Brophy senior publishes book of young men’s wisdom

By Andrew Junker, The Catholic Sun
Sept. 6, 2007

For many high school students, this past summer was a time of relaxation, movie viewing and loafing around. For 17-year-old James Warne, it was the realization of nearly two years of hard work and planning.

That’s because the Brophy College Preparatory senior published his first book this past July.

“Character for Tomorrow” is a collection of 37 short essays written by current Brophy students and recent alumni.

“I got the idea from my peers,” Warne explained. “I realized that some of their stories were so hard-hitting and the manner in which they approached them was so straight-forward and candid that, frankly, I was impressed.”

Each entry relates a personal experience of the writer. Some concern events common in most young men’s lives: the fear of a new school and, more unfortunately common, dealing with divorce.

Other topics are more exotic: the tensions a young Polish immigrant feels between his new country and his old, and learning to cope with the sudden death of a father.

It’s this mixture of both shared and singular experiences that makes the book successful, Warne said.

“I figured that if I could be so inspired and impressed by them, then others would be too,” he said. “It was something that needed to get out there.”

But getting the book from conception to completion proved difficult at times. First, Warne had to find enough people to write the stories. He approached some of his friends at school and called recent graduates recommended by members of Brophy’s faculty.

Then he had to convince these writers to share their stories. Some, who couldn’t understand why Warne was investing so much time in the project, took more coaxing than others.

“When I first started, I was afraid that I’d work on it, but I wouldn’t get it finished, that it would be too much for me,” he said. “But I’d get these stories and you get so invested in them.”

This drive to make “Character for Tomorrow” a reality led Warne to a bookstore where he purchased a self-publishing manual. He followed the book step by step.

The kids are all right

Warne limited himself to contributors who are or were students at Brophy for a couple of reasons. One was purely practical; he knew current Brophy students and could contact alumni easily.

The second reason had more to do with the effects of a Jesuit education, which gave the entries a certain cohesion.

“The way that the Jesuits teach is they try to push openness,” Warne said. “That’s perfect for a book like this. They also teach you to evaluate your experiences.”

The evaluative aspect is most impressive in the collection. Nearly every entry is self-reflective without suffering from self-obsession, which often mars the personal essay genre.

The humility found in many of the essays is reflected in the authors’ writing. For the most part, the prose is clear and direct. The authors don’t hide behind an overestimated cleverness or florid stylings.

An unselfconscious and surprising portrait of today’s young men emerges from the pages. 

“The hard-partying, self-centered stereotype so often depicted on television or in the movies is totally absent” from the book, Warne writes in his introduction.

And though the book is intended for his own peer group — who Warne admits is not often the type to buy inspirational reading — he has found that parents and teachers have been purchasing copies of the book to glean insight into his peer group.

After collecting and publishing 37 stories culled from his generation, Warne feels a measured optimism.

“Every generation has had their problems,” he said.

But with contributors like those in “Character for Tomorrow,” this generation might find a few solutions too.