Fat kid rules the world

Fat kid rules the world / K. L. Going. – New York : G.P. Putnam's Sons, c2003.

187 p. ; 22 cm.

ISBN: 0399239901

1. Boys – Suicidal behavior – Fiction. 2. Drug abuse – Fiction. 3. New York (N.Y.) – Fiction. 4. Obesity – Fiction. 5. Punk rock musicians – Fiction.

813.6

His morbid obesity leads Troy Billings to a morbid fascination with suicide. As he’s standing at the edge of a New York City subway platform contemplating jumping in front of the next oncoming train, he’s snatched by a scrawny kid who tells him that since he’s saved his life Troy owes his rescuer dinner. Fascinated by the seeming ability of the other teen to read his mind, Troy takes him to a restaurant, where his rescuer, Curt, suddenly announces that he wants 300-pound, six-foot-one Troy to be the drummer in his new punk rock band.

Curt is greatly in need of a bath, and food, and clothing, and he seems to have some perpetual illness that requires continual medication. He has a bad habit of rummaging through medicine cabinets and popping whatever he finds into his mouth. He also falls asleep a lot at odd times. He also has a habit of disappearing and reappearing after a few days absence. In spite of all this, he actually does play a mean electric guitar and has a lot of street credibility among the punk rock crowd and among the kids at Troy’s high school. Troy, who has to learn how to play the drums at his new friend’s insistence, suddenly finds himself transformed from big man on campus, an object of scorn and humiliation to big man on campus, the coolest guy in the school.