Find Sophomores Penned By Sean Desmond Document

winner!
Interesting story about family dynamics, feeling trapped, and coming of age,
Dan is coating through school until he gets to his English class, There is finally forced to think and it makes him rethink his family, his behavior, and his future.
Anne is overworked, tired, and disillusioned with life, She gets picked for a news worthy jury trial and it gets her thinking about life and her role in it.
Pat is sick, but trying to hide it from family and friends, He is also a closet alcoholic, The two are causing issues both professionally and personally, He knows he needs to to turn things around, but can he
Story starts out strong, lags a bit in the middle, but picks up at the end.
I tried so hard to like this book, but felt like I was trudging through mud just to get through to the end.
I'm usually a onebookatatime reader but had to read two others while in the midst of this one just to rebuild my excitement for reading and motivate myself to keep going and hope for the story to pick up at some point.
It didn't.

I'd say my main issue with the book was that it seemed targeted toward an incredibly niche audience, and very inaccessible outside of it.
I hate to be the type of person who orders a chocolate cake and then complains because they don't like chocolate, so that's the reason I left two instead of zero because if the topics of religion, sports, classic literature, and alcoholism appeal to you, you might really be really intrigued and engaged by this read, and enjoy the plentiful references! However, if like me you expect that even without preexisting knowledge of the subject a good work of fiction will still pull you along with interest in the characters and plot, I'd caution you away.


The book follows the Malone family as its members Dan, Anne, and Pat all endure their own struggles, yet they really had no significant character growth or many sympathetic qualities to make me care and become attached to any of the characters.
There was also seemingly no purpose to them being written as a family outside of vaguely influencing each other's issues through conflict there wasn't any effort at reconciliation or growth together, and as the reader I wondered if we were even meant to hope for that as an ending I think this book could be split into three much more engaging separate books one about a man struggling with alcoholism and MS and providing for his family, one about a woman with a loaded religious background serving as a juror to a reverends trial for attempted murder, and one about a teenager with an affinity for writing trying to figure out his path.
Individually those stories could be really interesting to build out, As far as I see it, they stood nothing to gain but everything to lose by being thrown together.
You know when you read a synopsis and it has ALL the elements of a book you loves setting.
Character driven. Health crisis. Family drama. WE HAVE ALL THE PIECES FOR A FANTASTIC NOVEL Then what happens! It falls so, so incredibly flat.
I am here to tell you that this novel was one fat disappointment, I kept reading in the hopes that it would redeem itself and thes time period references apparently I knew nothing about “Baby Jessica” but let me tell you I did a one hour deep dive and it never did.
I had such high hopes for this book but it did NOT deliver, I will admit that Desmond is no doubt a skilled writer theres no denying that, but this book was just a mess.
The jury trial could have been COMPLETELY left out of the book as it added nothing of value to the story, and Im saying this as someone who loves a criminal element to a book.
I did enjoy the character of Mr, Oglesby, Daniels teacher, as he reminded me of my English teachers that pushed me to be a good writer.


VERDICT:.STARS

Quote I related to, “Ill be honestthis condition will frustrate you, Some days it will flare up and youll think youre a cripple, And then a few days it will go away, Im not trying to give you a false hope, . its not a death sentence, Its a fight against the decline, ” Sophomores by Sean Desmond is a coming of age story of the main character, Dan Malone.
The Malone family has relocated to Texas for Pat Malones job, However, Pat ends up losing his job, The story presents the challenges faced by the family including Pats struggle with alcoholism and multiple sclerosis, Dans struggle with finding motivation and getting through high school, and Annes struggle as she faces life with an unemployed, drunk husband.
Anne is chosen to a juror on a sensational murder case where a pastor is accused of murdering his wife.
This novel tells three different stories in one, those of Pat, Anne, and Dan Malone, This book portrays a coming of age story and follows Dan as he matures and realizes what is going on around him.
I thoroughly enjoyed this coming of age book set against the backdrop of thes in a sterile Dallas suburban community where the innocence of youth is chipped away at by the harsh reality of family struggles.
I laughed, I cried, I related, and I was sad when it ended, There was nothing in this book I wanted to read about, Yuck on the topicsStars

Dang. I really wanted to love this one, I mean, it has a house cover, . .

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If you arent familiar, I will read almost any book if it has a house on the cover.


Not to mention there were so many greats references The Thorn Birds, Baby Jessica, When Smokey Sings, Benetton rugby shirts, Newhart “this is my brother Darryl and this is my other brother Darryl”, etc.
And the storyline of the actual “Sophomore” which was part Dead Poets Society and part Dazed and Confused

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The title, however, is misleading and sadly the crumbling marriage of Dans parents, the jury duty and the MS/alcoholism storylines were.


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Im sure there is an audience for this book who will not only relish in the references, but also will get sucked in to the mundane daytoday goings on of nearly a year in the lives of these characters.
Unfortunately Im simply not that reader,
Sophomores

I could not get into Sophomores, I quit at. Boring as all get out, Hard to follow. Who cares! I was very disappointed in this book, it took me almost a week to read.
I couldn't stay focused. I made myself finish it but wasn't worth the money or the time, I really enjoyed this one, It's set the year after I graduated from high school, so there is some nostalgia there, I guess.
It was interesting to read all three characters different stories, intertwined but so separate from each other, and all three pretty believable.
All three in the same house but with such different lives, The author lets us see each character's motivation, and at first, we may not be all in for each one, except maybe Dan.
I loved how Dan responded to Oglesby's challenge, As the book goes on, though, I started to root more for each character, especially Anne.
We women who grew up postERA don't really have a grasp of how it was for women then, even from the way they were raised.
Maybe an idea, if you worked in thes as a teenager, but not the whole thing.
I think this book is probably closer to a memoir than straight fiction, especially based on the author's note and one section of the text in which he seems to fly free with his own thoughts for a paragraph or two.
I dont know if youve ever read a book set at your exact high school, with teachers you knew and a house a quarter mile from the one you grew up in but its very grounding, in a good way.
Really enjoyed this book and have already bought it for my Jesuit alumni buddies, Inin suburban Dallas, the Malone family struggles to stay afloat both individually and as a uniit.
The father, Pat, has MS and is an alcoholic, The mother, Anne, has her hands full keeping everyone and everything afloat as her own dreams diminish, particularly when she is selected for jury duty in a highlypublicized criminal trial.
Their only child, Dan, is a sophomore as the story opens, His life is full with friends, school and the duties of the elected newspaper editor however, his home life is chaos with the

unrelenting battle waged between his parents and his witnessing of his father's physical decline.
His talents are recognized by an unusual English teacher, who realizes and encourages Kevin's aspirations, Their downward spiral is exacerbated when Pat loses his job and his drinking accelerates, Pat has an interesting interview with Frank Borman, the former astronaut and head of Eastern Airlines at that time.
The depiction of Borman is not flattering, to say the least, The ending provides a glimmer of hope for this family, I really wanted to like this book since it takes place in Dallas, I enjoyed parts of it and parts of it were so boring, I was excited to read this coming of age story featuring a charismatic English teacher, a dissatisfied housewife, a father with an alcohol problem, and a son who I thought might be gay and it's set in Dallas! There were some genuinely funny moments in the high school, overall the plot was very intriguing I love family drama, but this book was a little ruined for me when I found out that it was written for semiautobiographical reasons.
It explained the lack of follow through on many of the character's darker arcs, the clunky inner narration of the feminist mother, and the wooden awkwardness of the son/author.


However, if you can ignore that revelation, Sophomores becomes a much darker and more interesting book the emotionally distant yet cool English teacher that drops the occasional koan but reaches the limit doing just that, the father who was the real protagonist reaching the end of the road professionally and personally with no sight of God, and the final image of the son graduating the English class who is being handed, I kid you not, a rat.
He will be able to flee the sinking ship, the sun will rise again, and he will write this book so that I can read it and enjoy eighties angst.
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