{"id":2571,"date":"2017-11-10T15:20:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-10T20:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.silvercentury.org\/2017\/11\/notes-from-the-midnight-driver\/"},"modified":"2017-11-10T15:20:00","modified_gmt":"2017-11-10T20:20:00","slug":"notes-from-the-midnight-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/2017\/11\/notes-from-the-midnight-driver\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes from the Midnight Driver"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jordan Sonnenblick<\/span> – Scholastic, 2006<\/em> <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Angry about his parents\u2019 impending divorce, 16-year-old Alex gets drunk and smashes his mother\u2019s car. He is sentenced to 100 hours of community service, visiting a cantankerous old man named Sol\u2014a Jewish immigrant from Poland\u2014at a local nursing home.<\/p>\n

This book is laugh-out-loud funny, narrated in Alex\u2019s cynical teen voice of exaggeration and bursting with absurd situations. In one sense, the story portrays the dreary side of aging. Sol has emphysema and sometimes needs emergency respiratory therapy. Despite his fluctuating health, Sol is mentally sharp, saucy and thoroughly entertaining. He uses colorful Yiddish expressions and loves to play irreverent \u201cgotcha\u201d jokes, such as pretending not to recognize Alex and screaming to the nurse that there\u2019s a thief in the room. Another time he falsely tells a resident that she\u2019s forgotten to put in her dentures. (To Alex, Sol explains that the residents \u201cneed to be kept on their toes.\u201d)
\n 
\nSol\u2019s relationship with Alex is a wild and bumpy ride. In one of their more telling confrontations, Alex has just heard Sol play incredibly good jazz guitar and asks in astonishment, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you tell me?\u201d Sol bitterly points out that Alex has never asked him a thing about himself or his past; he was a professional jazz guitarist for years. Yet there is a bond of genuine affection between them, which helps both Sol and Alex grow emotionally. Another positive point, rare among teen books about old people, is that Alex gets several other teens involved at the nursing home as well. This book offers real insight in the midst of its hilarity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Angry about his parents\u2019 impending divorce, 16-year-old Alex gets drunk and smashes his mother\u2019s car.<\/p>\n

Read more Notes from the Midnight Driver<\/span> ›<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

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