Line #21 Literature/BoysLife


1	[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/boys_life.jpg]]
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3	->''"These memories of who I was and where I lived are important to me. They make up a large part of who I'm going to be when my journey winds down."''
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6	Cory Mackenson, age 12, lives in Zephyr, Alabama, a quiet town that has an odd air of [[MagicalRealism magic to it]]. One day, while Cory is out with his father delivering milk, the two witness the aftermath of a horrific murder, the victim disappearing in a lake. Tom Mackenson is deeply haunted by this, and Cory attempts to find clues to the identity of the murderer.
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8	...and yet, despite the above event, this book is truly about [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the life of a boy]]. The murder provides a story arc. a conflict and a climax, but ''Boy's Life'' is, at its core, a SliceOfLife novel.
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10	One of Creator/RobertRMcCammon's best-known books, and winner of the 1992 MediaNotes/WorldFantasyAward, ''Boy's Life'' is something along the lines of an occasionally spookier "''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird'', but with a 12-year-old boy in the 1960's.
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12	Not to be confused with the official magazine of the Boy Scouts of America titled ''Boys' Life'' or Tobias Wolff's "This Boy's Life.".
13	----
14	!!This novel contains examples of:
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16	* AnimalMotifs: It's subtle, but there are recurring themes of birds and flight. [[spoiler:Yes, they are extremely relevant.]]
17	* BeardnessProtectionProgram: Lampshaded. Toward the end of the book, we discover the man killed in the beginning had helped relocate a Nazi scientist. The victim's brother comes looking for him and, learning he's dead, believes the killer is the Nazi. He shows Cory's father a picture but explains that he's probably changed his appearance, and the easiest way to go unrecognized is to "shave your head and grow a beard." [[spoiler: The vet, who was much earlier described as a bald, bearded man, is the Nazi and the killer.]]
18	* BigBadEnsemble: The murderer, TheKlan, and the redneck outlaw Blaylock family are all independent, prominent antagonists who threaten Cory and/or his friends and family across the year.
19	* ButHeSoundsHandsome:
20	** Well before [[spoiler:Dr. Lezander]] is revealed as a Nazi fugitive, he claims that he met a Nazi after the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and says the guy was just an ordinary man who deserved to be left alone after valiantly and understandably JustFollowingOrders during the war.
21	** Some FiveSecondForeshadowing that [[spoiler:Mr. Hargison]] is in TheKlan comes when he objects to them being called cowardly over a cross-burning and says some people might call it a brave act.
22	* ChekhovsGunman: Many of the EccentricTownsfolk have their future prominence obviously telegraphed, but some who seem innocuous play notable roles in at least one later chapter.
23	** KindlyVet and church greeter Lezander operates on Cory's dog after it gets hurt and [[spoiler:is the murderer from the opening chapter and a Nazi war criminal, along with his wife.]]
24	** Mr. Hargison, the mailman who saves Cory and his friends from bullies, [[spoiler:is part of the small but increasingly dangerous local cell of TheKlan.]]
25	** Lainie, a bitter prostitute who is present when Tom calls the sheriff to report the murder of the man in the lake, [[spoiler:is the girlfriend of the late hot rodder Little Stevie and becomes the {{Protectorate}} of his frequently seen ghost.]]
26	** Carl Bellwood, a PosthumousCharacter friend of Cory, [[spoiler:returns as a ghost to give Cory's dead dog Rebel a new home.]]
27	** MrFixit Mr. Lightfoot only gets one speaking scene before [[spoiler:disarming an atom bomb in the last act.]]
28	** Fire Chief Mourchette is first seen hovering in the background during an early town meeting and gets one line snapping at Mr. Moultry's racist suggestion to abandon the black community during a flood. Much later, he is one of the only people to [[spoiler:agree to be deputized when Donny Blaylock's family want to break him out of jail and replaces J.T. Amory as sheriff after he resigns.]]
29	* CoolOldGuy: Mr. Lightfoot is a kindly old MisterFixit master.
30	%%* DarkestHour: The better part of "Winter's Cold Truth", but especially "[[{{Irony}} Faith]]".
31	* HurlItIntoTheSun: At the end of the second part, Nemo, [[spoiler:enraged by the fact he has to move yet again]] literally hurls a baseball at the sun and stalks off. [[spoiler: The ball never comes down]].
32	* IOwnThisTown: Moorwood Thaxter owns most of the big businesses and mortgages in town, and his word can dictate town policy. [[NoOneSeesTheBoss Moorwood hasn't been seen in public in years, though]] and his CrazySane son Vernon announces his wishes to the town, with Tom suspecting that Vernon frequently lies about whether his dad actually wants something done due to how much nicer and community-minded Moorwood's supposed orders have gotten in recent years.
33	%%* KillTheCutie: [[spoiler: Davy Ray, who frees an abused sideshow animal, dies in a hunting accident.]]
34	%%* MagicalNegro: The Lady, quite literally.
35	* MagicalRealism: This book pushes the WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief ''quite'' far with the amount of ridiculously prevalent supernatural happenings, including but not limited to: ghosts, a magical woman who can [[spoiler:turn bullets into snakes]], a dog [[spoiler:being brought back to life through prayer]], [[spoiler: a completely unexplained triceratops/rhino thing, a baseball apparently thrown INTO THE SUN]], a river monster big enough to eat people and dogs, and a magical biting bike.
36	* TheMeddlingKidsAreUseless: Cory spends ten months gradually forming suspicions and looking for clues about a murder, but the same day he solves the case, two Nazi hunters who would have quickly found the killer without his help arrive in town and even end up helping save him from a likely HeKnowsTooMuch fate, [[spoiler:although Dr. Lezander briefly escapes and meets his end through other means.]]
37	%%* MostWritersAreWriters
38	* MrFixIt: Mr. Lightfoot can fix anything. [[spoiler:He even disarms an atomic bomb.]]
39	%%* SnowMeansDeath
40	* SubliminalSeduction: According to Reverend Blesset, the Beach Boys make their listeners predisposition to sin. ("The Devil Is My Strawberry!")
41	* UnexplainedRecovery: Rebel abruptly heals from fatal wounds due to nothing more than prayer. [[spoiler:This is not a good thing.]]
42	* VillainsDyingGrace:
43	** The one thing that keeps {{Jerkass}} Klansman Mr. Moultry from being a pure HateSink is when he confesses about where [[spoiler:a bomb he set in the Civil Rights Museum]] is when he thinks he is about to die (although he ends up surviving).
44	** When the murderer and Cory are trapped in a sinking car, [[KarmicDeath in the same lake where the killer, a fugitive concentration camp doctor,]] disposed of his victim in a sinking car, Mr. Hutchenson begs the dying killer to help Cory escape the car before it sinks, and the killer does so.

Context Literature / BoysLife