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School for the Blind: A Novel
When two students are found dead in their small Florida hometown, an aging brother and sister are forced to confront their own dark past while on the hunt for a murderer
As a successful news photographer, Francis Brimm has lived a life of adventure, traveling the world and accumulating little baggage—either material or personal. Now nearing retirement, he has decided to move back to his Florida hometown, where his sister, Muriel, by her own admission, has led a much less fulfilling existence. As children of an alcoholic father and an icy, withholding mother, the siblings have found that the wounds of childhood remain well into adulthood. The scars of their past come into stark relief when Francis and Muriel find the bones of two children, both students of the nearby school for the blind. In the search for the killer, they are both forced to reexamine the long-ago trauma that shaped their lives.
Suspenseful and psychologically astute, School for the Blind is a masterwork of literary fiction by bestselling author Dennis McFarland.
As a successful news photographer, Francis Brimm has lived a life of adventure, traveling the world and accumulating little baggage—either material or personal. Now nearing retirement, he has decided to move back to his Florida hometown, where his sister, Muriel, by her own admission, has led a much less fulfilling existence. As children of an alcoholic father and an icy, withholding mother, the siblings have found that the wounds of childhood remain well into adulthood. The scars of their past come into stark relief when Francis and Muriel find the bones of two children, both students of the nearby school for the blind. In the search for the killer, they are both forced to reexamine the long-ago trauma that shaped their lives.
Suspenseful and psychologically astute, School for the Blind is a masterwork of literary fiction by bestselling author Dennis McFarland.
258 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
About the author
Dennis McFarland
25 books37 followersA 1975 Brooklyn College graduate, McFarland also attended and later taught at Goddard College and Stanford University. At Stanford, McFarland worked as teacher of creative writing from 1981 to 1986. His fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories and The New Yorker. McFarland is married Michelle Simons, and together they have two children. He lives with his family in Massachussetts.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
November 9, 2011
Can be a little slow, but in the end it is nicely reflective on aging, fucked up families, and things working out in the end.
Some paraphrases that struck me:
"What happened to us? Where are our children? Where are our grandchildren?"
"She felt that, despite it all, she had held out, simply through continuing on, and, in the end, found redemption". (Ok that one was a really rough paraphrase. But I might remember the feeling of what was actually said by that.)
Some paraphrases that struck me:
"What happened to us? Where are our children? Where are our grandchildren?"
"She felt that, despite it all, she had held out, simply through continuing on, and, in the end, found redemption". (Ok that one was a really rough paraphrase. But I might remember the feeling of what was actually said by that.)
April 11, 2020
During these troubling pandemic times, I was looking for a well-written novel to soothe my soul. In School for the Blind, I found only a portion of what I was looking for.
McFarland writes well. He knows how to unwind a tale, revealing important information step-by-step. He creates credible characters in deep interpersonal relationships, and those characters have believable dialogues. So there's some good writing here though the last quarter of the book falters. In style, structure, and story telling, McFarland's novel wanders and digresses while at the same time, he seems in a rush to conclude. It's a strange contradiction, both time consuming and rushed.
As for soothing my soul, School for the Blind is not so good. I knew going in that the novel is a murder mystery, but I didn't expect the widespread child abuse, and I was rarely soothed by the characters' numerous visions, apparitions, and dreams. Overall, I found the story disconcerting, even upsetting, certainly not peaceful.
It's hardly fair to blame McFarland for not meeting my expectations; I had specific preconceptions. However, it is fair to say I didn't care for School for the Blind despite its well-written portions.
McFarland writes well. He knows how to unwind a tale, revealing important information step-by-step. He creates credible characters in deep interpersonal relationships, and those characters have believable dialogues. So there's some good writing here though the last quarter of the book falters. In style, structure, and story telling, McFarland's novel wanders and digresses while at the same time, he seems in a rush to conclude. It's a strange contradiction, both time consuming and rushed.
As for soothing my soul, School for the Blind is not so good. I knew going in that the novel is a murder mystery, but I didn't expect the widespread child abuse, and I was rarely soothed by the characters' numerous visions, apparitions, and dreams. Overall, I found the story disconcerting, even upsetting, certainly not peaceful.
It's hardly fair to blame McFarland for not meeting my expectations; I had specific preconceptions. However, it is fair to say I didn't care for School for the Blind despite its well-written portions.
August 6, 2020
I'm in two minds about this book. The story of elderly siblings Francis and Muriel is told with insight and compassion. But together with the ending, I was left feeling the emotional content to be somewhat contrived and a little mawkish.
April 27, 2021
An intriguing mystery in which the real mystery is one's hidden secrets more than who murdered the blind girls. The "school" is how we are able to overcome our blindness to our secrets and make peace with our selves, regardless of age.
January 7, 2023
A mystery, but more importantly, a meditation on family, memories, aging, and death. This book has caused me to think more deeply about all these.
March 25, 2024
A very good novel. It's supposed to be a movie (principal photography begins summer 2024), with Amy Madigan and Ed Harris as the two main characters, a sister and brother.
May 26, 2011
"HIS LIFE'S WORK and ambition fulfilled. Francis Brimm believed the only metamorphosis left him was a slow, affable decline toward death, and so at the age of seventy-three he returned to the town of his youth to retire. He had been a news photographer--a witness, a messenger amid the world's fire and ashes--and he figured he had earned not only the right to let the world go, but also the poise to let it go with authority. He would read, write, sleep, visit the beach, fish, garden a bit, whatever he pleased--the pastimes, he imagined, of solitary old people of some accomplishment. The medley of images he assembled for this retirement included a cottage with a porch on which he might sit and muse over the prospects of the very next hour, but soon after he had settled into just such a place, he found himself absorbed in entirely different, unexpected ways."
Francis Brimm is a retired photojournalist who has traveled the world. With no wife and no children, he decides to return to his childhood hometown to live out the rest of his years. His sister Muriel, also elderly (5 years older), still lives in their childhood home. An intelligent woman, she is a retired librarian, who had worked at the local "school for the blind". As a retiree, she keeps busy with a life of routines. Soon, although not intentionally, her brother's return to the home of their youth, forces both siblings to deal with issues which have long "blinded" them.
For example, soon after Francis' arrival, his eyes begin playing tricks on him. It was not a one time happening. The image on the ceiling was of a young girl from Normandy from some fifty years earlier surface. Muriel's response to all this:
"Muriel felt certain the apparition he claimed to see on his bedroom ceiling was only a recurring dream, but if it turned out to be a sort of psychic or supernatural event, she wouldn't be surprised. "
Muriel, soon begins to recall events of the summer in 1928. Their father, a doctor, was an mean drunk; their mother was cold and distant.
In addition to the story of a these siblings trying to make sense of their past, there are subplots which include a murder mystery involving two teens that had gone missing from the "school for the blind" where Muriel had worked. A third person, a pregnant, unmarried housekeeper joins the household and strengthens the feeling of family at a time when the siblings need kindness the most.
Without giving away too much about how this story unfolds, I'll just say that it was an ambitious novel, that covered a lot. Initially, I had thought adding a murder mystery to a story about growing old, and making peace with one's imperfect past just wouldn't be a combination that would work, but the author surprised me. McFarland knew just when to add a bit of humor, a tad of sadness, and a level of suspense to make it work. Although, the novel wasn't perfect, it was enjoyable. The author did a great job of slowly revealing the events of the siblings pasts. I will be anxious to try another book by this author in the future.
Francis Brimm is a retired photojournalist who has traveled the world. With no wife and no children, he decides to return to his childhood hometown to live out the rest of his years. His sister Muriel, also elderly (5 years older), still lives in their childhood home. An intelligent woman, she is a retired librarian, who had worked at the local "school for the blind". As a retiree, she keeps busy with a life of routines. Soon, although not intentionally, her brother's return to the home of their youth, forces both siblings to deal with issues which have long "blinded" them.
For example, soon after Francis' arrival, his eyes begin playing tricks on him. It was not a one time happening. The image on the ceiling was of a young girl from Normandy from some fifty years earlier surface. Muriel's response to all this:
"Muriel felt certain the apparition he claimed to see on his bedroom ceiling was only a recurring dream, but if it turned out to be a sort of psychic or supernatural event, she wouldn't be surprised. "
Muriel, soon begins to recall events of the summer in 1928. Their father, a doctor, was an mean drunk; their mother was cold and distant.
In addition to the story of a these siblings trying to make sense of their past, there are subplots which include a murder mystery involving two teens that had gone missing from the "school for the blind" where Muriel had worked. A third person, a pregnant, unmarried housekeeper joins the household and strengthens the feeling of family at a time when the siblings need kindness the most.
Without giving away too much about how this story unfolds, I'll just say that it was an ambitious novel, that covered a lot. Initially, I had thought adding a murder mystery to a story about growing old, and making peace with one's imperfect past just wouldn't be a combination that would work, but the author surprised me. McFarland knew just when to add a bit of humor, a tad of sadness, and a level of suspense to make it work. Although, the novel wasn't perfect, it was enjoyable. The author did a great job of slowly revealing the events of the siblings pasts. I will be anxious to try another book by this author in the future.
November 5, 2011
“The idea of most things amply appealed, but the required arrangements always raised the question of whether the reward could possibly justify the effort” (22).
“Billie had a knack for putting things in perspective, probably a consequence of her long marriage to Ned, and affliction that made philosophical crises pale by comparison” (25).
“A clergyman wouldn't have been his first choice (nor cinnamon rolls, for that matter)...” (45).
“Brimm had been around enough to know that even Mozart was something of a jackass, that useful things came from unlikely sources” (46).
“She had reflected before that real, deeply felt confession was almost as good as Seconal” (62).
“They had survived one of the world's greatest calamities and had not learned from it to forgive the mistakes of others” (78).
“...Muriel thought how fascinating it was that nautical language seemed so often to find its way into times of trouble (or when trouble was over)--and observation she thought she could work into her book club discussions” (85).
"'That so,' said Brimm, who, lacking much history in talking to children, though some special technique was required" (100).
“Instead of dwelling on the message of the Gospel, she'd found herself considering Jesus's personality. In the passage from Saint John, Jesus had just shocked everyone in the synagogue at Capernaum—not only the Jews, but his own disciples as well—by suggesting that if they desired eternal life they would have to eat his flesh and blood. As usual, he had been speaking metaphorically but not successfully so, and he had confused and repulsed everyone in his hearing. Muriel wondered, as she had wondered often, why Jesus couldn't have simply explained to them that he didn't literally mean they should eat his flesh and drink his blood. Instead—and this, too,w as a pattern in Jesus's behavior—he had become peevish and sad about having been misunderstood. That of course would be Jesus's human side showing, but Muriel had to admit that sometimes when she read the Gospels lately, it aggravated her that Jesus himself didn't seem sure about what he was trying to say; sometimes his disappointment in the stupidity of others seemed a deflection, meant to mask his own uncertainty. Worse, his refusal to be clear appeared occasionally contrived to bring about the trouble he would get himself into later—like an affected plot device: if Jesus was to end up on the cross, crucified, it was necessary for him to be wildly misunderstood, and if he was to be wildly misunderstood, he had to be enigmatic” (122-123).
“Charles Lindgren, a retired English professor, was prissy, dull-witted, and outspoken in groups, a ghastly combination of traits” (157).
“At the rail, however, as the six communicants knelt to receive the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation, someone, not Muriel, broke wind, and the chancel filled with a malodorous vapor that might genuinely have originated in hell. The result, the sacrament administered under the pressure of such foulness and sidelong glances, was confusing” (161).
“Billie had a knack for putting things in perspective, probably a consequence of her long marriage to Ned, and affliction that made philosophical crises pale by comparison” (25).
“A clergyman wouldn't have been his first choice (nor cinnamon rolls, for that matter)...” (45).
“Brimm had been around enough to know that even Mozart was something of a jackass, that useful things came from unlikely sources” (46).
“She had reflected before that real, deeply felt confession was almost as good as Seconal” (62).
“They had survived one of the world's greatest calamities and had not learned from it to forgive the mistakes of others” (78).
“...Muriel thought how fascinating it was that nautical language seemed so often to find its way into times of trouble (or when trouble was over)--and observation she thought she could work into her book club discussions” (85).
"'That so,' said Brimm, who, lacking much history in talking to children, though some special technique was required" (100).
“Instead of dwelling on the message of the Gospel, she'd found herself considering Jesus's personality. In the passage from Saint John, Jesus had just shocked everyone in the synagogue at Capernaum—not only the Jews, but his own disciples as well—by suggesting that if they desired eternal life they would have to eat his flesh and blood. As usual, he had been speaking metaphorically but not successfully so, and he had confused and repulsed everyone in his hearing. Muriel wondered, as she had wondered often, why Jesus couldn't have simply explained to them that he didn't literally mean they should eat his flesh and drink his blood. Instead—and this, too,w as a pattern in Jesus's behavior—he had become peevish and sad about having been misunderstood. That of course would be Jesus's human side showing, but Muriel had to admit that sometimes when she read the Gospels lately, it aggravated her that Jesus himself didn't seem sure about what he was trying to say; sometimes his disappointment in the stupidity of others seemed a deflection, meant to mask his own uncertainty. Worse, his refusal to be clear appeared occasionally contrived to bring about the trouble he would get himself into later—like an affected plot device: if Jesus was to end up on the cross, crucified, it was necessary for him to be wildly misunderstood, and if he was to be wildly misunderstood, he had to be enigmatic” (122-123).
“Charles Lindgren, a retired English professor, was prissy, dull-witted, and outspoken in groups, a ghastly combination of traits” (157).
“At the rail, however, as the six communicants knelt to receive the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation, someone, not Muriel, broke wind, and the chancel filled with a malodorous vapor that might genuinely have originated in hell. The result, the sacrament administered under the pressure of such foulness and sidelong glances, was confusing” (161).
August 3, 2014
When my mother first handed me her water damaged, musty copy of School for the Blind by Dennis McFarland, I was appalled. Why would I, a 15 year old girl, be interested in reading about Muriel and Francis Brimm, two elderly siblings who have returned to retire in their hometown of Pines, deal with the process of aging, death, their past, and a mysterious murder? Well, I decided to give it a try and was hooked, admittedly with a few ups and downs as I read.
I was pulled in by McFarland's eloquent yet simple prose and diction. I also appreciated the well-formed personalities of the main characters. You knew who they were, their general past, and what kind of people they were. However, the plot and story line was a bit slow.
Overall, I had a love-hate relationship with the book, but am interested in possibly reading other McFarland books. I would definitely recommend this book to people outside of my age group or those interested in dealing with the aging process. I would NOT recommend this book to young people in my age group because I think most would have trouble relating to the plot and identifying with the characters. But, all in all, I really loved the author's writing style and am looking forward to reading more of McFarland's books. Other books of his I plan to read are: "The Music Room: A Novel," "The Singing Boy: A Novel," "Letter from Clear Point: A Novel," and "Prince Edward: A Novel."
I was pulled in by McFarland's eloquent yet simple prose and diction. I also appreciated the well-formed personalities of the main characters. You knew who they were, their general past, and what kind of people they were. However, the plot and story line was a bit slow.
Overall, I had a love-hate relationship with the book, but am interested in possibly reading other McFarland books. I would definitely recommend this book to people outside of my age group or those interested in dealing with the aging process. I would NOT recommend this book to young people in my age group because I think most would have trouble relating to the plot and identifying with the characters. But, all in all, I really loved the author's writing style and am looking forward to reading more of McFarland's books. Other books of his I plan to read are: "The Music Room: A Novel," "The Singing Boy: A Novel," "Letter from Clear Point: A Novel," and "Prince Edward: A Novel."
October 20, 2012
Although ostensibly a murder mystery, School for the Blind is actually a mystery of another sort entirely. In this book McFarland unravels the mystery of childhood trauma-- thoughtfully, eloquently, and with breathtaking perception. The two main characters--a brother and sister who are brought together at the end of their lives by shared isolation--are sharply defined, and portrayed in all their frailty with McFarland's customary wit. The prose is simply wonderful, liquid and clear, without a single false note.
The one complaint I have of this book is that it left too much hanging. The rather gruesome murder that jump starts this story needed to have been followed up with more consistency. (After all, it is the one salient event in the book.) The enigma of the exotic and lovely Claudia Callejas was not adequately resolved, nor was her puzzling relationship with her nephew. And while McFarland wraps up most of his plot, the book ends in a confusing backwards-looking anticlimax. Another 50 pages would have done School for the Blind a world of good. But when all is said and done, it still remains a beautiful, contemplative exploration of the human psyche.
The one complaint I have of this book is that it left too much hanging. The rather gruesome murder that jump starts this story needed to have been followed up with more consistency. (After all, it is the one salient event in the book.) The enigma of the exotic and lovely Claudia Callejas was not adequately resolved, nor was her puzzling relationship with her nephew. And while McFarland wraps up most of his plot, the book ends in a confusing backwards-looking anticlimax. Another 50 pages would have done School for the Blind a world of good. But when all is said and done, it still remains a beautiful, contemplative exploration of the human psyche.
February 27, 2011
The story of a brother and sister, now in their seventies, propelled on an unforeseen journey into their past by a shocking event in the present--a murder. Gripped by a "creeping vine of memory," they gradually confront their blindness to the hidden truths about their lives. A luminously powerful work by the author of the bestseller "The Music Room."
November 9, 2013
I stayed up way too late many nights reading this. And, for a book written about (and probably for) octogenarians, it was actually kind of scary. It dealt with some dark subject matter, but it was really engrossing!
October 27, 2008
A study in one family's denial and it's cost to their 2 children--who now are both in their 70's and who, in spite of every effort not to know, come to know about a horrifying fact of their childhoods
April 4, 2010
I ended up loving Francis and Muriel, the brother and sister of this book. Both sought to escape , one leading a life seemingly full of adventure, the other maintaining a dignified life close to home. Both have to face their pasts, though. Plus a nice mystery mixed in.
January 15, 2016
The writing is quite good and the book is at its best when exploring aging and dying from the viewpoints of two elderly siblings. But, the book lacks cohesiveness mostly because of the constant interjection of descriptions of dreams that I, anyway, didn't find particularly enlightening.
January 19, 2016
Old age and Death
Not a mystery at all but a character study. Beautifully written story of two elderly siblings living in Florida. Reminds me a little of olive kittridge but with fewer characters and less going on
Not a mystery at all but a character study. Beautifully written story of two elderly siblings living in Florida. Reminds me a little of olive kittridge but with fewer characters and less going on
June 26, 2019
Beautiful character studies with a murder plot floating around inside. Bought this when it came out in 1994 but somehow never read it. Since then, McFarland has become quite an accomplished novelist. I can see why!
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October 16, 2008M McF
September 2, 2012
felt like i was reading in a dream...the entire book felt like a dream sequence...very out-of-body-like but still managed to maintain a plot
May 23, 2014
Read Erica's review
March 14, 2016
McFarland is one of my favorite authors. His books never seem to bog down. He has a wonderful way of telling a story, probing beneath the surface, and leaving me in a state of wonder.
May 31, 2015
The time line was a bit confusing, but overall I enjoyed this book.
March 13, 2016
Couldn't finish this. Got very bogged down and I realized I didn't care one bit about any of these characters.
December 21, 2008
Good example of the power of community for healing.
January 26, 2016
A meditation on mortality masquerading as a murder mystery.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews