SuitabookBug boy
Eric Luper
- Reading
- Before reading, flag the injury, abuse, sexuality and weight-loss material without revealing outcomes. During or after racing chapters, invite discussion of Jack’s choices, the pressures around him and whether success changes his options.
- Themes
- Ambition and coercion: Jack's sudden success as an apprentice jockey is accompanied by pressure to deliberately lose a race for financial reward. The situation invites attention to the conflict between financial need, professional rules and personal integrity; the final judgement is not established.
- Weight and athletic performance: Jack is subjected to a constant imperative to lose large amounts of weight quickly so he can remain light enough to race. The book clearly presents intense weight pressure as part of Jack's sporting world, but its evaluative treatment of that pressure is not established.
- Family abandonment and abuse: Jack's father returns after abandoning him, and Jack has a history involving a physically and sexually abusive horse trainer. The book?s stance on this remains unclear.
- Worth knowing
- Some material may merit preparation: a jockey is severely injured, a gangster applies coercion, family abandonment and abuse are described, sexuality occurs, and rapid weight loss is graphically portrayed.