receives and gives books as gifts, he steals them, and it is when discussing books that he develops a crush on his English Teacher. Mason himself keeps a book in which he records his yearnings, titled, "The Lena Poems." Mr. Bergen provides the reader with backstage asides via footnotes. These comments provide sexual details, analysis, and mostly comic relief. When Mason wonders if his mother's lover has a larger penis than his father, Footnote#10 tells us.."He did. It was thicker and longer." This book, however does not leave one laughing. When the last page is turned the reader is deeply satisfied with this look into teen-age lives and human longing, but not happy. But then, as Mr. Ferry says to Mason, "Happy books aren't as interesting."