A more detailed and descriptive opinion... <s> (Pay It Forward - Catherine Ryan Hyde)

Member Name: BoyWonder

Product:	Pay It Forward - Catherine Ryan Hyde
Date:	25/01/01 (125 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: well-written, beautiful

Disadvantages: a bit far-fetched, the will they/won't they situation gets boring

I was looking for something to read apart from my usual 'depressed thirtysomething living in London' novels and found 'Pay it Forward'. I had heard about it from some friends and saw it for just £4 so I decided to buy it.

The story revolves around 12 year old Californian Trevor who is inspired when he meets Rueben, his new English teacher, a permanently scarred Vietnam veteran. Reuben sets the class the assignment where they simply have to change the world. Trevor is one of the few in his class who puts any thought into the project and comes up with ‘Pay if Forward’, an ingenious scheme were someone does three good deeds to three different people and instead of those people paying the do-gooder back, they pay it forward to three different people. If the plan works all 6 billion people in the world would have a good deed done for them and so the cycle would continue.

Originally I wasn't expecting much as the storyline seemed steeped in saccharine and a bit far-fetched (a 12 year old changing the world?) and as I started reading it I wasn't particularly impressed. However I kept reading and by the second half of the book I had become addicted. The book offers several different points of view, as well as telling the stories of those whose lives were changed by 'paying it forward'.

The ending came a bit of a shock and brought me close to tears, something which I've rarely experienced with other books. A really beautiful book which looks to become even more popular as the film version with Oscar winners Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and Oscar nominee Haley Joel Osment.

Summary: