Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
I don't know about the rest of the guys out there, but if my senior year in high school had started out like Louie Banks', did, I'd have been one happy camper. Louie was a certified Big Man on Campus at THS – Trout (Idaho) High School – he had a starting slot on the football team, a better-'n-average GPA, and a cheerleader for a girlfriend. Maybe he was a big frog in a very small pond, but it sure seemed that Louie had it all. But that was before Coach Lednecky put a contract out on an opposing quarterback and called him some pretty unattractive names, starting with mild racial slurs and ending with the N-word. When Louie decided to stand on principle, Coach denied everything and almost the whole town turned against one confused seventeen-year-old.
Everybody, that is, except his best friend Carter, his parents Norm and Brenda, and Becky. Beautiful, smart, sexy Becky…
I don't know about the rest of the guys out there, but if my senior year in high school had turned out the way Louie's did, I might not have made it. It's a testament to a strong, levelheaded young man who'd been well prepared by loving parents that he made it through the trials and tribulations heaped on his head over those nine short months. It's even more astounding that he came through more grown up than he'd ever imagined. Dear Abby used to say, "If life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Louie Banks would definitely have had enough lemonade to keep Trout, Idaho, from getting thirsty for a long time. Here's to Louie, Running Loose on the back roads of western Idaho.
Like most Chris Crutcher books, Running Loose is written for adolescent males; guys who can identify with what Louie goes through every day at school (and what he does every night under the covers). It's a coming-of-age story in the sense that every seventeen-year-old has to come of age; but it's also a coming of age tale in the sense that Louie Banks does more growing up in that short year than a lot of "adults" have gotten around to doing by the time they're thirty.
The odd thing about that last sentence is that there are parents out there who apparently would not be proud of their kids for acting like Louie Banks. Like many of Crutcher's books (Chinese Handcuffs, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, Athletic Shorts, and Ironman), Running Loose is a banned book. It's been challenged dozens of times over the years, not long ago (August, 2006) in Rochester, New York. According to the mother of a child given this book on a summer reading list, Running Loose is "soft-core pornography." She was described in a local newspaper as, "so upset by the book's use of racial terms and sexual references that she believed her son could gain little by reading the literature." Her husband said, "Some of the things in the book are unbelievable, and I was extremely surprised."
They must not have read the same book I did: here are just some of the lessons Louie Banks could teach the children of this couple:
1) Take a stand against intolerance and racism.
2) You do not need to have sex to prove you are in love.
3) Not every authority figure is a fit role model.
Soft-core pornography? Excuse me? The kid uses the words "hell" and "bastard" a couple of times. He does make not-infrequent references to, shall we say, the practice of self-gratification, but he gratifies himself, and his girlfriend's not involved.
Here is what is really wrong with the book, things that the couple from Rochester clearly want the libraries and schools to keep out of the sight and mind of their child: Louie calls his parents by their first names. He spends a (sexless) night with his girlfriend. Instead of the minister, the high school football coach, and the high school principal, some of the best advice Louie gets from adults comes from a bar owner and even the town drunk. And, worst of all, Louie blames an unfeeling God for some of the worst things that happen to him. Something tells me that those are the only passages that those Rochester parents ever read…
Everybody, that is, except his best friend Carter, his parents Norm and Brenda, and Becky. Beautiful, smart, sexy Becky…
I don't know about the rest of the guys out there, but if my senior year in high school had turned out the way Louie's did, I might not have made it. It's a testament to a strong, levelheaded young man who'd been well prepared by loving parents that he made it through the trials and tribulations heaped on his head over those nine short months. It's even more astounding that he came through more grown up than he'd ever imagined. Dear Abby used to say, "If life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Louie Banks would definitely have had enough lemonade to keep Trout, Idaho, from getting thirsty for a long time. Here's to Louie, Running Loose on the back roads of western Idaho.
Like most Chris Crutcher books, Running Loose is written for adolescent males; guys who can identify with what Louie goes through every day at school (and what he does every night under the covers). It's a coming-of-age story in the sense that every seventeen-year-old has to come of age; but it's also a coming of age tale in the sense that Louie Banks does more growing up in that short year than a lot of "adults" have gotten around to doing by the time they're thirty.
| Sure, the story is simplistic – it has to be, because people don't write another Ulysses for YA fiction. The idea is to entertain, to give the reader something he can identify with, and get across a hidden message or two. The twin messages in Running Loose are pretty powerful: a stand on principle is position of strength, and one must always roll with the punches. Louie Banks may shoot himself in the foot from time to time – he is, after all, only seventeen and therefore only about 10% as smart as he thinks he is – but when push comes to shove he makes some decisions that his parents can be proud of. |
The odd thing about that last sentence is that there are parents out there who apparently would not be proud of their kids for acting like Louie Banks. Like many of Crutcher's books (Chinese Handcuffs, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, Athletic Shorts, and Ironman), Running Loose is a banned book. It's been challenged dozens of times over the years, not long ago (August, 2006) in Rochester, New York. According to the mother of a child given this book on a summer reading list, Running Loose is "soft-core pornography." She was described in a local newspaper as, "so upset by the book's use of racial terms and sexual references that she believed her son could gain little by reading the literature." Her husband said, "Some of the things in the book are unbelievable, and I was extremely surprised."
They must not have read the same book I did: here are just some of the lessons Louie Banks could teach the children of this couple:
1) Take a stand against intolerance and racism.
2) You do not need to have sex to prove you are in love.
3) Not every authority figure is a fit role model.
Soft-core pornography? Excuse me? The kid uses the words "hell" and "bastard" a couple of times. He does make not-infrequent references to, shall we say, the practice of self-gratification, but he gratifies himself, and his girlfriend's not involved.
Here is what is really wrong with the book, things that the couple from Rochester clearly want the libraries and schools to keep out of the sight and mind of their child: Louie calls his parents by their first names. He spends a (sexless) night with his girlfriend. Instead of the minister, the high school football coach, and the high school principal, some of the best advice Louie gets from adults comes from a bar owner and even the town drunk. And, worst of all, Louie blames an unfeeling God for some of the worst things that happen to him. Something tells me that those are the only passages that those Rochester parents ever read…
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