Asta in the Wings by Jan Elizabeth Watson
My rating: 4/5 cats
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 how much they are to eat.
they can see each rib and each knob of their spines, so i’ll let you think about that for a little bit.
and yet, they are perfectly, purely happy. they exist in their own personal world with their family and their imaginations and their education. and while it is clear to the reader, if not the children, that mommy is a little batshit, there seems to be a lot of joy in their lives.
of course, when a situation forces them from their idyllic space into the real world, they become aware of the realities and the lies. and it gets a little ambiguous from there on out. once the children are exposed to the outside world, their struggle begins. they are separated, losing all the home and family they have ever known all at once. they are exposed to food, color tv, other people, and it is all confusion and wonderment. but it is never about despair. fear – yes, hopelessness, no.
because the perspective is that of a clearly much older asta looking back on her experiences, there is an adult understanding that the seven-year-old girl did not have at the time, but the narrative retains a wide-eyed freshness that makes it clear that a part of asta has never grown up. but there is no bitterness, there is no blame. nor is there gratitude for having been “rescued”. the tone is candid, a little wistful, but pretty clear-eyed.
this is not a horror story; this is not dogtooth. much of what these children experienced is shown to have been beneficial, in a way. despite what most people would view as deprivations, there is also a certain amount of protection. and a stripping away of distractions that makes both asta and orion more intelligent, more inquisitive, more resourceful than their spoiled, restless peers. there is a beauty to the way their mother cultivated them, even though there was so much of it that was misguided and detrimental.
but it makes for a completely fascinating book.
left to their own devices, this probably would have devolved into grey gardens-style collapse, but as it stands, it tells a remarkable story of resilience and moral complexity.
so good.
