Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You


Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You is a young adult novel by Peter Cameron. James Sveck, the protagonist, tells the reader about his life, including the reasons he became a "Missing Misfit" and is seeing a psychiatrist.

Plot

James Sveck, 18, is an isolated young adult caught in the summer before he is to begin college at Brown University. The only person in his life with whom he is able to successfully relate is his grandmother; otherwise, James prefers solitude. Cameron's use of first person narration allows for the reader to create an intimate relationship with James as he works through his life and through the therapy sessions to which his parents have made him go. The reader learns about James’ present as he tells the events of his days, but the reader learns about his past when James reflects on his therapy sessions.

Characters

Awards and recognition

In 2012, Jean Vigo Italia and Four of a Kind Productions released a film based on the book, directed by Roberto Faenza and starring Toby Regbo. Marcia Gay Harden stars as James' mother, Peter Gallagher plays his father and Ellen Burstyn plays his grandmother.

Title

The title alludes to a line from the Amores by the Roman poet Ovid, "Perfer et obdura, dolor hic tibi proderit olim. "