Invisible by Pete Hautman
#76 in my book challenge for the year, Invisible is a teen-fiction novel by Minnesotan Pete Hautman, who will be appearing at the Twin Cities Book Fest on October 15. Hautman’s previous book, Godless, won the National Book Award. He writes for both adults and teens.
Invisible is narrated by Dougie, and it a spare, disturbing book. Dougie’s spends most of his time working on building a bridge for his model train. His best friend is popular, football-player Andy. From the beginning, I knew that things aren’t right with Dougie. The book is all the more uncomfortable because I could also identify with the “mean” kids in high school who persecuted him. Dougie is so weird that I could easily see why he was picked on. Hautman skillfully tells the story, giving the history of Dougie and Andy’s relationship, and leading to what felt like a difficult but inevitable conclusion. Invisible reminded me of a shorter, less touchy-feely Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, but also an American teen-boy version of Muriel Sparks’s The Driver’s Seat. It was powerful, unsettling, and moving.
December 12th, 2005 at 9:03 pm
Wonderful review. I have read this book, along with a lot of Pete Hautman’s other books: Godless, Hole in the Sky, Mr. Was, and Sweetblood. I felt so moved at the ending with the whole Andy situation. Truly, it was sheer mastery. What i liked most about it, however, is that Mr. Hautman does such a great job of setting the perspective of the narrorator, which in this case is Dougie. Every page is filled with elaborate description. If you haven’t read Mr. Was, i strongly encourage it. Although, it’s more of a sci-fi twist to it.
-thank you
December 21st, 2005 at 5:25 pm
Finished Mr. Was today, and the review will be up soon (I hope.) Very good. I too thought the narration by Dougie was very skilled. Writing a creepy, unsympathetic narrator is really tough, and Hautman pulled it off. I also just finished No Limit, formerly titled Stone Cold, and while it was good, didn’t like it so well as Mr. Was, Invisible, Godless and Sweetblood.