The School on Heart’s Content Road by Carolyn Chute
My rating: 2/5 cats
donald harington has ruined so many books for me simply by being a better writer than other writers. so when i read something like this, i am forced to obsess over the many ways this could have been better if his gentle hands were still with us…
occasionally, when i was reading this one, i was thinking of when angels rest, which is the closest harington ever came to writing a “war novel.” in that one, WWII is brought close to home as the children of stay more, already engaging in “war games” in their various peer groups, come into contact with actual soldiers as their town becomes occupied and sides are drawn. harington touches upon universal truths and horrifying realities with the deft touch for which he is known, and that books sings. and then has a bit of a rough ending.
there is none of that deft touch at all in this book.
some of it reads as though it was actually written by someone living in a cult—separated from the rest of humanity with only a vague understanding of the world outside, like using a memory of some sitcom-from-the-80s’ stock footage of a gay male character to try to sensitively portray a gentleman that way inclined. really really bad. and that was only one millisecond of this book.
first of all—the layout. cutesie little icons denote from which perspective each portion of the book will be shown; little irritating bursts of narrative voiced by a crow, a television set, plutonians (um, why?),a six-year-old preoccupied with her own sex appeal (yuk. but she is occasionally entertaining. but, yes, yuk), etc. i love novels in which there is a scattershot voice, but too much of this was just whimsy for the sake of whimsy.
the rest of it is a soapbox jamboree—a blend of extreme left wing and extreme right wing philosophy coming together when the captain of a free maine militia befriends the head of a commune and hijinks arise.
but there is an agenda here, and i am just not on board. not because i am anti- or pro- anything these characters stand for, but because loud speeches and political proselytizing are grating to me when it sneaks into my littrature. or my subway car.
if you’re gonna do it, do it gracefully, don’t shriek it at me from cartoony characters with little map icons.
it’s just some boring polygamous hippies surrounding a supposedly charismatic leader who keeps turning the other cheek while his flock nervously looks around at the changes a-comin’. it tries to tackle too many of society’s perceived ills at once and just becomes a mess of bitter and unsubtle metaphor.
and as far as maine secession, go ahead and secede—i have read a bunch of stephen king and y’all are creepy. plus, i know jasmine…
(ahhhhh don’t shoot!!!)
no, i am still going to read the beans of egypt, maine, because that is the one jessica actually suggested to me in RA group. but this one i did not like. i have higher hopes for those beans.
read my book reviews on goodreads
