Product Description

Eighteen-year-old Augie, very bright and very tall, thinks that she is never going to experience either sex or love, until she starts tutoring a boy suffering partial paralysis from an accident.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1662120 in Books
• Published on: 1988-08-12
• Released on: 1988-08-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback

From Publishers Weekly
Intelligent, shy Augie, a senior in high school, is fairly certain that romance will never play a part in her life. When she reluctantly agrees to tutor Sam, the new boy at school, she never dreams that they will fall in love. Sam is confined to a wheelchair and may be permanently brain damaged as the result of a car accident. As they work together, Augie and Sam establish a tentative friendship; after Sam's brain functions return to normal, he and Augie become sexually involved. Their relationship continues through the rest of their senior year, and then falls apart during their first year away from one another at college. Fortunately, Sam's disability is never the sole focus of this novel: if anything, greater emphasis is placed on Augie's growing acceptance of her own sexuality. Klein has avoided the pitfalls of didactic problem novels and instead has sensitively depicted the coming of age of two unusual characters. A literate, very readable and sexually explicit account of the complex social lives of privileged New York City teenagers. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 9-12 Augie feels that she has a problem with her bodyit's still virginal and as far as she can tell, asexual. No one else seems to have this problem. Her best friend is gay, her parents are madly in love, and it appears that every boy in her class is experienced, but not with her. Then she tutors Sam, who had lived a full-bodied lifeuntil a car accident left him paralyzed. When they fall in love, the problems of their bodies are overcome, but other problems emerge. They go off to college and later part. Augie begins a sexually satisfying relationship with her art professor, but it's still not enough. Some characters are obvious stereotypes, such as Sam's father, a loud, pushy, garish film producer. But Augie is fully developed, believable to the extent that although readers won't always like her, they will understand her. This rather bitter love story is more realistic than the currently popular teen romances. Klein portrays the teens of the '80s as freer sexually, but no more comfortable with their bodies or less nervous about sex than previous generations. Nor are relationships any easier for this sexually-free generation. Occasionally too serious, like Augie herself, the book's pace is slower and more introspective than Klein's other novels. Karen K. Radtke, Milwaukee Public Library
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

One of My Favorites
I read this book for the first time when I was seventeen. I'm 31 and I still read it from time to time. During the era of cheesy Sweet Valley High, this book was a refreshing alternative.

I could relate to Augie, the intellectual teen who didn't fit in with the fashion conscious Barbie dolls at her school. I like the way the book dealt with teenage sexuality and showed that things like mastrubation and homosexuality (Augustine's best friend, Claudia was a lesbian)were perfectly normal.

Augie's boyfriend, Sam was also portrayed as a normal teen, who happened to be disabled in an unfortunate accident. His body was impaired, but his mind was still strong and he felt love, lust, and anger just like any able-bodied teen.

The characters were multidimentional and that's what keeps me coming back to it. I'd give it a few more stars if I could.

I think this is great novel and most teenagers would love it
Norma Klein Brings out the truth about first romances, the troubles of growing up, the fears of going off to college, exercising your mind more than your body, and taking in the truth about something you have to live with for the rest of your life. The book is about a young lady named Augie Lloyed who falls in love with Sam Feldman, a rich, gorgeous former athlete from California, who has been put into a wheelchair because of a car accident in California.

I personally love this book because a lot of subjects like sex, or leaving home, and friends being gay are talked about openly and freely. These subjects are hard for some people to talk about openly because some of your peers will think differently of you since now they know you're gay or you had sex with this one person. Also Norma Klein shows true meaning in teenage life. I would give this more than five stars!

The best book I've read for ages!
This was great...I'd recommend it for anyone aged 12+. Well written, with a sensitive approach to disability and sexuality. Not a normal teen sort of book. 6 stars!