Losing Joe's Place

Today, on Thriftshop Books, I'm looking at Gordon Korman's 1990 novel Losing Joe's Place.

A few days ago, I was perusing a local second-hand shop, and in a back corner, I saw a book that seemed interesting, but otherwise non-descript. It had a key attached to a key chain with one of the seemingly always there smiley faces hanging off of it.

Buying it for $2, I read it that night and almost died laughing, and actually woke up my roommates from laughing so hard. They burst into my room and demanded to know what was happening, and through my tears of mirth, I could only point at the cover.

So what's it about?

The book is about three friends (Don Champion, Ferguson Peach ("Peachfuzz") and Jason, the narrator and brother of the titular Joe) who are going to the big city of Toronto for the summer. They'll be staying at Jason's brother's Joe's place (who's with supermodels in Europe at the time) and working at the plastic factory that Don's uncle manages.

Everything seems good until they get there and discover that the apartment is a crappy bachelor pad, the landlord is an extortionist who knows they can't lose the apartment and will make them suffer to keep it; they lose their job and everything else that can happen happens, like getting the roommate from hell and losing their car -- repeatedly.

If they have any chance of keeping it they'll need skill, moves and more than a little luck. Plus some hostage negotiation skills.

The Good Stuff

• It is hilarious and you will keep laughing throughout the whole thing.
• The characters are all hilarious and they interact with each other really well. Take Jason's two "house guests," Peachfuzz and Don: one has a sharp dry wit while the other is an optimistic person who's never gotten it rough in his life. Just imagine how they'll interact. Other characters, like Jessica, Rootbeer and Plotnick (the landlord) just work with everybody, even if they are used more as plot devices than characters.
• A mostly plausible storyline. You could totally see 3 small town kids go to a big city and struggle to fit in.
• Plotnick. He is single-handedly the best thing in the book. From his interaction with other characters, his hilarious insults and one-liners ("All right, you mutants!" or "And if you use filthy, disgusting, nasty language, I'm going to call your parole officers!" or "Shouldn't you be out volunteering for scientific experiments?")

The Bad Stuff

• Some of the situations are just unbelievable. A man throwing a BMW into a Florida swamp, even though done 'offscreen', is probably the most egregious, though there are others, such as the man taking on a gang of wrestlers and beating them all in just a few seconds. Oddly, though, you'll kind of believe it while reading the book and only later will you realise the ridiculousness of it all.
• Some of the jokes, such as Rootbeer's hobbies, are overplayed and done to death, with the same joke being played again and again with only minor variations (his hobby is now the harp. now model planes. Now this, now that.) There are a few other of these running, not really funny jokes, but Rootbeer is the worst offender in this area.
• As this was a product of the very early 1990s, some of the references don't really work anymore, and the lack of technology relegates it to, in some ways, a period piece. Many of the problems could be solved easily today and some of the misunderstandings wouldn't even happen in the first place, especially another of the running jokes (involving a napkin and a kiss).

Overview

The book is funny. The book is hilarious. The book has its problems and relies on some running gags, yes. But generally, the book is an enjoyable nighttime or daytime read if you need to laugh or you just want to read something light-hearted and generally enjoyable.