Now in his final year at Hemingway High School, Shakespeare Shapiro decides to write his memoir, a project he hopes will justify his strange name and its obvious role in the more embarrassing aspects of his childhood and adolescence: "a series of catastrophes, one after another." Shakespeare sees the humor in any painful situation, from romantic rejection to embarrassing episodes with his parents. The chapters, which flip between Shakespeare's first-person account of his senior year and excerpts from his memoir, are written in language that's often irreverent and off-color as he wonders about sex, family, friends, pets, and even Internet porn. Despite their over-the-top portrayals, the characters, especially Shakespeare, ring true, and the mix of formats, including some yearbook messages, enhance the authentic voices and humor. This debut novel is a delightful, thought-provoking look at the lives of middle-class, adolescent males in America.

King of comedy Shakespeare Shapiro spins essays, poetry, letters and yearbook entries to chronicle the ups, downs, crushes, mishaps, perversions and general sense of hilarious melee that comprise his senior year. Infamously named by his hippie, occasionally alcoholic parents—his brother's name is Gandhi—his adventures don't veer too far off the usual teenage-boy-coming-of-age track. However, Wizner infuses his voice with an over-the-top, biting wit that punches his seemingly sane life episodes into knee-slapping, lewd-icrous territory. His lusts become blunter with every horny thought he lays down on paper. His best friend becomes far more scatologically inclined than any other teenaged boy to hit the young-adult market, and his yearnings for another budding essayist named Charlotte cause him to spout forth some utterly cheesy rhymes in pursuit of her favor. Alternating between Shakespeare's reality and his writing, Wizner's first novel packs the stitches in tight. Readers wishing he could get on with the story will most likely begin rolling their eyes at the main character's expounding after the first 100 pages, but they'll still be laughing. (Fiction. YA)

Gr 10 Up-After 17 years with an awful name, little luck, and a nonexistent love life, Shakespeare Shapiro hopes to win a coveted writing award and finally get laid. Wizner endows his narrator with a hilarious, self-deprecating comedic voice that makes readers forgive traces of self-pity. The teen's humor finds resonance in reality, as he airs dirty adolescent laundry for laughs. He offers an unshirking satire of tipsy parents, bowel-obsessed friends, erections, porn, bong hits, drunken mistakes, and unfortunate dates. Angst-riddled teens, particularly boys, will find mortifying situations to which they can intimately relate and a bit of absolution. Clever readers will see two tables of contents and realize that the book alternates between Shakespeare's contest submission and another novel covering his senior year. Other imaginative embellishments in format make Shakespeare, an already wonderfully developed character, feel all the more real. Gray smudges and the ghostly image of plastic spiral binding suggest that the teen slaved over a copy machine to create the book. It is easy to picture him obsessing over binding his publication, as he focuses on himself for the entire novel. When he falls for another finalist, however, a girl whose world poses very real, very tough challenges, his life suddenly doesn't seem so bad. Laughs alone make this effort successful, but Wizner allows Shakespeare to grow and learn just a little, too-an extraordinary feat for such a raucous read.-Shelley Huntington, New York Public Library Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

In his senior memoir for Hemingway High, Shakespeare Shapiro casts himself as the hapless victim of dysfunctional parents, humiliating school incidents, a virile libido frustrated by social inhibitions, and his socially savvy, popular younger brother, Gandhi. With spring's project deadline looming, Shakespeare drafts personal essays that appear interspersed with the academic year's narrative. Wizner's witty, poignant first novel recounts Shakespeare's angst-laden story of college applications (twenty-three, ranging from unrealistic to safety schools), potential love interests (including safeties), and friendships (two: Neil, a self-absorbed, scatological conversationalist, and Katie, cynical and verbally abusive). From the wry opening-"consider the implications of a name like Shakespeare"-through parental trials and finally graduation, where his memoir 17 Down receives a coveted honorable mention, it is a hilarious read. A high school freshman "test driving" the book for this reviewer observed, "This is an embarrassing book to read," and then resisted all attempts to pry him from its pages. Recommended for older teens and even adults, it is extremely well-suited to boys, although that same freshman reader thinks that girls would also appreciate it. Baby boomers on down will relish Shakespeare's one experience with marijuana, getting high for the first time and having forgotten the family gathering scheduled for that evening. When his bizarre behavior prompts his mother to ask if he is high and he answers truthfully, he suddenly gains prestige in Gandhi's eyes. Raw, sexual, cynical, and honest, this book belongs on library shelves and gift lists.-Cynthia L. Winfield.