Skippy Diesby Paul Murray. “It's about a boy at a Dublin boarding school who dies in a donut eating contest - and the months leading up to his death.Some of the characters are pretty funny.” “I don't think I'm spoiling anything by saying that Skippy Dies in the very first chapter during a doughnut eating contest with his boarding school room mate, Ruprecht Van Doren. Paul Murray then turns back the clock give us 600+ pages of the events leading up to that moment as well as the its aftermath. Murray clearly remembers what its like to be 14 years old. Skippy and his friends are obsessed with sex, bodily functions, sex, girls, quantum physics and more sex. Some of the funniest moments (and there are plenty of them) come from the boys' banter, flammable flatulence, and finding sex in the most unlikely places (Robert Frost's The Road Less Traveled will really never be the same again for me - but will forever make me smile!). But these kids are also naive, innocent, pretending to be tougher and more worldly than they are and the pain of trying to fit in, get a girl, and be cool all come through with humor and heartbreak. 14 is all about trying on adulthood without knowing your size and style and Murray nails it.”
