I first read this in 8th grade English class, probably around April or May of 1992. About 3 or 4 years ago I remembered it, and scoped it out online. Being poor it went on my "to get" list on Amazon, and stayed there until last week when I needed to get one more thing to qualify for super saver shipping for some other item, and Gentlehands finally made it to the shopping cart, and got checked out. When it got here, I opened it just to read the first page or so to see how I would like it, and I ended up setting The Mayor of Casterbridge aside to just read this. The prose is nice and light, even if the subject matter isn't, so it didn't take too long. It is, after all, geared toward teenagers.I've seen this described as a teen romance, but I don't know if I'd call it that. There are certainly elements of romance in this, but it's so much more than that. There's a kid dealing with his shitheaded family. The issues of class differences, antisemitism, drug use, alcohol, forgiveness (or lack thereof), acceptance (or lack thereof), and many others are explored. I found myself getting really pissed off while reading, and rooting for things to go the main character's way, and being so emotionally vested in the work is a sign of a good story. I found myself torn between a desire to see justice for crimes committed and forgiveness for a character I really liked.I don't want to have to post a spoiler alert for this because I think everyone should read it. It seems my memories were correct: I did really like it, and I still do. It's not great writing, though I probably say that because I've been immersed in the classics for the past few years and those are tough acts to follow as far as careful sentence crafting is concerned, but this is still a great story. Check it out.
Gentlehands would have been so much better if it was actually about Gentlehands, and not about Buddy. Buddy was boring. Skye got on my nerves. Everything annoyed me. And they had this whole, "HOLY SHIT!" thing going and then just basically ruined. The ending unfolded in like, five minutes. It pisses me offffff. I want the book, over again, from a different perspective. In fact, get rid of Buddy & Skye all together. They're boring and nobody cares. I want to hear about grandpa & the Italian cousin. Oh, and the raccoon. We'll briefly discuss him.
Do You like book Gentlehands (2001)?
This is another in-class read, likely in ninth grade. It took me forever to remember the name of it. It's about a poor boy named Buddy who falls in love with a snobby rich girl named Skye. All I really remember about Skye is that she's really stuck up and always has to wear the same color in all of clothing (so that means if she's wearing a pink shirt, she has to wear pink pants and pink shoes too). She calls this look her "signature" style. The story is also about Buddy's estranged grandfather
—Tracy
I really enjoyed this book. There's so much happening, that it's hard to classify the story. On the outside, it looks like a teen romance novel that explores class differences. It also talks about drug and alcohol use. Antisemitism, and family communication issues. A mom who won't forgive her father for not being a part of her life, and chooses to ignore him now. Bringing us to the eccentric grandfather, who turns out to be a Nazi war criminal known as Gentlehands.The story is told from Buddy's point of view, and I enjoyed how that led us thru his discoveries and emotions. When we meet Gentlehands, he truly is a gentle person. We're left to decide for ourselves if his actions today should erase his actions during the war.
—Tricia
this book I thought dragged on to long with this love story and was pretty boring it was disappointing and way too long it did have a juice of holocaust in the last like 30 pages and was just plain boring, the book although named gentlehands doesn't have anything to do with gentlehands until the last 20 to 30 pages and basically just dragged on with there boring teenage love story where for a no reason in the book they decide to smoke pot and drive 70 on the highway, this book should have been n
—Zack
