To a person reading it for the first time, New York City-based author Ed Hamilton’s debut coming-of-age novel, Lords of the Schoolyard, about two troubled and recalcitrant youths, arrives at an opportune moment in our society. Not a day goes by without hearing some horrific and tragic story about bullying in the news, especially when some of those victims commit suicide in order to escape their pain and tormentors. While everyone has experienced a form of physical or mental abuse (either as the victim or the perpetrator) at some point in his or her life growing up, bullying among youths is now a serious epidemic that has gained prominence in recent years. Upon reading Hamilton’s work, one can’t help but be reminded of that.
Set in a suburban town sometime in the 1970s, Lords of the Schoolyard is told in the first person by Tommy, who with his friend Johnny are two cigarette-smoking teenagers, Catholic school students, and the aforementioned ‘lords’ who wreak havoc on everyone they meet and everything they touch (Think of them as somewhere between the rakish charm of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, and the sadistic psychopathic behavior of Alex and his droogs from A Clockwork Orange). Trouble constantly follows Tommy and Johnny, and the list of their transgressions is as long as a hardened criminal’s rap sheet. Some of their greatest hits include picking on a kid named Chip, who is kind of weaker compared to them; lying to cover up their deeds and stealing things such as alcohol; bothering an elderly lady at her home; and throw things at oncoming traffic.
Tommy, who once created a ‘sexbook’ mocking his teachers when he was in the fourth grade, is a loose cannon even without Johnny by his side. He’s very belligerent at Catholic school, much to the exasperation and horror of his teachers, and he punches a girl who had spurned him romantically. And when Tommy is kicked out out of private school and transferred to a public school, he re-asserts his authority in his new surroundings by flushing down a preppie classmate’s shoe in the toilet. Like other literary works about troubled boys, Tommy experiences some sort of an epiphany towards the end of the book, and the overall conclusion is somewhat ambiguous yet not cliched or predictable.
In depicting Tommy and Johnny with some convincing dialogue and actions, Hamilton, who is the author of Legends of the Chelsea Hotel, seems to have a grasp on adolescence and the growing pains associated with it: such as fitting in, sex, insecurities, changing friendships, and the repressiveness of the Catholic system system. The word ‘subdivision’ is mentioned many times in Lords of the Schoolyard, and it importantly conveys the flip-side of the suburban dream and how one’s surroundings can influence behavior. While that does not totally justify or excuse Tommy’s destructive behavior and bullying, which are quite cruel, it’s also worth understanding the causes for his alienation. As common in most bullies, Tommy is a kid wrapped up in his own insecurities amid a not-so-great family life at home—one that includes an indifferent father (who is also his son’s football coach in the beginning in the book).
Lords of the Schoolyard reads like one long list of crazy and shocking acts by two boys that after a while seems mind-numbing to the reader. But there are some dark and subtle moments of humor to lighten things up, including the theft of a typewriter and the boys’ encounter with a hippie cult group. While it’s easy to hate Tommy, there are a few brief flickers of self-realization within the kid that makes you feel a little sorry for him.
As mentioned, this 278-page entertaining and yet sobering novel takes place in the ‘70s (references to bands such as Pink Floyd and Black Oak Arkansas indicate the era). But bullying transcends time and place, and Lords of the Schoolyard is just another commentary about the cruelties that a young person inflicts on another. Sadly, it doesn’t appear that will ever end anytime soon in this day and age.
Ed Hamilton’s Lords of the Schoolyard, published by Sagging Meniscus Press, is out now. The author will be doing a reading from the book on January 18, at the New York Public Library’s Jefferson Library branch in New York City, 6:30 p.m.