David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "coming-of-age"
THE SILVER STAR
The two girls in Jeannette Walls' novel, "Bean" and Liz Holladay, are extremely likable characters, and we cheer for them throughout. They've been stuck with a bad lot in life.
Their mother, Charlotte, who may be a manic-depressive, considers herself a singer songwriter and is prone to take off on a whim, a little "me time" as she would put it. At the beginning of the book they live in a small town in California and Charlotte leaves the girls with enough money to subsist on chicken pot pies, but when she doesn't show up in a reasonable amount of time, the girls decide to take a bus to Virginia and live with their uncle Tinsley, the former owner of a textile mill in another small town. He lives in a big house that's going to seed rapidly, and he's somewhat of a hoarder. He cares more about rocks and geneology than people, though he soon grows attached to the girls.
THE SILVER STAR can be funny at times, especially when Liz teases "Bean," whose real name is Jean, which Liz couldn't pronounce as a little girl. When Beaner is sick; Liz refers to her as "green Bean," when she's really sick she calls her "greener Beaner." Liz also takes after her mother in that she writes poetry and eventually learns how to play guitar. She also writes "emu" poetry, which gets a little old. A farmer near her uncle's place owns a pair of emus, and Liz grows attached.
Okay, here's the plot. Liz and Bean's uncle was forced out of the mill by an efficiency expert-type foreman, Jerry Maddox, with absolutely no people skills. He rides the workers hard. Uncle Tinsley really doesn't have much money left from his share of the sale of the mill, and the girls need school clothes; they take a job working for the psychotic Maddox. He hires Liz as a right-hand girl, but he has ulterior motives. Bean is hired to help his wife Doris take care of the kids. Maddox isn't a very believable character. Even in rural Virginia he wouldn't get away with what he does, not matter how many people work for the mill.
Liz and Bean also have different fathers. Bean's father died in Vietnam and she has cousins in the area that she rapidly connects with. The mother eventually shows up, but when things get tough she usually runs for the hills.
The ending also seems a bit far-fetched. We want Jerry Maddox to get his comeuppance, but the way it happens is suspect, and the ramifications of the event are about as believable as Jerry Maddox's previous bullet-proof behavior.
Their mother, Charlotte, who may be a manic-depressive, considers herself a singer songwriter and is prone to take off on a whim, a little "me time" as she would put it. At the beginning of the book they live in a small town in California and Charlotte leaves the girls with enough money to subsist on chicken pot pies, but when she doesn't show up in a reasonable amount of time, the girls decide to take a bus to Virginia and live with their uncle Tinsley, the former owner of a textile mill in another small town. He lives in a big house that's going to seed rapidly, and he's somewhat of a hoarder. He cares more about rocks and geneology than people, though he soon grows attached to the girls.
THE SILVER STAR can be funny at times, especially when Liz teases "Bean," whose real name is Jean, which Liz couldn't pronounce as a little girl. When Beaner is sick; Liz refers to her as "green Bean," when she's really sick she calls her "greener Beaner." Liz also takes after her mother in that she writes poetry and eventually learns how to play guitar. She also writes "emu" poetry, which gets a little old. A farmer near her uncle's place owns a pair of emus, and Liz grows attached.
Okay, here's the plot. Liz and Bean's uncle was forced out of the mill by an efficiency expert-type foreman, Jerry Maddox, with absolutely no people skills. He rides the workers hard. Uncle Tinsley really doesn't have much money left from his share of the sale of the mill, and the girls need school clothes; they take a job working for the psychotic Maddox. He hires Liz as a right-hand girl, but he has ulterior motives. Bean is hired to help his wife Doris take care of the kids. Maddox isn't a very believable character. Even in rural Virginia he wouldn't get away with what he does, not matter how many people work for the mill.
Liz and Bean also have different fathers. Bean's father died in Vietnam and she has cousins in the area that she rapidly connects with. The mother eventually shows up, but when things get tough she usually runs for the hills.
The ending also seems a bit far-fetched. We want Jerry Maddox to get his comeuppance, but the way it happens is suspect, and the ramifications of the event are about as believable as Jerry Maddox's previous bullet-proof behavior.
THE GOLDFINCH
The set-up for THE GOLDFINCH involves a museum explosion, some sort of homegrown terrorism, in which fourteen-year-old Theo Decker’s mother is killed. Ironically, when Theo comes to (he’s also knocked out) he pulls an old man from the rubble who gives him a ring and directs him toward a painting on the wall that he wants Theo to take.
The painting is THE GOLDFINCH a famous work by Fabritius, a student of Rembrandt’s. We don’t know for sure if the painting was ever stolen, but it is an actual painting you can look at in a Dutch museum. The irony is that Fabritius was killed in an explosion himself that destroyed most of his paintings. Tartt gives us a little lesson on why the painting is so valuable. The bird is chained to its perch, but its feathers look real, except for a brush stroke along the side of one wing, which Fabritius purposefully adds to show the viewer his technique as an artist rather than a photographer.
Decker bounces from New York to Las Vegas and back to New York, where he finally uses the ring to get in touch with the old man’s partner, Hobie, who’s a master craftsman who uses bits and pieces of old classic furniture to make it look new, but he’s a lousy salesman and that’s where Theo comes in. He sells the furniture as if Hobie’s “creations” were actual valuable antiques.
Back in Vegas Theo met Boris, whose accent was hard to pin down; it was part Russian and part Australian. Boris’s father was a miner and had been all over the world and so had Boris. They take a lot of drugs and skip school more than they go. Another character who figures predominately is Pippa, the dying old man’s ward, whom Theo falls in love with. He’s not sure whether she loves him back, and that’s part of what little plot there is. Will Pippa and Theo ever get together? Theo's father, a failed actor, is significant for a while; he had left Theo and his mother in the lurch, but after the bombing he’s suddenly interested in Theo, and that’s how Theo lands in Las Vegas.
The painting plays a role throughout the book; it’s lost and found and lost again. The most painful part of the book is when Theo is stuck in a hotel room in Amsterdam without a passport to leave the country. What we have here is a “talking head”, what writers call a character alone on the stage, essentially talking to himself. If it hadn’t been like page 700, I would have quit reading. The word “whiner” wouldn’t be too severe a description of the boy Boris calls “Potter” because of his round glasses.
Then there’s the relationship between Boris and Theo. The reader should be wondering if Boris is “playing” Theo. He’s already crossed him once. This thread could have added some suspense to the plot, but Tartt has already foreshadowed where that relationship is at the end of the book. Theo tells us when he meets Boris in Las Vegas. There also isn’t much of a character arc for Theo. Although he’s trying to make amends for his shady dealings, he’s the same miserable introvert at the end of the book that he was in Vegas, and we don’t see a whole lot of hope for him.
The painting is THE GOLDFINCH a famous work by Fabritius, a student of Rembrandt’s. We don’t know for sure if the painting was ever stolen, but it is an actual painting you can look at in a Dutch museum. The irony is that Fabritius was killed in an explosion himself that destroyed most of his paintings. Tartt gives us a little lesson on why the painting is so valuable. The bird is chained to its perch, but its feathers look real, except for a brush stroke along the side of one wing, which Fabritius purposefully adds to show the viewer his technique as an artist rather than a photographer.
Decker bounces from New York to Las Vegas and back to New York, where he finally uses the ring to get in touch with the old man’s partner, Hobie, who’s a master craftsman who uses bits and pieces of old classic furniture to make it look new, but he’s a lousy salesman and that’s where Theo comes in. He sells the furniture as if Hobie’s “creations” were actual valuable antiques.
Back in Vegas Theo met Boris, whose accent was hard to pin down; it was part Russian and part Australian. Boris’s father was a miner and had been all over the world and so had Boris. They take a lot of drugs and skip school more than they go. Another character who figures predominately is Pippa, the dying old man’s ward, whom Theo falls in love with. He’s not sure whether she loves him back, and that’s part of what little plot there is. Will Pippa and Theo ever get together? Theo's father, a failed actor, is significant for a while; he had left Theo and his mother in the lurch, but after the bombing he’s suddenly interested in Theo, and that’s how Theo lands in Las Vegas.
The painting plays a role throughout the book; it’s lost and found and lost again. The most painful part of the book is when Theo is stuck in a hotel room in Amsterdam without a passport to leave the country. What we have here is a “talking head”, what writers call a character alone on the stage, essentially talking to himself. If it hadn’t been like page 700, I would have quit reading. The word “whiner” wouldn’t be too severe a description of the boy Boris calls “Potter” because of his round glasses.
Then there’s the relationship between Boris and Theo. The reader should be wondering if Boris is “playing” Theo. He’s already crossed him once. This thread could have added some suspense to the plot, but Tartt has already foreshadowed where that relationship is at the end of the book. Theo tells us when he meets Boris in Las Vegas. There also isn’t much of a character arc for Theo. Although he’s trying to make amends for his shady dealings, he’s the same miserable introvert at the end of the book that he was in Vegas, and we don’t see a whole lot of hope for him.
Beartown
If you haven't read A MAN CALLED OVE, you've missed out. Fredrik Backman's second effort, MY GRANDMOTHER ASKED ME TO TELL YOU SHE'S SORRY is more of a fantasy, an acquired taste, shall we say. With BEARTOWN Backman is back on track as my new favorite novelist.
Beartown is a dying town assumably in the midst of the Swedish northern forest. All they've got is their semi-pro hockey team. In this instance it's the junior hockey team the townspeople are excited about. Peter, the General Manager, and David, the coach, have groomed an assortment of pups into a formidable unit that will play in the national semi-finals. The star player is Kevin Erdahl who is good enough to some day play in the NHL. This is a tough league. An opposing player will put Kevin in the hospital without his best friend, Benji.”the bravest bastard I know,” according to his coach. But they're slow. Sune, the A team coach, notices this kid who shows up at the rink early in the morning to practice his game. His name is Amat, and he will play in the semi-final game despite the fact that he's only fifteen.
But there's a party after the semi-final game, and a girl is raped. Complication, the rapist is the best player on the junior team and the girl is Peter's fifteen-year-old daughter, Maya. She waits a week but she eventually files a rape charge, just before the final game. Just about everybody in Beartown hates her and her father.
There's some pretty cool stuff in this book. Ramona, the owner of the local watering hole, tells one of the sponsors of the Beartown A-team: “We may not know the difference between right and wrong, but we know the difference between good and evil.”
Peter's wife is pretty cool, too. Her name is Kira; she wants to kill the boy who hurt her daughter, but she's a lawyer, so she'll use every ploy she can think of to hurt him and his family in other ways. The other mothers in kindergarten called her The Wolf Mother.
The ending sort of fades. Four kids bring the Beartown team back to prominence; two will play in the NFL, one will die. We know which one it is, but Backman doesn't tell us how he died. He has a secret, so maybe that was what finally got him, but you'll have to decide for yourself of write Backman a nasty letter.
Beartown is a dying town assumably in the midst of the Swedish northern forest. All they've got is their semi-pro hockey team. In this instance it's the junior hockey team the townspeople are excited about. Peter, the General Manager, and David, the coach, have groomed an assortment of pups into a formidable unit that will play in the national semi-finals. The star player is Kevin Erdahl who is good enough to some day play in the NHL. This is a tough league. An opposing player will put Kevin in the hospital without his best friend, Benji.”the bravest bastard I know,” according to his coach. But they're slow. Sune, the A team coach, notices this kid who shows up at the rink early in the morning to practice his game. His name is Amat, and he will play in the semi-final game despite the fact that he's only fifteen.
But there's a party after the semi-final game, and a girl is raped. Complication, the rapist is the best player on the junior team and the girl is Peter's fifteen-year-old daughter, Maya. She waits a week but she eventually files a rape charge, just before the final game. Just about everybody in Beartown hates her and her father.
There's some pretty cool stuff in this book. Ramona, the owner of the local watering hole, tells one of the sponsors of the Beartown A-team: “We may not know the difference between right and wrong, but we know the difference between good and evil.”
Peter's wife is pretty cool, too. Her name is Kira; she wants to kill the boy who hurt her daughter, but she's a lawyer, so she'll use every ploy she can think of to hurt him and his family in other ways. The other mothers in kindergarten called her The Wolf Mother.
The ending sort of fades. Four kids bring the Beartown team back to prominence; two will play in the NFL, one will die. We know which one it is, but Backman doesn't tell us how he died. He has a secret, so maybe that was what finally got him, but you'll have to decide for yourself of write Backman a nasty letter.
