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From: Jonathan Hunt <jhunt24>
Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2001 00:57:22
Perhaps we can look at LaVaughn as an unreliable narrator in much the same way we look at Sal in WALK TWO MOONS, Gen in THE THIEF, Steve in MONSTER, and to a lesser degree, Melinda in SPEAK. Perhaps unreliable is the wrong word, but in each instance the narrator withholds important information--LaVaughn (race), Sal (mother's death), Gen (identity), Steve
(culpability), Melinda (rape).
I once heard Megan Whalen Turner explain that what she had done was exploit the rather artificial convention that anything important must be relayed within the first twenty pages of a first person narrative. How often, she questioned, do we wake up in the morning and begin a daily recitation of any and all important facts about ourselves? The important facts permeate our awareness, but we have little need to recite them to ourselves. We take it for granted that we already know them, that those we interact with already know them.
If Turner and Creech use a withholding narrator to create an element of surprise and Myers and Anderson use one to create an element of mystery, Wolff uses it to focus our attention on what is important.
Of course race is important in America, but class is more important. Race is a constant; class a variable. LaVaughn's focus on what she can change rather than what she cannot gives these books those "transcendent, raw, and fiercely optimistic" qualities that Booklist praised in TRUE BELIEVER.
Consider our discussion of MONSTER a couple years back. Walter Dean Myers had included a note in the advanced reading copies which stated that his design was to show how no one intends to commit felonies, end up in jail, but rather that it was a series of small steps that led to these consequences. The note was removed for the final published edition and the racial subtext opened up an entirely different interpretation of the events.
With MAKE LEMONADE and TRUE BELIEVER that avenue is effectively closed off, and our attention is focused more keenly on what LaVaughn must do to lift herself out of poverty, to give herself a better life.
Without a conscious intent to write poetry or to write in the form that we now call the verse novel, I can understand Wolff's hesitancy to label her books as such, but I do agree with Roger Sutton. Looks like a duck, talks like a duck, walks like a duck--it's a duck!
Moreoever, MAKE LEMONADE is *the* seminal verse novel, the one that we can point to and say where it all began. Before ML we had illustrated poetry collections with slight story arcs such as Paul Janezcko's BRICKYARD SUMMER, Cynthia Rylant's SODA JERK, and Brenda Seabrooke's JUDY SCUPERNONG, but none of them comparable to ML in terms of plot, characterization, and theme. ML opened our eyes to the possibilities and a YA subgenre was born.
Now eight years later Wolff revisits the form she pioneered in TB to show us how once again how it's done. With six starred reviews, a Horn Book interview, and a CCBC-NET discussion, I think it's safe to say that, to date, TRUE BELIEVER is the frontrunner for the Printz Award.
Jonathan
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Received on Sun 22 Jul 2001 12:57:22 AM CDT
Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2001 00:57:22
Perhaps we can look at LaVaughn as an unreliable narrator in much the same way we look at Sal in WALK TWO MOONS, Gen in THE THIEF, Steve in MONSTER, and to a lesser degree, Melinda in SPEAK. Perhaps unreliable is the wrong word, but in each instance the narrator withholds important information--LaVaughn (race), Sal (mother's death), Gen (identity), Steve
(culpability), Melinda (rape).
I once heard Megan Whalen Turner explain that what she had done was exploit the rather artificial convention that anything important must be relayed within the first twenty pages of a first person narrative. How often, she questioned, do we wake up in the morning and begin a daily recitation of any and all important facts about ourselves? The important facts permeate our awareness, but we have little need to recite them to ourselves. We take it for granted that we already know them, that those we interact with already know them.
If Turner and Creech use a withholding narrator to create an element of surprise and Myers and Anderson use one to create an element of mystery, Wolff uses it to focus our attention on what is important.
Of course race is important in America, but class is more important. Race is a constant; class a variable. LaVaughn's focus on what she can change rather than what she cannot gives these books those "transcendent, raw, and fiercely optimistic" qualities that Booklist praised in TRUE BELIEVER.
Consider our discussion of MONSTER a couple years back. Walter Dean Myers had included a note in the advanced reading copies which stated that his design was to show how no one intends to commit felonies, end up in jail, but rather that it was a series of small steps that led to these consequences. The note was removed for the final published edition and the racial subtext opened up an entirely different interpretation of the events.
With MAKE LEMONADE and TRUE BELIEVER that avenue is effectively closed off, and our attention is focused more keenly on what LaVaughn must do to lift herself out of poverty, to give herself a better life.
Without a conscious intent to write poetry or to write in the form that we now call the verse novel, I can understand Wolff's hesitancy to label her books as such, but I do agree with Roger Sutton. Looks like a duck, talks like a duck, walks like a duck--it's a duck!
Moreoever, MAKE LEMONADE is *the* seminal verse novel, the one that we can point to and say where it all began. Before ML we had illustrated poetry collections with slight story arcs such as Paul Janezcko's BRICKYARD SUMMER, Cynthia Rylant's SODA JERK, and Brenda Seabrooke's JUDY SCUPERNONG, but none of them comparable to ML in terms of plot, characterization, and theme. ML opened our eyes to the possibilities and a YA subgenre was born.
Now eight years later Wolff revisits the form she pioneered in TB to show us how once again how it's done. With six starred reviews, a Horn Book interview, and a CCBC-NET discussion, I think it's safe to say that, to date, TRUE BELIEVER is the frontrunner for the Printz Award.
Jonathan
_________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
Received on Sun 22 Jul 2001 12:57:22 AM CDT
