Simply put, stunning. My Friend Leonard is easily the best book I’ve read since The Brothers K. It’s so good that there’s realy no excuse for waiting two weeks from the conclusion of the reading to the writing of this entry. Or maybe the distance is good.

It’s a book that so completely transports and moves you that it leaves your real world a little fuzzy, a little smoothed over around the edges. Leaves you a little shaken when it’s all over. Wondering why in the world you aren’t spending every moment of your life finding more of these shattering experiences. The author’s biographical character isn’t the world’s most sympathetic charmer, but the details and the emotion behind the words suck you in completely. And suddenly his friends are your friends. His joys and pains are your joys and pains. I laughed, I hoped, I even felt like crying a couple of times (which I never do). But, mostly I just read without stopping, absorbed and happy to have found this. So good.

Next up, A Million Little Pieces, which is the prequel to My Friend Leonard, which of course I should’ve read first. Too bad it has 631 holds on it right now at the local library. Guess I’ll be mooching off of Barnes and Noble.