John “Spud” Milton keeps a diary in which he chronicles his first year at an elite all-boys boarding school in South Africa in 1990. This trying-to-come-of-age tale recounts the raucous, bawdy life of Spud, the boys in his dorm, his nutty family, and equally outrageous teachers. Spud (so-called because “my willy is tiny and my balls haven’t dropped yet”) and his housemates are preoccupied with sports, sex, pranks, and tormenting each other but not necessarily in that order and Spud can’t help detailing all of them. There is not much of a plot but after a slow start you begin to root for Spud on his adventures in love, in cricket, in rugby, and in his academics. He makes the cricket team, he falls in love with two girls, he auditions for and wins a coveted part in the school play, and his drunken English teacher, the Guv, introduces him to great literature. He even wants to become a freedom fighter as apartheid breaks down. Spud’s sensitive and often hilarious description of his personal experiences and those of the less favored of his roommates will surely win readers to his side. This sweet and funny novel will appeal to readers who enjoy stories about boarding school hijinks. ( )

Thirteen-year old, South African John "Spud" Milton receives a scholarship to attend a prestigious boarding school in 1990 and is excited to escape from his crazy home life. Instead, he becomes part of the Crazy Eight in an equally bizarre, but teenage world dominated by sex, farting, harmful pranks, testosterone. Spud, nicknamed for the slow pace of his pubescent development, develops in many other ways, facing the usual teen pressures, especially when it comes to girls, and his hoped for lead role in the production of Oliver. Inverted Southern Hemisphere seasons and cricket references were a bit confusing. This has been compared to many books/movies: I found it to be a sophomoric version of Dead Poet's Society. My favorite part was the periodic summaries of what the boys did on their school breaks. ( )

Not really for me, a bit blokey, too many nicknames, decent enough but yeah, not for me. ( )

A less-funny, South African version of Adrian Mole.

It was actually quite readable, just impossibly problematic. (And I find it difficult to criticise because the author went to an all-boys boarding school in South Africa and I'm sure that he based a lot of this book on his real-life experiences BUT it's definitely a work of fiction BUT the lines feel blurry...)

There's a lot of bullying.

There's a lot of the word 'faggot'. Which was a slur in 1990 (when the book is set) and a slur in 2005 (when it was published) and a slur in 2019 (when I'm reading it). And I'm sure schoolboys in South Africa in 1990 used that word! But part of being an adult author with the benefit of hindsight is that you get to portray these things in a way that specifies that just because it's realistic doesn't make it right. And that doesn't happen in the book. PLUS the gay characters are portrayed as giggling, sex-obsessed perverts who masturbate while watching the younger boys in the showers so it's not just a matter of words, it's a whole gross homophobic caricature.

There's a lot of people with probable mental illnesses being used for laughs. Spud's roommate Vern and his father stand out in particular, and while I can almost accept the "crazy parents" I really just wanted to see Vern get help. And it doesn't get addressed.

There's a whole lot of a 13/14 year old boy having sex with getting raped by an adult female teacher. Again, this wasn't ok in 1990, it wasn't ok in 2005 and it's DEFINITELY not ok in 2019 in the middle of a whole raft of international investigations into institutionalised child sex abuse, much of which occurred in religious boarding schools. And yet the author's portrayal is that god awful old trope of "haha lucky him" just because the teacher is attractive.

And with all this going on, the big drama at the end of the book is the death of Gecko. And it's completely needless, because there are so many serious issues that could have been addressed at the end and they just... weren't.

Goodreads informs me that there are three more of these. If they were in front of me right now I would probably read them, just to keep watching the train wreck, but I'm not going to seek them out.

(Also Wikipedia tells me it was made into a movie starring Troye Sivan, of all people. Given that he's openly gay I would be so fascinated to hear his opinion of the source material.) ( )

Definitely not South Africa's Catcher in the Rye, despite the many plot parallels and the blurb making big claims. Still, pretty good. As a parent, I was kind of creeped out by the author's acceptance of a horrible boarding school. Are beatings, uncontrolled bullying, insanity,rampant drunkenness, and affairs with students par for the course in South African schools? Yikes!

Spud is very likeable, though a little too good to be true -- star of the school musical, star cricketer, excellent student -- maybe a little wish fulfillment for the author? Still, the characters are really funny, and the plot builds to a thoughtful conclusion that worked well. ( )