They call me King Dork.
Well, let me put it this way: no one ever actually calls me King Dork. It’s how I refer to myself in my head, a silent protest and an acknowledgement of reality at the same time. I don’t command a nerd army, or preside over a realm of the socially ill-equipped. I’m small for my age, young for my grade, uncomfortable in most situations, nearsighted, skinny, awkward, and nervous.”
Tom Henderson is, as the first page of the book explains, a dork. His only friend is Sam Hellerman, a person who has filled the role of friend since they were thrown together by alphabetical order in the early years of school. Tom and Sam are in a band. Actually, throughout the course of the book, they are in several bands. Most of these bands don’t get past a name, logo, and the first album title and cover design. Actual performance of music seems to play a small part in the life of their continually re-invented musical careers.
Tom’s life is turned on its head when he has a tentative sexual encounter with a mysterious girl at a party and finds his dead father’s marked up copy of The catcher in the rye. His father’s book contains underlined sections, a funeral notice, a dry cleaning receipt and what may be a note written in code. Over the course of the book, Tom tries to find the elusive Fiona and solve the mystery contained within The catcher, all while avoiding being beat up and/or teased by most of the student body.
The storyline feels a little disjointed at times, but is quirky and fun to read. The contrast between what goes inside Tom’s head and what he manages to verbalise is enjoyable to follow, as are the continual band name changes and his determined efforts to solve a mystery that threatens to connect his father, a teacher, a funeral, and the father of his romantic interest. I have not read Catcher in the rye, but I suspect you may get more out of King Dork if you have. Salinger’s classic and the way it is worshipped by so many people forms a strong theme through the book.
Definitely worth reading and I am very curious to see what Frank Portman come sup with next. I also can’t resist leaving you with one of my favourite paragraphs from the book:
Needless to say, Pierre Butterfly Cameroon is cursed with one of the worst names ever misguidedly foisted upon a poor, defenseless kid by adoring, clueless, hippie parents. He’s also the shortest kid in school (another wonderful gift from the Whole Earth Mom and Dad: stunted growth owing to a protein-free vegan diet in his formative years). Plus, he had been insane enough back in elementary school to have chosen to play the flute rather than some more gender-appropriate instrument, so when he walked in someone lifted him by the legs of his jeans and shook him upside down till he fell out of his pants and hit his head on a saxophone case and lay there crying in his underwear and everyone started chanting, “Get a belt! Get a belt!”
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