The Spectacular Now

Posted by Leah Petty in English 3 - Rami - D on

Screen Shot 2013-10-24 at 10.41.38 PM
Screen Shot 2013-10-24 at 10.41.38 PM


​For my creative project I decided to do a collage. Now this might look like a whole bunch of scattered pictures of things but they all have a deeper meaning. The yellow dress is what Aimee wore to the Prom with Sutter, the Tree is representing one of the oping scenes in the book, which is Sutter climbing a tree, half drunk. The horse is something that Aimee talks about a lot in the book a lot, about buying a horse ranch. The red cup is for all the drinking that Sutter does throughout the book and how he turned Aimee onto drinking. The tall building represents the Chase building that Sutter claimed his father worked in. The 7-up logo is for Sutter’s mixing of whisky and 7-up, the Flask is the gift that Sutter gave Aimee, the marijuana leaf represents Sutter’s friend Ricky and the weed that he smoked. The NASA logo represents Aimee wanting to work for them, The Mars plant is representing the Sy-Fi books that Aimee read about outer space.The purple coat is another thing that Aimee wore, the lipstick represents the lipstick that Aimee wore when Sutter was around. The Algebra book represents the class the Sutter’s was failing and how they both grew closer, the whisky bottle represents all the whisky that Sutter drunk throughout the book. The news paper is representing the paper route that Aimee worked. And the cast represents the accident that happened and what it lead to. 


The Spectacular Now, by Tim Tharp is not your average run of the mill teenage love story. It follows a high school senior named Sutter Keely, who doesn't really care about school, but what comes after you done with school. Sutter also as a small drinking problem, alcohol of choice being whisky. Even with all this Sutter is a good person at heart. Sutter is also a lady’s man always has a girlfriend but never really keeps them. When Sutter current girlfriend, Cassidy breaks up with Sutter because of his lack of responsibility it sends him over edge. Until he meets Aimee, a blonde girl that always lets people walk over her. Sutter is convinced that he can help her stand up for herself, but ends up falling for her.   

I came over this book in a english after watching the trailer for the movie that was just made, and I made a vow not to watch the movie until I read the book. Me myself being a movie person I thought I would not be able to finish the book, but once I picked it up I didn’t want to put it down. The book had this suspense to it, not like a thriller but you just had to know what happened next, Sutter had so many different thoughts on things you just had to know what he thought, and what was going on in his head anytime something happened. He had a opinion even on the simplest things like the color of a lipstick. 

Tim Tharp the author of Knights of the Hill Country, Badd, and Mojo did a great good with this book. He took a character that he could have just easily made him this crazy alcoholic, high school teenager but he didn’t. He took the character on a journey and the only reason this happened was because of Aimee. He turned Sutter complete around but yet her stay the same Sutter. Tim Tharp shaped the book around Sutter not Sutter around the book. In one of Tharp’s interviews he says that he develop to character Sutter from a short story he wrote when he was younger about a rebellious young guy that end up at a dinner party.  I think that a lot of people would be happy to read this book.

I feel like you would enjoy this book if you like teenage love story, but not too mushy. It is like The Notebook meets Project X, it’s love story with the usual teenage stuff, sex, drugs, and drinking. With the jobs problems, school problems, and parent problems. I feel like you would enjoy this book no matter what gender, this book broke the gender stereotype for me. Saying girls like love stuff and boys like action and partying and things like that. I think a boy would enjoy this book just as much as a girl would. 

The Spectacular Now has taken the place as my favorite book I wish I could forget the whole book and read it again. I took me a while to finish the book but once I got really into I was binge reading. I read 100 pages at a time I could not put it down, I’m general a slow reader but not for this book.

I completely suggest reading the book before watching the movie, from what people have told me the book and the movie are really different. The author Tharp was on the set the whole time the movie was being shot, he said some scenes that he saw get shot did not make it into the movie. But in an interview Tharp said he was very happy they way the movie turned out. He loved the people that where casted to play parts. One major twist in the movie is that Sutter best friend Ricky, in the book is the same age as Sutter, but in the movie he is a little kid. I have still yet to see the movie but I am looking forward to it. 

I would suggest this book to everyone unless you real aren’t in to any type of realistic fiction, but other than that I would say find it somewhere and read it.    


Book- The Spectacular Now
Pages- 294
Author- Tim Tharp
Publication Date - Oct 20, 2009
Publican- Ember 



  
 

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