Calvin: A Novel

This book was really engaging. I loved how it built on the Calvin and Hobbes story in a very fresh and impactful way. It made the story more real for individuals today and provided a great opportunity to learn more about how schizophrenia impacts people’s lives and what that would feel like. It was interesting to see through Calvin’s eyes and his constant wonder of what is true and what is not. I also liked the almost play-like format. Martine Leavitt does a fantastic job of using the format to really convey the story well and show pauses and dialogue in a different effective way. The characters are super well-rounded and it was fun to see the classical fun conversations between Calvin and Hobbes even as Calvin is trying to deny Hobbes existence. It was super fun to read and I loved how Martine Leavitt builds on the Calvin and Hobbes story by making both Calvin and the reader wonder if Susie might not be real either. The dialogue is very natural and entertaining. It was fun to see the characters talk about some hard topics in a very friendly comfortable child-friendly way with their own individual personalities in normal and natural ways. It was very entertaining and left me with a lot of good things to think about. Overall, fantastic read! If you are looking for a cute story with very well-rounded characters that you will love instantly, this is the book for you.

Profound. A bit disturbing. But worth reading. Maybe worth reading again. Definitely going to think about it for a while.

While very different from the actual comic strip, I believe this is great for those fans who have grown up and matured. The author writes with such care and meditation that by the end of the book you fully understand each character and are left with plenty of questions that you are suggested to ponder. One of my favorite passages of the book is the one where the two main characters debate the existence of God, and how much character is revealed just through that small conversation. Instead of info dumps or characters telling how they are, Leavitt displays character through dialogue and action. Which is very impressive and along with the script style of writing, makes for a book that reads with a quick flow and feeling of adventure physically and mentally. As for the content of the book, Leavitt never exaggerates or oversimplifies our Calvin’s condition. It handles his mental illness with great care and keeps us as an audience guessing throughout the book what may be real and what is a part of his condition. Calvin’s mental illness is a very uncommon thing for a book to cover, I have never seen a book – let alone a movie – on schizophrenia and how it can affect someone’s life. So, while this book is very entertaining and interesting, it can also be educational and create empathy for those that perhaps don’t understand people with this condition. Which is what all great books do, they entertain and educate at the same time. Making every experience felt while reading this book matter.

Calvin is a wonderful book written by a very talented author. Martine Leavitt strikes gold again. I am amazed how well Leavitt was able to convincingly write the voice of Calvin. It was so different from the voice of Keturah form Keturah and Lord Death. Calvin is funny and real. I genuinely cared about him and his pilgrimage. I am convinced that Martine Leavitt can write the voice of anyone.Martine Leavitt was really brave to write about schizophrenia and mental illness in general. She wrote it in a very unique way. I loved that she used the premise of Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson. I hope many young adults read this novel, so they too can be informed and know that these types of things are normal.Something that made Calvin such a great book is Susie and Hobbes. Really, there are only just three characters. Susie was just hilarious and Hobbes was surprisingly complex. I loved all the characters and that really shows how great of a writer Leavitt is. The story was completely different than I thought it would be but it was nowhere near boring. The narration and the wonder what was real or not kept me reading. We meet several people during the trek and we are not sure what is real or not. But in the end, that doesn’t matter because Leavitt’s story is filled with truth.As I was reading I kept marking passages. Martine Leavitt has a talent of writing fortune cookie quotes that you want to read over and over. It is like she is talking to you. Calvin’s problems are very easy to relate to and I have some of the same worries. Leavitt speaks to the soul and I seriously loved this book.

Like many, I have a deep, abiding affection for Bill Watterson's comic script Calvin and Hobbes that appeared in syndication from 1985 to 1995. Calvin's imagination ran riot and his imaginary friend, the stuffed tiger Hobbes, was an unrestrained id. Everyone who had a childhood could identify on at least some level, and for those of us who lived chunks of our childhood in a fantasy world of our own creation, it was like an entertaining and hilarious form of analysis.I remember being grief-stricken when Watterson - who had always been cantankerous and resolute in pursuit of his artistic vision - decided to discontinue the strip. And then vanished from view except for a few exhibitions, one-offs and a guest spot in the strip Pearls Before Swine. Watterson's integrity - he refused all licensing agreements and exploitation so there have been no t-shirts, coffee mugs, stuffed toys, television animation or movies - is part of what made Calvin and Hobbes so special. Made it seem so real.A familiarity with the Calvin and Hobbes strip is probably crucial to appreciate the full genius of Martine Leavitt's novel Calvin. She does explain most of the references but many of the symbols and ideas triggered memories of strips that I haven't seen in decades but are buried in my sub-conscious. And the entire structure and main metaphor borrows liberally from Watterson's universe before turning it into something totally unique. I was grief-stricken, again, when Calvin ended.The plot is simple: a boy identifies, thanks to a series of either cosmic truths or coincidences, that the reclusive Watterson is the only one who can help the boy, Calvin, handle his schizophrenia. The disease is represented by Calvin's visions of his own tiger also named Hobbes. Only this tiger has much greater potential for violence and dangerous havoc.Calvin decides to cross Lake Erie in the middle of winter to meet Watterson in Cleveland. That quest takes up the bulk of the story. But it is the digressions that make up the bulk of the power. Calvin has a near genius IQ and manages to distill many theories, concepts and far-ranging ideas, into logical simple descriptions. Though the action comes only in the last few pages, there is not a paragraph that is not gripping and compelling. Which, makes the finale even more suspenseful and relentless.Thanks to his rich fantasy life and schizophrenia, Calvin is an utterly-reliable unreliable narrator. He shifts in and out of visions and reality. it is disorienting in the most intriguing way. Leavitt/Calvin writes about the thin line between artistic genius and madness, and by doing so manages to walk that tightrope. If Watterson has read the book, and he certainly should, he will be honoured and humbled. The rest of us just get to enjoy it and go on a journey that touched me far more than I ever expected: much in the manner of a humble but brilliant comic strip touching one's soul.(full review at [...]

I am a Calvin and Hobbes fan and really enjoyed this book. I gave it to my grandchild who are also calvin and hobbes fans, but I'm not sure that they have read it.

When this came up as part of the thread about the comic strip that I was reading, I thought I would have to take a look at it, but I wasn’t sure I would actually like it. As a story it is mostly dialogue in something resembling a script form, paired with an internal monologue that includes a bit of narrative description. It borrows a lot from the comic strip, but it does so affectionately and appropriately. I gather it’s assigned reading in some junior high English classes.