Son of Interflux by Gordon Korman

Summary: Simon Irving is starting over in a new place again, thanks to his father’s job as Senior Vice-President at Interflux, the world’s largest corporation. He ends up getting into the local arts school with his talent for painting, and finally starts to make some friends who don’t hate him because of who his father is. When an opportunity comes up to stick it to Interflux due to an oversight, Simon jumps at it, sparking a school-wide teenage rebellion that launches his popularity and an epic battle between him and his father.

Number of Pages: 282

Age Range: 13-15

Review: With larger than life characters and situations, Gordon Korman’s Son of Interflux is a laugh out loud, inventive read with heart.

There are so many things I love about this book, but my favourite character is T.C. Serrette, the Canadian who acts as an agent/lawyer for the other students in tough situations. He stays at other people’s houses in exchange for his services, and he is especially skilled at speaking the language of adults.

I also loved the bonding between Simon and his father Cyril that happens over Simon’s mother’s cooking. I wouldn’t say that the female characters are that fleshed out in this book, but since Son of Interflux is about Simon, a teenage guy, I can see why Korman chose to write it that way. Simon obviously doesn’t understand woman or how to approach a relationship quite yet, but his attempts at doing so are very humourous.

It’s easy for me to just gush about this book, but suffice it to say if you’ve never read Korman before, this is a great book to start with. And if you have read him before, Son of Interflux is not to be missed. I can’t believe I had never read it before today.

Memorable Quotes:

“All his life, he’d never been able to get a girl to look at him twice, but someone as attractive as Wendy had seemed totally out of reach. Yet he’d had not one, but two opportunities with this great-looking dancer. The first time, he’d burned her for $6,700, and now he’d just thrown her out of his car. What was he – crazy? Ah, but he’d done it for his friends, the people who’d taken in a lonely Simon Irving in a new town and a new school. In the case of Phil and Sam, that was friendship above and beyond the call of duty, not caring if he was stupid, or impulsive , or harebrained, or the son of Interflux. These people deserved the stand he’d taken for them tonight.” – from Son of Interflux by Gordon Korman, page 218

“For art, thought Simon, but as he held her close, he had a great surge of feeling. About how this was Wendy, and how much he liked her, and how stupid he’d been to kick her out of his car. Even an idiot would have the brains not to throw away a third chance. She’d said she wouldn’t have anything to do with him if her were the last man in the universe! Well, now he was! Surely she could make an exception!” – from Son of Interflux by Gordon Korman, page 236

“Throughout all the Antiflux excitement, enthusiasm, and triumph, Interflux had always held the winning cards, and he had known that and forgotten it somewhere along the way. The fact was that, in real life, the tortoise would never beat the hare. The hare would always wake up at the last minute and pull it off in the final stretch.” – from Son of Interflux by Gordon Korman, page 251

“Phil stopped walking again. ‘I mean, think about it, Simon. What have we accomplished? Really!’

Simon shuffled uncomfortably, ‘Not much, I guess.’

Phil looked at him. ‘Then why was it so good?’ – conversation between Phil and Simon from Son of Interflux by Gordon Korman, page 258

“Sometimes the great organizing principle of the universe wasn’t such a bad guy after all.” – Simon from Son of Interflux by Gordon Korman, page 282

Son of Interflux by Gordon Korman is published by Scholastic Canada (1986).
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