Up On Cloud Nine
From AwardAnnals
 | |
| Author(s) | Anne Fine |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Corgi Books |
| Honors | |
| How stupid do you have to be to fall out of a top-floor window? Or was Stolly trying something else - up on cloud nine, even then? Stolly has always been so alive, so inspiring, taking risks, hiding nothing, notorious for being the school's most imaginative liar (or fantasist, as he calls it). But now he's lying in a hospital bed and Ian, his best friend who's as close as a brother, is watching, waiting and remembering... | |
Ian’s best friend, Stolly, is up on cloud nine. He’s in the hospital, unconscious, and hooked up to machines. The question Ian is trying to answer is: How did Stolly end up there?
In a way, Stolly’s always been on cloud nine, living life by his own rules and making those rules up as he goes along. His parents’ careers have them constantly rushing around, so Ian’s family has all but adopted Stolly. That’s why it’s up to Ian to figure out what happened to his best friend. But once the pieces start coming together, the answer doesn’t seem to make any sense.
A characteristically funny, moving, life-affirming novel about a most remarkable character and the truly inspirational effect he has on everyone he meets.
Reviews
Amazon.com
"Up on cloud nine. A weird expression--and one I've heard about a million times, round about Stol. With him, the normal everyday things often stop mattering." Stol, short for Stuart Oliver, is best friends with Ian James, the likeable young narrator of two-time Carnegie Medal-winning British author Anne Fine's funny, poignant, thoroughly engaging novel Up on Cloud Nine. Currently, Stol is "out there" because he's in the hospital, unconscious and hooked up to machines. Outside the hospital he's "out there" because he's wildly accident prone (think paint thinner), a "fantasist" (not a liar, mind you), and a gambler (he bet that their teacher would be dead by Christmas): "he's like one of those jesters in Shakespeare who are allowed to mock the king." Stol also practically lives with Ian's family, essentially abandoned by his busy barrister father, Franklin, and his fashion designer mother, Esme, (who is off in the jungle with models to research "lost-in-the-rain-forest chic").
When Stol ends up broken-boned with a concussion on the ground beneath a top-floor window, Ian doesn't know what to think. The novel follows along with Ian as he combs through all his brotherly memories of his dear, eccentric friend for clues to what might have happened. Through his eyes, we see Stol take shape as the brilliant, mixed-up, "mercurial," "bats" kid he is--someone who vows he will only eat enchiladas and gingersnaps unto death, who makes rafts for gerbils, who has unexplained impulses to fall from great heights. And through his stories we see Ian--a not so wild-eyed but nowhere near dull boy who misses his friend. Best of all are his memories of their Ouija board antics, Stol's wild fabrications, boyhood arguments, and the "Only Child Club" alternating with chapters where Ian is sitting by his friend's side in the hospital figuring out how Stol would score on "The Young Person's Depression Checklist."
"Did Stol jump or didn't he?" isn't the central question in this truly fine, quite psychological, even philosophical novel that paints its characters with clear, powerful strokes. It's about those like practical Ian who are "pinned to the Earth" and those like Stol who are less so, people who take care of people, and other matters of life and death. Highly recommended. (Ages 10 and older) - Karin Snelson
Amazon.co.uk
Anne Fine's Up On Cloud Nine is possibly one of the best books you will ever read. Character-led, beautifully crafted, uplifting and life-affirming, Fine's masterpiece tells the story of a deep friendship between two boys, Stolly and Ian. The pair are introduced to the reader at the point where the accident-prone Stolly is lying unconscious in a hospital bed having survived a rather spectacular plummet to the ground from a very high window.
As the pair are caught in the sterile time-warp of the hospital, waiting for the arrival of their respective parents, Ian contemplates Stolly's life: a Walter Mitty character who insists he is not a liar but a fantasist, who unflinchingly speaks as he finds and is blessed with a mind and imagination so receptive to experience that occasionally his words and actions are shocking to those around him.
As the waiting continues Ian, circled by a social worker who is concerned at the alarming regularity of Stolly's hospital visits, pieces together the good, the funny, the bad and the downright ugly, compiling a comprehensive biography that ultimately leads him to believe that his remarkable friend's accident may not have been an accident at all.
Anne Fine is certainly on form in this extraordinary, unforgettable novel - the lady rarely disappoints, with sure-fire winners such as Goggle Eyes, Flour Babies and Madame Doubtfire enticing new generations of readers into her world. But with Up On Cloud Nine she really hits the spot with a sublime, involving novel that is a deceptively quick and simple read, yet contains all the hallmarks of a classic work of fiction. It may sound overdramatic, but everyone - and that includes adults - should read this to remind themselves that a really good book can lift the spirits and leave you with seriously rosy glow. Age 9 and over. - Susan Harrison
Honors
