The title of the first chapter “Manny Bullpucky Gets His Sorry Butt Hurled Off the Marine Park Bridge” is certainly a mouthful. Despite its being a mouthful, the same title did not completely prepare me for this funny, funny story of Ansty, The Schwa, Lexie, Howie, and Ira. THE SCHWA WAS HERE is worlds apart from UNWIND. And yet I adore both books: Where the former is hilarious, offbeat… strange even, the latter is haunting and a bit disturbing at times. Which goes to show that NS, one trick pony you are not! In THE SCHWA WAS HERE, our hero, Ansty Bonano is a wise ass teenager (like there is any other kind of teenager out there,) who suffers from what his friend calls Middle Child Syndrome. His worries, however, are nothing compared to those of Calvin Schwa who thinks himself “functionally invisible or observationally challenges.” I shall stop here because to go on would give everything away. Why you should read it: It’s FUNNY (note the ALL CAPS.) Sometimes, painfully so. It’s offbeat. The language in which it is written is easy to grasp with the humor not flying over one’s head (as with some funny-snarky-smart boy characters’ do sometimes.)
