Book #5: I Love You, Beth Cooper

I think it’s only natural that when someone ages a year, but doesn’t really want to, as happened to me recently, there’s a tendency to want to regress a little bit. Witness, if you will, the fact that there’s a movie coming out where Matthew Perry wakes up to find himself Zac Efron. But perhaps since regressing to the age of 5 wouldn’t be very interesting to many filmgoers (though it’s an age I would love to regress to, so I could get some coloring done), movies and tv and books only tend to present high school regression back to us. After all, it’s a time of life fraught with drama that’s grown up enough to appeal to our older selves and a time with just enough freedom to have fun without the tangle of responsibility. It’s also an easy stage of life to see the coolness of a person, to know that they will turn out alright if they keep on being themselves, despite the fact that all the high school Neanderthals make their lives miserable.

Anyways, I’ve noticed this theme of high school a lot because I guess I’m subconsciously embracing it – just a few days ago my Netflix brought me the high school flick “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” and now it’s bringing me the discs of “Freaks and Geeks” one by one. And perhaps that’s why I stopped at the library one recent afternoon with a single thought: I must read the book “I Love You, Beth Cooper” by Larry Doyle right this minute or I will explode.

Now, I probably did want to read this book in part because my Entertainment Weekly alerted me to the fact that it’s being made into a movie, and you know how I am about books being turned into movies: I must consume them. But perhaps I also just longed for a good ol’ high school romp of a book that featured back-of-the-jacket blurbs by Tom Perrotta and Dave Barry.

It makes sense that this book is being made into a movie, because it reads like a movie or tv show at times, and according to some quick internet research, the author did put in some writing time at “The Simpsons.” Here’s the general plot: A geek announces his love for the super-cool Beth Cooper during his graduation speech, and then deals with the fall-out from that announcement over the next 12 hours or so. It all takes place on that one fateful graduation night, and it might be giving too much away to detail all the things that happen to our hero, but suffice it to say that at one point he gets beaten up by a skeleton and covered in blue and orange hummus. There were a few genuine laugh-out-loud moments, though, like most teen movies, it was also a touch overlong.

So, if you’re depressed at how old you are, or just looking for a quick mindless read, then you might enjoy “I Love You, Beth Cooper.” Like all good high school films, shows and books, it makes you grateful that at least you’re not still in high school.