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Miles is a snoop. He can’t help it. It begins with him eavesdropping on his parents’ conversations. He escalates to listening in on the phone and rifling through his mother’s desk and computer. It’s his snooping that first reveals his parents’ marital issues. He discovers that his father will be moving out, that he’s seeing another woman, and finally that his mother has a new boyfriend. When he sees a man who looks very much like said boyfriend in a place where he shouldn’t be, Miles goes on an all out investigation. With the help of his best friend, Hector, the two make some startling discoveries about the adults in their lives.
I’m of two minds about this book. First, it is rather well written. Miles begins as a young boy and Simpson very aptly narrates through him, aging him along the way. It makes for a fun read considering the resulting interpretation of various overheard snippets as imagined through the eyes of a young boy.
My issue with this book is that it wasn’t really what I’d expected it would be. I’d gone in expecting a mystery and what I got was the story of a boy growing into adulthood.
My other complaint is that the book is set up in the beginning as being a book written by Miles and Hector. There are a handful of footnotes meant to be conversations between the two boys peppered throughout the story, but it wasn’t fully developed enough to truly be convincing. Overall it was an element that felt unnecessary and somewhat distracting given that it was so infrequent in appearance.
5/14 Becky Lejeune
CASEBOOK by Mona Simpson. Knopf; First Edition edition (April 15, 2014). ISBN 978-0385351416. 336p.
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