You’ve seen Dazed and Confused a few-too-many times? Say Anything is, like, your favorite movie? Being part of the Breakfast Club was a longtime dream of yours? If that’s true, or you went to high school, you’ll find something to like about Larry Doyle’s recent book I Love You, Beth Cooper.
Doyle’s novel follows valedictorian and dweeb incarnate Denis Cooverman through the course of his graduation night. The story starts off when Denis flips the traditional commencement speech on its ear and starts spewing??to the horror of a crowded gymnasium??about the things he’s always wanted to say. This includes confessing his love for Beth Cooper.
For the record, Beth Cooper is head cheerleader, really hot and hasn’t done much more than borrow a pencil from Denis during the last four years. Her boyfriend is also in the army. Humiliation, drunkenness and beatings ensue. Though not particularly in that order.
It’s a typical setup for an unlikely pair: the beauty and the brain. She likes fun (read: booze and sex) and he likes science. The story may seem a little trite at first, and while it contains the subtle (or not-so-subtle), bittersweet messages about growing up that are innate to the high-school comedy genre, Doyle’s book offers more than just that.
I Love You Beth Cooper is surprisingly frank, sexy and smart. It is also the best kind of parody: one that jabs at the original genre but still satisfies the audience in all the ways a John Hughes film does.
In fact, the book unfolds kind of like a movie. You can see it play out like a film in your head. Perhaps Doyle’s experience writing for various films and The Simpsons is why he is so good at writing scenes and evoking images. Doyle is also damn funny, which makes the dialogue, narration and the plot itself enjoyable.
What Doyle’s story has that makes it better than a movie is really well-developed characters. Denis doesn’t just like math, he does equations in his head all the time. He doesn’t have to verbalize the hypochondria raging in his brain, because we still know. And Beth Cooper??who hasn’t known a Beth Cooper? Doyle reveals the dream-girl archetype to be both a letdown and a surprise at the same time.
The book holds a flattering, often nostalgic, mirror to teen comedies. Several times throughout the book a character will note “This is just like that movie …” And each chapter begins with a quote from an iconic movie teenager.
The sources range from Pretty in Pink, to Rushmore to Clueless. As a similar function, Denis’ best friend Richard compulsively quotes classic-movie lines followed by the film, director and year. He’s a self-proclaimed Rain Man of movie trivia??it’s like a tic constantly reminding us that, like the characters quoted, he is fictional too.
It’s really quite fascinating the way Doyle puts the story together with all these elements. The only major problem is that the cleverness of Doyle’s book is not apparent at first. Humor is the main force pulling the reader through the first quarter of the book. Even the question of will they, or won’t they get together doesn’t pique enough interest, because really, hasn’t popular movie culture taught us to imagine it either way?
So keep reading! From the middle of the book on, the writing grows stronger. Doyle tells the story with a lot of economy and goofy, movie-like plot twists. Though the story is a bit outlandish at times and the characters familiar, it’s not hard to find sentiments that reflect your own high-school experience.
Doyle knows what teenagers have known since the beginning of time: high school blows. But his fresh spin on this universal sentiment is more than worthwhile.
I Love You, Beth Cooper***1/2Price: $19.95