tales of the MADMAN underground

    " Tales of the MADMAN underground " talks about Karl Shoemaker. It takes place in Lightsburg, Ohio, over the course of one week in September of 1973. Karl has been in a therapy group called the Madman underground since fourth grade. Once he hits his senior year in highschool Karl is fed up with being in therapy. He decides to spend the year being normal, which is harder then you'd think.
    Between having a crazy alcoholic for a mother, having no father, and dealing with all his fellow madman's problems, being normal is not easy. Spending all of his energy working five jobs, burying his crazy mothers cats, and having a million and one girls come on to him, he hardly has any energy left.
    Karl spends most of his time waiting on his mother to improve and chasing off all her old boyfriends. He ponders life, theories and his friends problems while waiting for the chance to get out. Karl's mom always ranting about him going to college and him doing whatever she wants do to please her. He just wants to get out and see's joining the military as the only way he thinks he'll be able to escape.
     In this book John Barnes writes about how important it is for kids to just be themselves. He shows that in a world full of chaos and confusion a person can still only handle so much alone. A person needs friends to survive. John Barnes shows that normal isn't something you can obtain, it doesn't exist. There is no normal.
      There is a lot of cussing in this book, and there are quite a few nude scenes. It gives you a very detailed description of a male VD test and talks about both underage drinking and drug addiction. All of these things add to the story, but can take away from it if you take them to seriously. Overall I would give this book an A. It does swear and have questionable content, but being Historical Fiction, it doesn't stem from nowhere. If you read this book with an open mind you will definatly have a lot to think about.