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52nd out of 130 books
—
102 voters
Asta in the Wings
by
Jan Elizabeth Watson (Goodreads Author)
Asta in the Wingsis the moving and often darkly funny story of Asta Hewitt, a resourceful seven-year-old and intrepid narrator growing up in an isolated house in Bond Brook, Maine. Shut off from the outside world and restricted to the company of a delusional mother and a bookish older brother, Asta is content to be part of a "society of three" constructing dramatic and fan...more
Paperback, 314 pages
Published
February 1st 2009
by Tin House Books
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this book is like a combination of Room and Lullabies for Little Criminals. the perspective is that of asta, seven-year-old girl whose single mother has never allowed her outside of the house. her older brother has been outside, but not since asta was three or so. their mother tells them there is a plague afoot, among other dangers, and these precautions are for their own protection. they are homeschooled and left alone while she goes off to work, leaving them with canned food and rules about ho...more
“With this, her excellent debut novel, Watson makes quick work of a setup that could prove challenging for even seasoned authors. Seven-year-old Asta grows up in rural Maine in the late 1970s, where she and her sickly nine-year-old brother, Orion, are kept locked in their house by their crazy mother, who fills their heads with tales of the plague-ravaged wasteland waiting outside their door. Equipped with little beyond what their mother provides, the children are wildly creative, surprisingly in...more
Well-done all around; there's a distinctive voice present in this novel, and the book is never not true to its characters. There's a fine balance between recounting events from afar and placing its narrator in the moment that 'Asta In the Wings' achieves.
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Heard Jan Elizabeth Watson read this evening (it was a Tin House-related night at Word in Greenpoint; see also: Keith Lee Morris's "The Dart League King"). Really liked the chapter that she read: mysterious and ominous in places and -- most im...more
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Heard Jan Elizabeth Watson read this evening (it was a Tin House-related night at Word in Greenpoint; see also: Keith Lee Morris's "The Dart League King"). Really liked the chapter that she read: mysterious and ominous in places and -- most im...more
This sounds incredibly creepy-cool. Here is a long excerpt from the Powell's.com review (which is mostly so I'll remember why I want to read this when I come upon it later):
Asta and Orion, it seems, are allegedly sick children in need of protection from the world of germs. They're homeschooled, as Asta will later explain, "on account of the plague," and are convinced that the streets outside are lined with piles of plague-ridden corpses. This preoccupation with illness comes directly from Loret...more
Asta and Orion, it seems, are allegedly sick children in need of protection from the world of germs. They're homeschooled, as Asta will later explain, "on account of the plague," and are convinced that the streets outside are lined with piles of plague-ridden corpses. This preoccupation with illness comes directly from Loret...more
Every year, my favorite booth at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, is the Tin House Publishing booth. They always have a great collection of books by new authors. Every year, I grab a minimum of four books from Tin House and just buy them based on the cover/title. I take a chance and this year, “Asta in The Wings” by Jan Elizabeth Watson, was one of the books that I grabbed.
Watson’s debut novel was impossible to put down. I read it in two days and found myself sad, when I had to set is as...more
Watson’s debut novel was impossible to put down. I read it in two days and found myself sad, when I had to set is as...more
Asta and her story are pretty remarkable. I love the clear, smart, sensitive style of writing. What might be my favorite aspect of reading this book might be that Asta is so innocent yet sharp--it gives such tension. I trusted that Asta would be able to handle herself, yet was so worried about her having to confront things that she couldn't expect. And I love love love that it's a grown up book that ends with hope!
If you read Room, read this.
The story is told from the perspective of Asta, a 7 year old girl. It is told in a retrospective manner in which she has had the time to process everything that has happened. That is the only thing I really don't like. I didn't get that feel of immediency or complete bafflement. And I wanted that. I also wanted other things finished....like the upstairs tenant.
The first 100 or so pages were the best for me. The recollections of Asta, Orion, and Mother in their home....more
The story is told from the perspective of Asta, a 7 year old girl. It is told in a retrospective manner in which she has had the time to process everything that has happened. That is the only thing I really don't like. I didn't get that feel of immediency or complete bafflement. And I wanted that. I also wanted other things finished....like the upstairs tenant.
The first 100 or so pages were the best for me. The recollections of Asta, Orion, and Mother in their home....more
I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. It sounded interesting, but probably wasn’t a book I would have picked up on my own. It took me a little while to warm up to it, but eventually I did. I think initially I was just uncomfortable with the premise of two young children being kept locked in their house by their unstable mother. Once the children were forced to leave the ‘safety’ of their home, things got a little more interesting. I thought the author did a really good job of conveying how ch...more
“Hi! I’m a young character whose only type of depth is that I’m given lines that no one my age would ever think of! I’m S-M-R-T! That means I’m likeable. I like to stare at things and describe them in an obscenely BOOTIFUL way! I complain a lot and my mom is mean and stupid. She’s also neurotic but surprisingly, has more depth than me still! I’m also kind of sad. Depressed, even. This really makes me relatable to older people who read this because you can’t possibly have a young character in a b...more
An interesting story told from the perspective of a 7-year-old girl about her and her brother being kept from the world by their mother, until one day when their mother doesn't return and they accidentally discover the outside world. I really liked this book, although I didn't know what to expect going into it so it took me a bit to get into the story and understand what this mother was doing to her children. I have so many unanswered questions also. It's like the author wasn't sure how to have...more
Asta is a 7-year-old who, with her 9-year-old brother, Orion, lives an interesting life. This book is from her point of view. She and her brother stay locked inside while their mother goes to work each day. Asta is very positive about her mother, her actions and behaviors. Because she knows no other way, her world is perfect. When she and brother end up on the "outside", they still have the memories of their life inside their home to guide them in their experiences. Very interesting looking at t...more
This was an adult novel about a two kids (7 and 9) living with alone with their somewhat delusional mother. The kids never left the house because their mother thought there were too many germs out there. She locked them in the house all day while she was out cleaning houses and barely gave them any food because so they were really skinny, malnourished, and sickly. One day, she doesn't come home and the kids eventually break out of the house. Of course, when people find out how they live, they ar...more
This book had potential, and even had some really good parts to it. However, the plot was pretty non-existent. The first 100 pages are an absolute yawn where nothing happens except for the main character professing and thinking things a seven-year-old would never say. The main conflict finishes about 100 pages before the book ends, and the story just trails along after that. What is good about it comprises only about 1/3 of the book, right in the middle, when Asta and her brother are searching f...more
Asta in the Wings is written from the perspective of 7-year old Asta. She lives in a boarded up house with her older brother, Orion, and her mother. As her mother goes out into the world to work everyday, Asta and Orion stay inside, protected from the debilitating germs and disease their mother has warned them exists in the outside world. They sip at soup, remembering their mother's warning that too much food will make them ill. They have fantastic explanations for simple occurrences, and are th...more
I really liked this book. Working with Foster Kids you see children who love their families so much, despite what their life was like with them. The girl who narrated the story of her and her brothers life felt her life was normal. It was all she ever knew. Everything she had been taught was real and true to her. She didn't know anything else. I love that this story was told from her point of view. I wish that she had, had more adults who were able to reach out and help her. It was frustrating t...more
Not too long ago I read Room by Emma Donoghue. This is a "smoother" telling of basically the same story, one where a child is locked in a house w/out windows and unsure of the world "out there", yet is forced to make acquaintance with it in short order. I really like how Watson didn't sugarcoat the adaptions Asta (and her brother) need to make, and her 1978 references ring true.
This fascinating novel is a unique twist on the dysfunctional trope. The opening line--"On the last day, the day before everything changed, my mother told me her theory about the movies"--sets us up for some disaster, but what follows is not at all what we expect. Our narrator, Asta, a bright 7-year-old girl, conveys the deep love & admiration she has for her mother & her sickly 9-year-old brother (the father is dead, apparently by suicide). Gradually we learn that every day when their m...more
I really liked this book. I would recommend it to almost anyone. Right from the start you can tell the family is very different. The writing is descriptive yet holds the innocence and youthful thoughts of the narrator, which I particularly loved. You can tell this girl is intelligent and holds quite the active imagination for a seven year old. The mother comes off as egotistical and a bit cold but you can tell she holds love for her children. As the story goes on, we get bits and pieces of the b...more
This story is riveting from the beginning. Asta is seven, and her brother Orion is nine. Set in rural Maine in 1978, the tale begins with them playing in the house when their mother goes off to work. Everything seems normal until Asta comments on the triple locks that her mother sets every morning to keep her children inside, and safe from the plague that rages all around. Asta asks her brother to tell her the stories from when he remembers being outside, before the plague began - running along...more
Sep 04, 2009
Lisa Vegan
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
readers who enjoy novels with child characters told in their voices
This is a remarkable book, without an ounce of sentimentality, something a story such as this usually has. It could have been heartbreaking, but was only on a few occasions. I loved Asta’s unique voice and outlook. She’s a character I will remember.
The book was very well written and there are some beautiful lines. It was funny, poignant, and unusual.
Before I read it I’d thought that it was told by a seven year old girl, but it seemed to be told by her at an older age looking back. However, it tr...more
The book was very well written and there are some beautiful lines. It was funny, poignant, and unusual.
Before I read it I’d thought that it was told by a seven year old girl, but it seemed to be told by her at an older age looking back. However, it tr...more
2 likes · like · see review
This is definitely one of my new favorite books.
Asta in the Wings is about a young girl walking into the real world, and not sure if she likes it. It's a story told from the point of view of Asta. She used to live with her brother and mom holed up alone in a house. The mother seemed to have a mental break down a little after her husband died, or moved (Asta doesn't know what happened, so the reader doesn't really know either). After mother leaves, Asta and her brother leave the house for the fir...more
Asta in the Wings is about a young girl walking into the real world, and not sure if she likes it. It's a story told from the point of view of Asta. She used to live with her brother and mom holed up alone in a house. The mother seemed to have a mental break down a little after her husband died, or moved (Asta doesn't know what happened, so the reader doesn't really know either). After mother leaves, Asta and her brother leave the house for the fir...more
A delusional mother who ends up keeping her kids locked up in their home 24/7, afraid they'll contract some terrible illness. They end up leaving the house one day, and the police find out about their living conditions. The kids are separated and have to adjust to the real world.
But there doesn't seem to be must adjusting happening by the end - Asta picks her nose when she spends all her days at home, and she picks her nose when she starts attending public school tool.
Not terrible...just borin...more
But there doesn't seem to be must adjusting happening by the end - Asta picks her nose when she spends all her days at home, and she picks her nose when she starts attending public school tool.
Not terrible...just borin...more
Admission: I didn't read the entire book. I really did try a few times to start this book, but could never make it past the first chapter. I tried skipping ahead to see if the middle would catch me, but no luck there, either.
I know it's not much of a review, but the only thing I really can say is "I just didn't get into it" and since I'm reading for my own enjoyment, I figured why force the issue. I gleefully put this book down unread without feeling any guilt! ;-)
I know it's not much of a review, but the only thing I really can say is "I just didn't get into it" and since I'm reading for my own enjoyment, I figured why force the issue. I gleefully put this book down unread without feeling any guilt! ;-)
It's an interesting idea, and well-executed for the most part. The one thing that bugged me was the incredibly abrupt ending. They had finally seen their mom, and then BAM, it's over. We never got any closure with several of the characters, and the children seemed almost too incredibly gifted. I also wish that more perspective had been put in by either Asta or Orion as to their mother's mental condition or becoming foster children, as Asta never seems to dwell on either (yes, yes, I know she's o...more
Asta and her brother Orion are completely shut away from their mother (who is a bit of a nut job) who has told them that if they go outside will die of the plague. But one night she doesn't come home and they are forced to fend for themselves. This story made me kind of sad. While the children were surviving and in many ways thriving by the end of the story, it tugged at my heart to think of a mother who would treat her children the way this one did.
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I really enjoyed this book--a great central character. And I loved that the author stayed away from the cliched entirely abusive/misunderstood parent--I think the mom was definitely a little of both, which made her a deeper character. But there were a few characters and events that I felt the author set up for... what? I don't know. They came, with some pretty big-seeming revelations, then disappeared. I wonder if maybe she's setting up for a sequel...??
Lovely writing. Thought there was some kind of supernatural side to it, but instead it was so much like reality that it was a bit painful. I think I was disappointed at the end because I wanted there to be some kind of alien taking over the mother's mind instead of mental illness because that was just too real for me, but the more I think about the book, the more I liked it. I LOVED both Asta and Orion, especially Orion. But I feel like there should be another book, or maybe more about the upsta...more
My biggest complaint about this book was that it ended and I didn't feel it was finished. There were so many things that I wanted explanations about. However, I understand that this was most likely what Watson meant to do. I'm assuming that because although I've obviously never spoken to the author, the book is so well written that I have to assume that this was done intentionally and not merely as an oversight. Anyway, I liked it.
It was a small, small croud that gathered for this event. Which was a shame because the author was sweet in a pixie sort of way (my guess is that she was goth in high school, but now lives in Maine where dyed black hair is enough to label her as "artistic") and the post-reading talk was rockin. The questions asked and the discussion generated was of the highest calibur. Construction of childhood in her novel, Victorian infulences, narrative distance...this was good stuff.
From what I hear, her bo...more
From what I hear, her bo...more
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Jan Elizabeth Watson lives in Maine. ASTA IN THE WINGS is her first novel. She is at work on a second novel, LITTLE FIFTEEN.
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“It doesn't seem right that someone like that would get sick and die.'
[He] countered, 'Why shouldn't it be right? It's what happens.”
—
2 people liked it
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[He] countered, 'Why shouldn't it be right? It's what happens.”
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