residents all know each other. Few people blink at the son of the town’s wealthiest man who walks around naked most of the year. There are milkmen who deliver dairy in glass bottles. The Beach Boys “I Get Around” was the number one song, much to the dismay of the adults in the area.
“Boy’s Life” got off to a slow start. There are similarities to “Stranger Things”: the tight knit group of young friends, strange townies like the ancient “Lady” who seems to practice voodoo, a mystery to be solved. But beyond that, the book is more a coming-of-age novel about a year in the life of a boy.
At first I felt like I was plodding through a very long book and then suddenly, without even realizing it, I was flying through the pages, as surely as Cory felt that he could fly on the first day of summer vacation. There is an overarching storyline, but each chapter is essentially a vignette focusing on some adventure or another in Cory’s life in Zephyr.
I don’t think I ever would have discovered this book if I hadn’t watched “Stranger Things,” but I’m incredibly grateful I had the opportunity to delve into the joy and terror that makes up a year in Cory’s life.
