The Alex Crow

Synopsis:

A startlingly original tale of friendship and brotherhood, war and humanity, identity and existence. Ariel, the sole survivor of an attack on his village in the Middle East is ‘rescued’ from the horrific madness of war in his homeland by an American soldier and sent to live with a family in suburban Virginia. And yet, to Ariel, this new life with a genetic scientist father and resentful brother, Max, is as confusing and bizarre as the life he just left. Things get even weirder when Ariel and Max are sent to an all-boys summer camp in the forest for tech detox. Intense, funny and fierce friendships are formed. And all the time the scientific tinkerings of the boys’ father into genetics and our very existence are creeping up on them in their wooden cabin, second by painful second…

Summary:

A fantastically weird book with several plot strings that somehow come together in a tense and satisfying end.

My thoughts:

i know better than most that it is completely pointless in ever reading an Andrew Smith blurb. The only way you can begin to comprehend an Andrew Smith novel, is to read an Andrew Smith novel.

And boy are they weird.

The Alex Crow is a brilliant coming of age story about teenage boys, very similar to that of Grasshopper Jungle. 

We dive in and out of several different character views and timelines the first being Ariel and Max.

The main protagonist, Ariel(Ah-riel not air-reil) is a fifteen year old middle eastern refugee. He has lost everything, his family, his friends and even his way of life, displaced across the country and eventually the world as he finds himself aground in America. Adopted by a foster family, he gains a brother – Max, the story begins as they’re headed off to summer camp – Camp Marie Seymore for Boys.

Then we’re dragged back to the 1880’s, The Alex Crow, a ship full of researchers heads to the icy plains of Northern Russia in the hopes of discovering new scientific marvels. Two survive.

Fast forward to the present day, Leonard Fountain is determined to take out the Beaver King with a bomb that is leaking radiation in the back of his van whilst being hounded by two disembodied voices. Oh and he’s also melting.

And tying them all together is the ominous and slightly questionable Alex Division, constantly monitoring everyone and experimenting with new ways to improve the human race.

I found The Alex Crow championed Grasshopper Jungle in the essence of weirdness. We have a marshmallow man, the dumpling man, a melting man, Joseph Stalin, and my personal favorite, a resurrected suicidal crow called Alex and that merely scratches the surface.

And following on from tradition of the previous book, masturbation is mentioned in every way humanely possible without actually mentioning the word masturbation in the process.

Despite the grim underlying stories, we get a true sense of what is means to not only be a boy but to be an adult too. Our characters are sometimes faced with hard decisions, they begin to question their morals and even the world around them, in a way, very much like the gullible young child that resides in us all.

One thing I admire about Andrew Smith is his ability to carve a story from literally the most random objects possible. What surprised me is the lack of plotting, and his mantra to ‘Write his way out of this’.

This allows the story to naturally develop and grow beyond its means, something that we cannot predict because it it is profoundly unique. Andrew Smith expertly writes his way out of his own creation to create a truly rip roaring story that tingles the senses in every which way, and the satisfaction of everything coming together in the final pages can only be described as euphoric!

Final thoughts: 

A heartfelt and gripping knot of stories, perfectly executed in a thrillingly weird way!