Read Jonathan Friesen’s posts on the Penguin Blog. This Schneider Family Book Award winner changed the face of Tourette’s Syndrome for modern teens. Wrought with tension, romance, and hope, Jerk, California tells the story of Sam, who sets out on a cross-country quest to learn the truth about his family and his inherited Tourette’s Syndrome, along the way finding both love and acceptance.
EARLY BOOK SPOILERS
Jerk California is the story of a boy named Sam Carrier, diagnosed with Tourette’s at birth. He lives with his mother and crazy old Bill, who is always yelling and picking fights with Sam. Sam is a runner at heart and only finds love through running, which is when he bumped into his crush, Naomi. When time came to graduate, he couldn’t help but disappear from the scene and disappear from all his classmates and his past. Sam never really wanted anything in life, and doesn’t expect much from himself, but the person he’s about to meet might change his life forever. The neighborhood calls him Coot. He is an old gardener who is known for his crazy personality and his green thumb. Sam receives a letter from his passed away father from Coot and is left at a loss of words. The Coot offers him a job and home, and Sam would do anything to get away from Old Bill.
The writing in this book changes dramatically which is something that personally I love in stories. Sam takes the job from Coot, who’s real name is George. They have a job at Naomi’s place — who Sam has not forgotten about — and later Sam finds out that George is actually Naomi’s grandfather. One night, George suddenly passes away and Sam is left with a task to drive to California. Jerk, California. Sam doesn’t know why, but he knows he must because it is the wish of his father, and now his best friend, George. Naomi believes that her grandfather would have wanted her to go along with Sam — who Geroge renamed to Jack in honor of Sam’s father — and spend a road trip together. Sam is excited, worried, and about every feeling possible, but most importantly, he is read for whatever his trip brings him.
Out of the blue, the book takes a very phycological approach and gives the reader awareness that there is no one normal person that Jack meets. Jack has to discover the people and the places that his father went and he has to try to find puzzle pieces of himself and put them together. One symbol that heavily represents the book are windmills. Building windmills were a hobby of Jack’s father and George. The windmills are built around the road trip that Jack travels in the story and they are each paired with their own people and places that were important to Jack’s father. Through these people Jack learns what his father and mother’s relationship was like, how his father loved him when he was little, and other stories that these people share. Through the windmills that Jack’s father built and the people that he met, Jack was able to find himself, and learn to love his mother and all those in his life a lot more.
Jack sees himself as some sort of monster, like where he says,”-find a different monster to kiss. One who didn’t have a dad who went out in a storm to get medicine-,” after Naomi shared a kiss with him. He never really had any self pride at all and he always was Judged by himself. His relationship with Naomi is very confusing, but only for the reasons he makes. Naomi loves him, but doesn’t know how to tell him he’s pregnant, and Jack thinks she is just playing with him and doesn’t actually love him. They are just kids and this is probably why they fight so much. The road trip helped open them both up to each other and they both found themselves through it.
Overall this book was very enjoyable to read. The characters were all unique and interesting, and Jack’s Tourette’s didn’t change the story at all in any bad ways. It was just a detail that popped up from time to time to show his feelings. However, I do have some small problems with this book. While the book is a little on the longer side, the amount of repetitive themes is very high. The whole second part of the book is just visiting Jack’s fathers friends and family, learning something, big finale, rinse and repeat. The story gets a little boring at times and I would change a few things if I could. But aside from that, I enjoyed the relationship between Naomi and Jack very much. Jack is just an honest kid with a low ego, and Naomi is a perfect appearing girl who just wants to make things right between her and Jack. This is a pretty good book aside from some dragging themes. Four out of five stars for me — although maybe closer to three and a half — I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a decent drama abut long road trips.