2/28/2002 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LARRY by Janet Tashjian, Henry Holt, November 2001

It's 4:12 in the morning, and I'm sitting here in the dark so as not to disturb Shari, the four kids, and the family dog.  Actually, it's not totally dark.  I can see out--as if through a fog--from the glow of the computer monitor in front of me, which dimly illuminates a good portion of the L shaped living, dining, kitchen area in our little home.  I've been living here for a relatively long time--much longer than in any of the three Long Island communities where I shared my pre-California existence with my parents.  During my years here I have accumulated plenty of stuff. 

From my seat in the living room, by the dim light of the monitor, I can see some of our stuff.  Right behind me is a large collection of blue and white laundry baskets, most of them still piled high with clean clothes.  I did two weeks worth of laundry for six of us on Sunday, it finally being a magnificent day for letting the sun do the clothes drying.  Beyond that, the most visible presence lurking about are the books.  Towering overstuffed bookcases are complemented by packed canvas book bags--one large bagful is coming back from recent booktalks at school, while an enormous cardboard box topped by another industrial-sized bookbag hold the 100 picture books I'll read aloud at tomorrow's Read Across America celebration.

But also filling in so many of the remaining spaces--on the floor, on the table holding the TV and the VCR, atop the lower bookcases--is a grand assortment of stuff.  Yeah, sure, part of it is a result of Shari's and my merging of separate households when we combined lives.  All of that stuff spills out beyond my limited vision, to the other available surfaces in the dark, and out of the house.  There's a room adjoining the goat barn containing tools, camping equipment, and its own collection of stuff.  Beyond the barn, out of sight, sits the ancient vacation trailer in which I lived while building the house back in '87.  It, too, is jam packed with more vintage stuff.  "Is it valuable stuff?" you may ask.  I seriously believe that most of it would never be missed.  If you have a yearning for old vinyl, there's a sizable collection sitting out in the trailer, along with an exercise thingy, old canning jars, my seashell collection, Alex's old drum kit, and so much more.  Speaking of Alex, I haven't yet mentioned the two bedrooms that the four kids share.  Talk about stuff!  Thanks, no doubt to my example, along with the pressure that our consumer society places on them and their friends, they are well on their way to becoming productive stuff-meisters themselves.

Which finally brings us to Larry. 

Sure, I'm a little behind the curve on this one.  THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LARRY has already garnered a Best Books for Young Adults along with strong praise from other people whom I highly regard, but I just got to finally read it, and it was such a genius of a story that I have to encourage any of you who haven't yet picked it up to immediately do so.    Within a very clever outer wrapping of a story--in a supermarket a young man hands the author a tied up manuscript--it is the tale of an anonymous person, Larry, who has been inspired by the writings of Thoreau, not only to throw off the shackles of the consumeristic society, but to change the world by creating a website extolling the wisdom of living simply.  The Larry site--with its sermons, advertising parodies, and photos of Larry's simple collection of belongings--takes off like the greatest of the web success stories.  The story is told by Josh, the kid in the supermarket, whose life is changed by Larry.  Along with Josh we meet his best friend, Beth, who clearly seems like a wonderful young lady, but whose character flaw is a desire to be with someone who'll give her access to the in-crowd.  Meanwhile, Josh has secretly loved her for years.

So trade in some of your stuff for a copy of THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LARRY.  A sweet and memorable story, LARRY may well also change your life.

Richie Partington http://richiespicks.com BudNotBuddy@aol.com