Do You like book Vision Quest (2005)?
Technically, this is a Young Adult novel, but I don't want to ghettoize one of the greatest books I"ve ever read (and re-read.) Was made into a movie back in 85 or 6 with Linda Fiorentino and Matthew Modine--Madonna's Crazy For You was on the soundtrack, but I digress. About a high school wrestler who gains weight in order to wrestle the best wrestler in the state. Apparently author Terry Davis was mentored by Chris Crutcher and this is definitely a case of the student eclipsing the teacher as it's far better than almost anything Crutcher's written. Will make you believe in the human race again.
—Vaughan
Vision Quest is a unique coming of age novel that builds into a satisfactory, near perfect ending. It's about a 17- or 18-year-old (going on 40) high school senior whose spiritual voyage compels him to drop 2 weight classes in order to wrestle the only other kid in Washington state who might be better than him. The most famous American novel of this tome is Catcher in the Rye. Unlike Mr. Salinger's book, however, our protagonist here is a more realistic, easier-to-relate-to person. He isn't an upper middle class New York City brat. Instead, Louden Swain is a blue collar kid living in a single parent household with his father, who works himself to help make ends meet in what little spare time he has when he isn't in school or wrestling. Major themes encountered are self-image, lust, love, determination, self-doubt, family dynamics, and spiritulism - not Christian spiritualism usually found in most American literature, but rather a holistic spiritualism more prevalent to the pacific northwest and the local influence of the Native American culture.Along Louden's journey, the author very pragmatically illustrates things common to teens: constantly thinking about sex, teammates pulling stupid pranks on one another, realistically thinking about moving on to adulthood for the first time, etc. Vision Quest also illustrates the challenges of wrestlers cutting weight, to the point of physical danger, but which also seems to hone the protagonist's spiritual focus. Often times the story is told in a rambling, disjointed way - I'll give the author credit and argue that it was written this way to mirror the mind of a typical teenager.In the end, the author closes this book as well as any that I have read, nearly pushing it to a 5-star rating. And although the movie that it inspired is also great, there are enough differences here, and overall strengths, that it deserves to be read on its own merits.
—Robbie
This book contravenes so many of my usual tastes in reading material that it's a wonder that I love it so much, but I do. It's written in present tense, which normally grates on me horribly. There's really next to no conflict to speak of, none of the build and release of dramatic tension that are the hallmarks of the typical novel's plot. It is a first-person account of three or four months in the life of a high school senior, as he goes to school, works as a bellhop at a hotel, and trains for a key upcoming wrestling match, none of which sounds like riveting subject material. Yet it's one of my favorite books of all time.This book is simply the the best, most honest novel about being a teenager that I have ever read, and that's why it stays so strongly with me even to this day. Every element of high school - triumph, boredom, insecurity, the struggle to fit in, sexual self-discovery, first loves, discovering that the adults around you are just humans themselves - it's all here, written in a voice that's tender, funny, and charming.My view of this book is probably biased by the fact that I read it for the first time as a high school senior, a wrestler myself, and it resonated with me like the voice of a good friend. But hey, what are these book reviews, if not one man's opinion? Highly, highly recommended.
—Benjamin Duffy