16 August 2010 HERO by Mike Lupica, Philomel, November 2010, 256p., ISBN: 978-0-399-25283-9
"It was one of those great stories that you can't put down at night
The hero knew what he had to do and he wasn't afraid to fight
The villain goes to jail while the hero goes free
I wish it were that simple for me"
-- David Crosby and Phil Collins, "Hero"
"'I wish I knew what the heck you were talking about,' Billy said. 'But I don't. And I don't have any more time for this.'
"Another smile. 'Actually you do. Trust me.'
"'Trust you?' Billy said. 'I don't have any idea who you are, really. Or if Mr. Herbert is even your name. Or if you really knew my dad at all.'
"The old man put out his hand. 'Let me see the coin for a second,' he said.
"Something about the casual way he asked made Billy do it. Billy unclenched his fist, held his palm open and handed it over.
"And when it was in the old man's hand, it was as if a switch had been thrown, the coin suddenly as bright and brilliant as some kind of neon light.
"Almost like the Morgan was on fire.
"The old man's face was lit by it, too.
"'You should trust me because I was the one who first told your father he had the magic in him,' Mr. Herbert said.
"He tried to hand the coin back to Billy, but Billy pulled his hand away, as if touching it would be like touching a hot stove.
"'Don't be afraid, boy,' the old man said. 'You've got the magic, too.'
"He flipped the coin in the air between them and Billy caught it.
"Then the old man turned and began walking away."
HERO is the story of a young man who finds that he has extraordinary powers.
Sound familiar?
If you go running for HERO with the hopes of discovering the next Harry or Percy, you might well be disappointed. Despite a few random commonalities, this is a story that is very different than those landmark series.
Nevertheless, this is one for which I am already awaiting the second book.
Billy's father works for the President of the United States. Dad has the efficient charm of a suave one-man wrecking crew when we meet him, at the beginning of the book, going after a very bad guy in northern Bosnia. He roams the globe by plane "fixing things, things that other people couldn't, saving people who needed saving, capturing people who needed to be stopped."
But then we soon learn, upon meeting fourteen year-old Billy, that his father's plane has crashed near the southern tip of Long Island. Dad is dead.
Billy's world has been his parents, their housekeeper and her daughter (Billy's best friend Kate), living in the top three stories of a spectacular Fifth Avenue brownstone. Nearby Central Park is his Walden. Like Harry and Percy, Billy doesn't appear the superhero type, particularly when we see him getting bullied at school.
But when he sneaks out to the Hamptons (on the Jitney) to visit the site of his father's tragic plane crash, Billy meets the mysterious Mr. Herbert -- who claims to know how his dad messed up --and from there we begin to witness the development of Billy's powers.
I am really taken with the loss of innocence aspect of the tale. I also like the focus on Billy's realization of how power can be employed for good or for bad, and the recognition of the world's/individual's never-ending tug of war between the two.
Billy is a real kid who -- regardless of Dad's superhuman feats and his own emerging powers -- was already sad when his dad was alive because of his father's being gone most of the time. Knowing, myself, how it feels to lose a parent, I appreciate that I never turn a page to find that Billy finishes grieving and neatly moves on.
"It's a turn around jump shot
It's everybody jump start
It's every generation throws a hero up the pop charts"
-- Paul Simon, "The Boy in the Bubble"
In so many ways, I relate to HERO as another of those great contemporary stories for tweens and younger teens where you have a boy with significant challenges and a really cool girl character.
Sound familiar?
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