Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to Y..., Peter Cameron
Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to Y..., Peter Cameron
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Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You

Author: Peter Cameron

Narrator: Lincoln Hoppe

Unabridged: 7 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/04/2008


Synopsis

IN RE: James Sveck–eighteen-year-old New Yorker, charming, precocious, confused, doesn’t quite fit in (doesn’t really want to),
If: his future (i.e., college) seems completely meaningless, not to mention terrifying . . .  
Then: he’ll start anew (move to the Midwest?).
In re: James Sveck–misunderstood by a capricious mother, a self-absorbed father, a mordant older sister,
Et alia: his Teutonic therapist, his D-list celebrity grandmother, his unnervingly attractive art gallery colleague . . .
If: What one wants is enigmatic . . .
Then: Life can be hell.
But: as the summer gets hotter, James comes to recognize the wrenching truth of his emotions.

James’s archly comic bravado fuels this sharply observed novel of a teen adrift in an adult world, struggling to make sense of the problems of love and of lack. The engaging voice of our idiosyncratic antihero is deftly captured by the adroit prose of Peter Cameron. Often hilarious, deeply compassionate, smart, and lyrical, Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You is every bit as sui generis as James Sveck himself.

See also: Brown University; Sexual orientation (confusion thereof); Dinner theater; Poodles (standard).

About The Author

Peter Cameron is the author of several novels, including Andorra and The City of Your Final Destination. He lives in New York City.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Maggie on June 18, 2008

My editor recommended this novel to me and I'm so glad he did. Peter Cameron does an absolutely stunning job of portraying James' struggles as a too-clever-for-his-own-good teen, disillusioned, cynical, and socially paralyzed. While the plot occasionally wandered and the ending was . . . just where......more

Goodreads review by piperitapitta on September 05, 2015

James, in transito. Il libro che cercavo, quello di cui avevo bisogno, proprio quello che più di una volta, da quando mi è stato regalato, ho preso in mano, sfogliato, e poi rimesso al suo posto. Ora so perché, aspettava il suo momento d'oro, i due giorni in cui l'ho letto. Delizioso (c'è chi odia ques......more

Goodreads review by Repellent on August 04, 2019

El viaje que he tenido con este libro ha sido muy curioso. Inicialmente me encantó, llevaba pocas páginas y los diálogos de nuestro prota, James, me parecían super irónicos y divertidos. De pronto, empecé a darme cuenta de que el libro bebía demasiado de El guardián entre el centeno, que es un libro......more

Goodreads review by Ryan on December 27, 2008

Periodically, I read reviews from the New York Times book list and pick out likely candidates. The reviews are often the best thing about the book, though, so I'd recommend the review in this case. This is a well-written book - I finished it and I do not suffer through books that I find un-readable.......more

Goodreads review by Emily on February 14, 2008

Everyone compares this one to Catcher in the Rye, which is interesting to me because I haven’t read Catcher, and I think I would hate it, and yet I completely see why the two books are compared, and I loved Someday This Pain… James has too many advantages to have the problems that he has. His family......more