skippy dies. paul murray. (283)

i picked up skippy dies because it was one flavorpill's 10 great off-kilter love story lists.  and though i love emily temple's list, i have no idea how this book made this list.  yes, there is a love story, somewhat, and yes, it is off-kilter, but it was not a quirky love story like office girl and high fidelity (both which i love) that are on this list.  i had gone in with the wrong mindset because i would not describe this book as a love story.  i mean my initial reaction when i finish this book was, "this book was fucked up."

it is also long.  this book is 661 pages long!  and in all honesty, i regret spending so much time on this novel.  i actually read about 300 pages, or so, stopped to read another novels and then went back to.  and in all honesty, i surprised myself that i picked it up again.  i did and i knocked out the last 250 pages in a day, cos i was like let's just get this over with already.  i will add the story is a lot of background that doesn't come together until the end, so i mean it was easy to get through because everything interesting is at the end.

so as the title tells you, skippy dies, the story opened with his death and then recounted what happened prior to it and the after effects of it.

skippy, or daniel juster, was a young boy attending a prestigious all boys school in ireland, seabrook.  though the school of the rich, seabrook, was not as perfect as the acting principal wanted everyone to believe.  the students and staff are all fucked.  there a handful of characters that we meet and their stories are what makes the novel so long:

ruprecht:  skippy's roommate.  he was having a donut eating contest with skippy, when skippy died.  an intelligent yet socially awkward kid that