The Martin Chronicles

October 8, 2018
Set in Manhattan’s Upper West Side in the 1980s, Fried’s uneven debut novel follows Marty Kelso as he ages from tween to teen, beginning with him in sixth grade and ending with his high school graduation. After a water pipe bursts at their “sister middle school,” Marty and his best friends, Dave and Max, are confronted with attending a school with girls for the first time. On top of this seismic shift, Marty’s cousin Evie has also temporarily moved in to his house after the death of her father. Drifting episodically from Mr. Harding’s middle school English classroom to summer camp to the brink of his graduation, Marty sees his once-steady friendships become strained as romantic relationships come into play. Unfortunately, an overabundance of cliché causes the tale to reflect the awkwardness of its pubescent protagonist a bit too closely. Rain hammers an air conditioner “like a drumroll”; a rifle fires like “a firecracker going off.” However, when the excessive simile usage settles down, Fried’s lighthearted humor shines through, as when Marty gets stuck in an elevator with an elderly neighbor: “I reached out and felt her hand. Ice cold. Dead, I worried. Terrific, I thought.” While Fried’s novel offers playful moments and an evocative atmosphere, these vignettes never come together into a fully formed story.

October 15, 2018
A coming-of-age novel, set in New York in the 1980s, that unfolds as a series of episodes.Fried's first book does not break new territory so much as it revisits familiar ground. The novel revolves around Martin Kelso, 11 as the story opens and 17 when it comes to a close. During those six years, he moves from sixth grade at a boys school that has gone coed to the threshold of college. The journey is insulated by Manhattan privilege, but there is, as there must be, unanticipated bumpiness. "For my friend Kevin Johnson's thirteenth birthday," Fried opens one chapter, "his father ordered pizzas and a case of Coke, and then handed out Playboy magazines." Later, Martin experiences a first kiss with his cousin Evie, four years his senior, who is the novel's agent of chaos, a character who trails disruption in her wake. "This was the Evie I remembered--an emotional spinning top," Martin reflects. "I never knew quite where she would come to rest." That question, and Evie's continued machinations, ebb and flow throughout the book. It's an interesting strategy, a way to inject more risk into the narrative, but in the end, it backfires a little bit. This is because Evie is a more compelling character than her cousin, who seems most alive when she is around. Without her, Martin learns to run the elevator in his apartment building during an operators' strike and almost gets arrested after buying beer. He is used by a young woman looking to get back at her ex-boyfriend. He hangs out with his friends. None of it sticks, however, or more accurately, none of it comes fully to life. The scenes resound with a kind of nodding recognition, charged less from within than by the recollections of its readers, the memories of adolescence they provoke. Only when Fried returns to Evie and her troubles does the book re-engage again."None of this really matters," one character says, and it's hard not to feel as if she is referring to the novel itself.

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November 1, 2018
Martin Kelso is in the sixth grade when he notices that some girls seem to have a special type of power, and it isn't long before he finds himself under their spell. Innocent games take on deeper meanings, and simple lessons suddenly have profound repercussions. As Marty grows older, the girls orbiting his life take on more importance, searing his first kiss, first dance, and first date into his memory. He doesn't think he'll ever have girls completely figured out, but a clue here and there sure would be nice. In vignettes spanning sixth grade to the end of high school, this is a true coming-of-age story and more character study than plot-driven tale. Fried infuses every page with warmth and wonder. The setting on the bustling streets of 1980s Manhattan is the perfect mirror for Marty's swirling emotions. Fans of Brady Udall and Matthew Norman will appreciate Marty's honesty, humor, and angst as he discovers his rightful place in his family, at school, and in his social circle.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)