"Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars" is a children's book written by Daniel M. Pinkwater, published in 1979. It is one of my favorite novels. It is a humurous book about growing up. I recently re-read it, and I still thought it was a good book. This book is moderately known, but it is beloved by its fans. "Obscure but beloved" can describe Pinkwater himself, who by any measure has had a long, successful careera as children's writer, but is no where close to be as known as J.K. Rowling. For that reason I won't spoil this almost 50-year-old book, although I will give enough of the plot so that I can discuss what I like most about the book.
The book starts as a realistic story about how Leonard Neeble just moved to a new house in the subburbs, and how he is having trouble adapting to his new school where he is an outcast. He misses his old neighboorhood and friends. He tries to talk about this with his parents, but they are too clueless to understand what is going on. He stops doing schoolwork, so he is failing his classes. Leonard is sent to a psychiatrist to figure out why he won't do his homework. The psychiatrist is more interested in his own theories about Leonard than listening to him, so Leonard plays along so that he can leave school early.
Then Alan Mendelsohn joins the school. He thinks other students are stupid. He has different techniques to trip them. He contributes in class by telling embarrassing details about historical figures, disrupting the class. Alan engineers a school riot. Leonard is in awe of Alan's attitude and powers. Alan befriends Leonard.
So far, this is typical 1970s young adult novel. Realistic until Alan shows up. Alan expresses a kind of middle school power fantasy, where most of is actions are plausible until we reach the riot episode. Still in the realm of realism, Alan and Leonard go to downtown Hoboken to buy comic books. There they find an esoteric bookstore, the kind that had books on UFOs, bigfoot, tarot, astrology, etc. They meet the owner, Samuel Klugarsh, who swindles them into buying a mind control course. They go home, read the poorly written booklet, try to reach the right state of mind, state 26, for mind control, and fail. They realized that they were cheated. First they are angry; then they find it funny and start laughing until they get too tired and spaced out.
Then they reached state 26.
Then the book get weird. Super weird. The book crosses into science fiction here.
From this point on they keep meeting a series of adults who guide them, each with a bit more knowledge, each with contempt for their previous guide, each who cheats them, and each one of them flawed and ridiculous. If you want to know the details, go ahead and read the book.
I have shared enough so that I can discuss what I love the most about the book. It is a deeply funny and subersive book, even today.
"Alan Mendelsohn, a Boy from Mars" stays realistic in how as we grow up, we get a number of mentors and guides who at first appear mighty and all-knowing, but then we discover that they are proud, insecure, wrong, and, sometimes, a fraud. Leonard had already figured that out about his parents, who he thinks that they are well-meaning but focused on superficial issues. He finds his granparents more interesting, but he understands that they are eccentric, so they offer eccentric solutions to his problems. Leonard hopes that the psychiatrist will listen to him and offer real guidance, but he discovers that he already diagnosed him and is eager to find evidence that he is right. Leonard lets him think so.
Alan is another of these mentor figures for Leonard. I believe we all had that one kid in middleschool who seemed cooler, in control, who we admired. As we get older, we understand that they were just another kid with the same set of insecurities that we had. Leonard is surprised when Alan becomes humble after talking to Samuel Klugarsh. He goes along with Alan's desire to buy the mind control course. Klugarsh becomes and stays their mentor until the next one comes along.
If we use the Hero's Journey as a template, the book sort of finds itself in this weird loop where the heroes keep engaging with different sages, all who say something slightly different about state 26. Using Star Wars, it would be as if Luke kept running into a series of Obi-Wans and Yodas, but instead of both of these confirming and strengthening Luke's knowledge of The Force, Yoda would say how Obi-Wan was wrong, and other mentors saying how Yoda got it wrong. And so on. At the same time, Luke still applies the skills that he got from the Force and keeps succeeding, even if the explanations of what the Force is or how to use it are wrong.
This is the experience that most of us have as we grow up. We progressively discover how the people we admire are just as human as we are. In the meantime, we learn as much as we can from them. We learn something useful, even if it is misleading. They help us to get ready for our next teacher.
Alan and Leonard don't angrily reject their failed mentors. They still socialize with them, they accept them for who they are, mainly because they are interesting. They may be wrong, but they are earnest about their strange interests. This is a great lesson that Pinkwater slipps in. The normal teenage response is to be angry and to feel cheated. This comes from the perspective from a child, who still believes adults are powerful and understand the world. Alan and Leonard behave beyond their years, showing a mixture of resignation, acceptance, and gratitude towards people who helped them. Sadly, for some of us, it can take us a while until we get to this point in our lives.
It is a fun humor sci-fi book. If you grew up without the internet, this book may trigger nice childhood memories. The book is best for kids in middleschool and above. Read the book before ahanding it over a child since it has the main characters smoking.