Kissing The Rain by Kevin Brooks

In this book the main character the main character is a young boy called Michael Nelson. His nickname is Moo due to his obesity. I think that this is linked to the commonly used phrase ‘fat cow’ used to describe people who are overweight. This bullying is the only kind of attention he receives. He is otherwise generally ignored. Throughout the book, words are frequently capitalized, which represent Moo’s thoughts and place emphasis on words. His thoughts can be quite humorous, for example,
“Dad probably fell out of bed- KABOOM!!- wake up the whole damn village”.
I think that the title is very significant because ‘rain’ is Michael’s name for the bullying of which he experiences. ‘Kissing The Rain’ perhaps means that he has to face up to it and do something about it. I think that bullying is compared to rain because neither stops and Moo soaks it up and carries it with him. He allows it to bring him down and manages to pull the reader into his depressing outlook on life.
The book is also injected with feelings that make the reader sympathize with Moo. The reader sympathizes with Moo because the story is told from his point of view. He constantly puts himself down because he has low self esteem.

There is a lot of symbolism in the book. The bridge of which he goes to stand on every night is symbolic. It is his own private space, like his sanctuary. It is the place where he goes to empty his mind of the thoughts which bring him down. His nickname is symbolic of his obesity, as aforementioned and the rain is symbolic of bullying.

Some slang and swearing is included in the book, but it is mild. The dialect suggests that the story is set in England.

He spends a lot of time by himself and his only ‘friend’, Brady, communicated with him via e-mail. When Brady is beaten up he finds himself in a state of conflict because he doesn’t know whether or not he should tell the truth and this causes him to catechize his own values.