The Dewpoint Show (review)

"It's not as though Leonard Pierson can't hear his mother. … But right now there is important stuff going on outside." Those two sentences pretty much encapsulate the life of thirteen-year-old Leonard, who has just moved with his family to a new house in the country. There Leonard takes up his old pastime of avidly watching nearby happenings out the window, and his other old pastime of finding his parents largely irritating. His new home offers more than just cinematic-style entertainment, however, as he sorts out peer relationships (with a bullying frenemy on the soccer team and a brash, unconventional girl who likes him at school) and finds himself drawn slowly into friendship with the old lady next door. The plot in this Canadian novel is a subtle underlay to the sharp and humorous observations of Leonard's daily life. The third-person narration captures with wry yet acute vividness an early teen's haplessness, as Leonard can't quite figure out how to be an active operator of his own life rather than simply flailing in surprise as other people's lives carom off of his. The occasional interpolation of episodes framed as if they were movie scenes doesn't really add stylistic dimension, but the additional viewpoints are illuminating. Characterization comes in revealing slices, with Leonard's parents (who "don't do well with advice") poignant, believable, and occasionally annoying as individuals clearly facing their own obstacles (Leonard's tightly wound mother is having second thoughts about the house move she herself instigated, and Leonard's father is suffering a mild mid-life crisis). The portrait of the next-door neighbor generally avoids clichés of adorable eccentricity or septuagenarian wisdom, and her relationship with Leonard develops with credible unpredictability. Leonard will be ruefully recognizable to many young people, even those who haven't had a moose heart dropped unexpectedly into their laps, and they'll snicker at his view of the world even as they applaud his eventual willingness to participate in it.