Youth can be harsh and yet exciting, filled with thuggish bullies, sneering sisters and far-fetched dreams for the future. John McNally vividly portrays all of these in his wildly affecting second novel "The Book of Ralph."
The title character in the book is Ralph, the twice held-back best friend of narrator, and Chicago eighth-grader, Hank. Rather than pick another "B" student to befriend, Hank instead chooses the older - and bolder - Ralph. His attraction to Ralph is subtle and confusing at first, but eventually solidifies as an infatuation with the boy's delinquency.
"With Ralph, no one would mess with me; they'd know better. Without Ralph, I might stay alive longer, and my chances of doing any serious jail time would be kept to a minimum," Hank ruminates.
Ralph is a familiar character from most everyone's past. McNally's deft prose and inviting narrative paints a lush and alarmingly realistic portrait of a peach-fuzzed Ralph.
The hilarity of the book reveals itself in a series of fresh, comic adventures, among them a failed attempt made by Ralph's older ex-con cousin, Norm, to deliver a trunk full of stolen Tootsie Rolls during Halloween, with Hank riding shotgun in full KISS attire. The two also engage in a tiresome search for a catalog photograph of a fellow classmate in nothing but bra and panties which never comes to fruition.
Ralph becomes the wise sage of the middle school - an unlikely mentor for Hank - who constantly pulls the perpetual do-gooder into scam after oddly compelling scam. Often along for the ride are Ralph's cousins, Norm and Kenny, the deadbeat anti-heroes of a down-and-out generation.
Much to the dismay and shock of his parents, Hank continues to run with Ralph, playing sidekick through such antics as an afternoon spent hidden inside a Big Bird costume for an opening of a car dealership, and a short stint as an accomplice in a stakeout mission to bite the ear off a fellow classmate.
There is not a single hazy recollection in this book, as McNally skillfully voices Hank's innocent, wandering and naïve thoughts with touching clarity: the type of the depth not often seen in similar coming-of-age tales.
McNally, a screenwriter and professor at Wake Forest College, has brilliantly created a character that should live on in the reader's mind. Ralph is by turns original, frightening and fascinating. Along with numerous and unsuccessful money-making schemes, he has a morbid attraction to the darker moments of history such as his recreation of a 19th century mob hit list pricing guide.
"Wow!" I said. "Fifteen bucks for a chawed-off ear?"
"Ask around," Ralph said. "You won't find it any cheaper."
No moment of Hank's youth escapes the careful eye of McNally; from his hilarious obsession with the newly-installed CB radio with which he converses with faceless truckers, to his downward spiraling addict father.
McNally gives an unabashed vitality to Hank and Ralph's youthful exploration of girls, sex, music and 70s culture complete with references to power ballad rockers Styx and bad disco. There is a healthy dose of biting satire mixed with moments of true innocence.
The structure of the chapters is non-chronological and effective. His first chapter is entitled "The Present 1978," followed by "The Past" - which explains the beginnings of Hank and Ralph's unique relationship - and the third and final section of the book is titled "The Future," set in the present day.
Here, McNally reintroduces us to a very different Hank, a failing accountant still recovering from a break up and aching from a puffy head wound suffered in a cab accident. While walking out of a Chicago law office, Hank runs into a curiously hobbling Ralph, supported by crutches (another scheme of the clever and ingenious Ralph). Ralph invites the old friend home, and together the two rejoin forces.
Through his fraudulent acts, Ralph is unintentionally making readers aware of their own inconsistencies and failings - it's an effective commentary on commercialism in America.
Now an employee of multi-millionaire crime scene cleaners Norm and Kenny, Ralph pulls Hank into a world he finds absurd: "Kenny and Norm were kicked out of high school; they took the first jobs they found, in the Tootsie Roll factory on Cicero Avenue; and now by some fluke, some glitch in the laws of things in the world that were supposed to work, they had stumbled upon an idea and turned it into a business. It wasn't. It wasn't fair."
McNally evokes the most glowing and enthralling images and sentiments of childhood in the novel, from bullies to the weird neighbor, to the smallest detail that made the love interest unique; all played amidst the backdrop of a city whose rare individuality only adds to a worthwhile and entertaining read.
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