someday this pain will be useful to you

Someday this pain will be useful to you by Peter Cameron.

Summary
About a few days (weeks?) in James Sveck's life, an 18-year old who doesn't seem to know what he is doing.

Source
I read about this on Laineygossip.com, on which she shared pictures of the movie that is based on the book.

My thoughts
This was a very quick read. I don't know that I loved it, nor did I hate it. I can somewhat relate to James' lack of direction but I'm not sure I felt particular empathy with him. I think I felt more like he should just snap out of his funk.

I did mark this passage because I could relate to these feelings toward my own mother:
"I knew she wanted to help me. I knew she was my mother and loved me and I didn't want to be mean, but there something else inside me, something hard and stubborn that was mean."

Another passage I liked:

"I found this spectacle somewhat depressing, because I had always thought, or hoped, that adults weren't necessarily as hobbled by mindless conformity as so many of my peers seem to be. I always looked forward to being an adult, because I thought the adult world was, well - adult. That adults weren't cliquey or nasty, that the whole notion of being cool, or in, or popular would cease to be the arbiter of all things social, but I was beginning to realize that the adult world was nonsensically brutal and socially perilous as the kind of childhood."

While I understand his feelings toward adult, I would have expected these thoughts from someone more mature and I thought James acted quite immaturely often. I guess that's what being a teenager is all about, having very mature thoughts but not quite acting at that level

I feel a bit bad because it seems that from reading reviews, this book has touched many people. Obviously from the passages above, I did somewhat relate to the main character but I didn't always understand his actions, nor his surprise to the consequences of his actions. Maybe I wasn't supposed to?