Youth In Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp chronicles six months in the life of an immensely well-read, and equally manipulative (and criminally insane) fourteen year-old as he stops at nothing to reunite with the girl he fell in love with while on a brief family vacation.  During a week spent in a rented lakeside trailer in northern California with his trashy mother and the current constituent on her perpetual carousel of degenerate, beer-swilling boyfriends, Nick meets Sheeni Saunders, an impeccably beautiful, even more well-read (and fluently French-speaking) teen with aspirations of expatriating to Paris for the sake of finding love and academic fulfillment.  Sheeni takes a shine to Nick, who is already head-over heels in love with her, and suggests (perhaps too convincingly) that he come out of his innocent, bookish shell.  After they part ways, Nick cuts a wide swath through California on a Grand Theft Auto-esque criminal rampage.  He lies, cheats, and steals his way through every situation he encounters, manipulates everyone he meets, and burns every bridge he crosses, purely for the sake of getting Sheeni back (all while on the run from the police and the FBI, by the way).  Sound entertaining?  It is.

If the titular Twisp's diction is reminiscent of a middle-aged Ivy Leaguer, there may be good reason.  In my humble opinion, C. D. Payne, a Harvard alum (class of 1971), effectively used this book as a vessel through which to assay the various iterations of nearly every grammatical morphology that had heretofore been deemed malapropos within the accepted conventions of his prior (unpublished) works.  At long last, the existentially pent-up author succeeded in creating a scenario that readily allowed his creative juices to gush forth unabated.  Having said that, I find it completely unsurprising that this was Payne's first novel, as it reeks (in a charming way) of the story he was always meant to write.  The trials of late-pubescent nervousness and unrequited teenage puppy love hit home in a very satisfying way (that is, for a guy who was himself once a hopelessly romantic, bookish teen).  Of course, this is always the situation in which the rookie author can find him/herself mired in creative quicksand, unable to cut loose the tendrils that bind him/her to a formulaic treadmill.  Sometimes, as we all know, that treadmill can be an astronomically lucrative, critically-acclaimed one, as fellow initial-initial-surname billionaire author-god J. K. Rowling will gladly tell you.  However, as it pertains to the scribe in question, this does not seem to be the case.  C. D. Payne has released three follow-ups in the Nick Twisp saga, all published in the early to mid 00's.  One details the exploits of Nick and Sheeni in [MILD SPOILER ALERT] Paris (a massive mistake in my view), and another chronicles the life of Nick's younger brother.  I'm of the camp that feels Youth In Revolt leaves the reader in a good place, even if it's insanely unlikely and openly spitting in karma's face.  The story simply did not need to be extended nor tampered with.


I do, however, think this book will translate well to the screen.  The format of the private diary naturally lends itself to staging the characters in a cinematic way.  In Nick's minute-by-minute account of his daily life, there is an immediacy to the action that is taking place on the page.  One can easily imagine the prose being adapted to screenplay format (verily, just subtract most of Nick's flowery treatises on his hatred for humanity and love for Sheeni, it would seem).  The abundance of clever dialogue keeps the narrative smoothly flowing, and the unlikely criminal escapades keep the dramatic tension consistently cranked.  As a card-carrying fanboy of Arrested Development, I have supreme confidence in the frighteningly-masterful comic timing of a youthful Michael Cera.  Like most of the roles he (see: his team) has chosen, this role seems to have been crafted and gift-wrapped especially for him.  By the time the third act rolls around, when Nick is a paranoid schizophrenic maniac juggling two alter egos (one of them female), the awkward beats per-minute should be breathtakingly unbearable, and worth the price of admission.

At the time of this writing (October 15), the flick is tracking at an 83% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 6.9 out of 10 on IMDB.


Ultimately, I'm not sure how good the movie will be, but I can say in complete confidence that I recommend this book.  It is incredibly entertaining, thrilling, and funny.  At 499 pages in trade paperback form, I did not want it to end when I reached the final page.

So, I hope you enjoyed my first write-up here on Murmur.  Whether you did or didn't, I'd love to hear about it in the comments.  If you would like to watch my companion video to this review, please find it embedded below.

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