Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass
Reviewed by EllenRatings
Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content
LANGUAGE
VIOLENCE
SEXUAL CONTENT
ADULT THEMES
Ratings Explanation
Adult Themes: Jeremy and Lizzy get caught breaking into a law office in their quest for keys to open his box. They are taken to the local police station where they are given community service for their misdeed. Lizzy has a quirky fetish for taking things that don’t belong to her while their owners aren’t looking, however, what she takes is generally insignificant and not for sale, i.e.: a flyer off a store window, a handful of candy from somebody’s candy dish, or a flower out of a bouquet in somebody’s vase.
Synopsis
When Jeremy Fink’s father was a boy, he went to a fortune teller on the Atlantic City Boardwalk who predicted he would die when he was 40. He lived his entire life in fear of this dire prediction. As it turned out, the fortune teller was wrong. He died when he was 39. Now Jeremy is one month away from turning 13, and out of the blue receives a mystery box from his father engraved with the words, “The Meaning of Life: for Jeremy Fink on his 13th birthday.” His father died five years ago, so how could he have sent it? To deepen the mystery, the box has four keyholes but no keys have been sent with it, and there is no letter of explanation. As young Jeremy (who has always stayed within a five or six block radius of his apartment) and his best friend, Lizzy, set out on a quest across Manhattan to search for the keys that will open this box, he will discover things about himself that he never knew, cross paths with fascinating people with their own stories to tell, and learn a few of the answers to his question, “What is the meaning of life?”
I enjoyed this story of young Jeremy and his “existential crisis”, and most readers probably will, too. Even if certain aspects might seem contrived (the ending, for one), it is perfectly sweet and clean and full of interesting characters. The friendship between Jeremy and Lizzy is genuine and charming, but some of the deepest commentary on life and its meaning comes from the elderly characters in the story, who provide views on life beyond any 13-year-old’s doe-eyed understanding. Recommended for ages 10 and up.