Tom Parks

Ordinary Pain Tom Parks

Twelve-year-old Larry Blank fears he's as nondescript as his name. At his tony private school, where kids compete to claim links to oppression, his humdrum family history marks him so boring he's not even worth bullying. In the run-up to his bar mitzvah, he hits on the idea of spinning his ancestors' experiences into a saga harrowing enough to bestow on him the coveted status of underprivilege. Funny, poignant, a coming-of-age story like no other, Ordinary Pain is also a thought-provoking look at the mysterious workings of empathy in an age of identity politics.