Saint Iggy

Sixteen year old Iggy Corso can’t seem to catch a break. His dad is always stoned. His mom has left and Iggy has no idea when or if she will be coming back. He doesn’t have a room of his own and is forced to sleep on the couch in a smelly, trashed apartment. Worst of all, he has just been unfairly kicked out of school.

Iggy decides to do something amazing that will change the mind of everyone who thinks he is a loser. Although he hasn’t worked out all of the details for his "How-To-Change-Everyone's-Mind-About-Me Plan," he knows that he will need money and so he turns to his only friend Mo. Mo is a law school dropout from a wealthy family who is on the verge of becoming a drug addict and wants to join the Hare Krishnas. Together Iggy and Mo set out on a mission---Mo to score some weed, and Iggy to hopefully score some cash once Mo is sufficiently stoned.

The spacing between paragraphs in this book is much larger than normal and so the pages seem to fly by as we follow Iggy on a quest to change the world that is at times as humorous as it is tragic (i.e., Iggy’s impromptu speech to a group of rich philanthropists during a Save the Parks committee meeting).

Iggy is a very likeable character. He knows his personal weaknesses and he honestly wants to better himself and contribute in a positive way to the world. As a reader, I found myself really hoping that Iggy would make good choices, and wincing when he does not.