I’ve mentioned this before, but one of the most popular searches that leads people to me is “Keith Lockhart’s divorce.” Keith Lockhart is the conductor of the Boston Pops, and today is their big July 4th concert on the Esplanade.
I got 19 searches for it today:
NINETEEN.
Happy 4th of July, all!
Have you ever had something you really wanted to tell people about but you didn’t think they’d quite get it if you did? Probably because it related to one of your obsessions and you didn’t know anyone else who cared about it quite so much?
…
You can see where this is going, can’t you? I’m not sure if anyone will find this the same level of giggle-inducing that I did, but I’m going to tell you anyway. And after this, I promise I will shut up about Les Mis (for now).
So, as I mentioned when I first posted about the movie, I, and millions of other fans, have been trying to figure out how the cast will be in the movie by listening to how they sound singing other things. Some people have inspired more confidence in the fans than others. One of the “others” is Russell Crowe, who will play Javert and whom we’ve only seen singing things that are nothing like musical theater, which makes it hard to judge how he’ll do.
Then I found a clip of Philip Quast, who was Javert in the 10th Anniversary dream-cast concert, singing on an Australian children’s show of which he was a cast member before becoming a big theater star. Someone had commented that if we’d only had that to judge his singing by before seeing him as Javert, who would have thought he’d be as great as he is?
See for yourself. Watch this video first. You don’t even have to watch the whole thing, just enough to get an idea of this guy’s singing voice and onstage persona.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urxk4mveLCw]
Now watch this video, from sometime in the 80s:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SpR3ZyMhEM]
IT’S THE SAME GUY!
…Okay, you might not be giggling like crazy like I was after discovering this, but in case there’s someone else out there who’s as amused by it as I am, I wanted to put it out there.
Foot, foot, footie-foot.
…And then I found twenty dollars.
Happy birthday to one of the finest girls I know, Christiana Krump! I am so excited to be seeing her soon.
In honor of her birthday, the Song of the Moment is a song she loves that’s about another fine girl- namely, Brandy. This song is kind of like a character sketch- aside from being supremely catchy, it also has great lyrics.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-tRXewCAmU]
So, remember my trip to New York last August that got aborted by Hurricane Irene? Over Memorial Day, I decided to attempt the trip again. And this time, things went much more smoothly! No hurricanes or tropical storms, although there was a bit of rain that prevented me from doing a couple of things I’d wanted to do (didn’t get to go to Coney Island). But for the most part, it was a great trip. Here are some of the highlights from it:
All in all, a very fun trip! But of course, I wouldn’t be me if there wasn’t an awkward moment in there.
On the second day of the trip, I had tickets to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and the boat left at 9:00AM. When I’d left the day before, I’d been wearing a nice dress I’d gotten for my cousin’s wedding last year—I know you don’t have to get dressed up for the theater, but I like to. I’d planned on wearing jeans when going to the Statue.
Except—oops. I’d forgotten to pack the jeans, and I hadn’t brought any other pants. I looked frantically through my bag, but no sign of them. Crap, I thought. It’s only eight in the morning and I have to be on the boat at nine—where can I get something to wear at this time of day? I don’t want to wear this dress and get it dirty!
I looked online to try to figure out if there were any clothing stores in the immediate area that were open, but no luck. So, wearing the shirt I’d planned on wearing that day, pajama pants, and sandals, I headed down to the lobby of Hotel 17. I explained the situation to the guy at the front desk and asked if there were any clothing stores near the hotel that were already open. He didn’t know of any. “Why don’t you just wear what you’re wearing?” he asked.
I glanced down at my navy-blue pants with lighter blue fish printed on them. “They’re pajama pants.”
He shook his head. “Yeah, sorry,” he said. “That’s never happened to me!”
Well, of course it hasn’t. YOU’RE A GUY. Most of you people wear pants every day!
I checked a couple of Duane Reades on the off chance that they sold shorts or something, but no luck. I didn’t want to miss the boat, so…I got on the subway and left.
And that is how I ended up at the Statue of Liberty in my pajamas.
Remember my post about my past journal entries? Here’s another old entry:
November 9, 2003
@2:58AM
I am sooooo happy right now, just on this absolutely incredible high. We went to see Les Miserables tonight @ the Colonial Theater and it was absolutely frickin amazing. I had pretty high expectations, and it was even better than everything I’d heard about it. Everything about it was incredible—the music, the direction, the story, the characters, and the guy who played Valjean was awesome. I was just so moved by the beauty of it I was crying. It has such a powerful message behind it, and it really made me believe that mankind is inherently good. And I really felt for the characters. Like Eponine when she sang “On My Own”—boy, can I relate to that right now.
Oh, it was sooooo beautiful it’s really beyond words…I can’t even think straight! 
Sure, I could make fun of myself and say I was being a silly nineteen-year-old fangirl thinking that Les Mis confirmed the goodness of mankind for me…but you know what? I still feel like that. (I’ll make fun of myself for spelling “so” with five o’s, though.) And you know how I promised you a post about how I came to be such a fan of Les Miserables and what I love about it? This is that post. It’s inspired by the recently-released teaser trailer for the movie:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnLSG5t_dc8] GAAAAAAHHHH!!!!! Now I’m even more excited! The reaction to Anne Hathaway’s singing has been mixed, but I like that she’s singing the song in character—it’s a very sad moment in the story, and singing it diva-style isn’t really appropriate. I think she brought a raw, emotional quality to the song, and I like it a lot.
But anyway, let’s talk about the musical. I know it might not be for everyone—it’s very serious and earnest, and there’s nothing the least bit cynical or ironic about it—but I love it, and here’s why.
I. THE PLOT
First of all, the plot, for those of you who aren’t familiar with it. You might want to skip this part because a.) it’s long and a lot of you might already know it (or might not want to read the whole thing), and b.) you might not want to be spoiled before the movie comes out.
Anyway, it takes place in nineteenth-century France. Jean Valjean has just been paroled after being a prisoner on the chain gang for nineteen years. He had been poor and starving and had stolen a loaf of bread for his sister’s family, and for that and numerous escape attempts it was nineteen years before he got out of prison. He’s given a yellow ticket of leave by the ruthless Inspector Javert, and it’s like his scarlet letter—he won’t be paid as much because he’s an ex-con. He’s become bitter and has turned into the kind of hardened thief that he never was before he was jailed, so when a kind bishop takes him into his home, he steals the bishop’s silverware. When he is caught and brought back to the bishop, the bishop surprises him by not only letting him have the silver, but giving him candlesticks as well. He warns Valjean that he must use the silver to turn away from his life of crime and become an honest man. Humbled, Valjean swears he will reform his life, and thus begins his redemption.
Years later, Valjean has assumed a new name and become the mayor of a town in France where he also runs a large factory. One of the factory workers is a young woman named Fantine, who has been abandoned by her young daughter’s father. Her daughter Cosette now lives with an innkeeper’s family, and Fantine sends the money she makes from the factory job to pay the family for her daughter’s care. When Fantine is fired for refusing the sexual advances of the foreman and getting into a fight with other women in the factory who discovered her secret child, she is forced to sell her hair and to become a prostitute. An altercation with a man draws the attention of both Inspector Javert and Valjean. The former wants Fantine arrested, but Valjean notices how sick Fantine is and demands that she receive a doctor’s care. Not long after, Javert notices Valjean’s strength when he saves a man trapped under a cart and comments that a prisoner who escaped parole years ago is the only other person he knows with that kind of strength. He tells Valjean that that man has been found and brought to court. Valjean is horrified that another man might be jailed for the crimes he committed, but also reluctant to abandon the factory workers who depend on him. After pondering his dilemma, he decides to go to court and persuade the court to release the accused man. He then escapes to Fantine’s deathbed, promising her that he will raise her child for her. As Fantine dies, he has another confrontation with Javert, but he escapes to find Cosette at the inn where she is staying.
Cosette, who is eight, has been living with the Thenardiers, who run an inn where they often cheat their guests and treat Cosette like a servant while spoiling their own young daughter, Eponine. When Valjean shows up, they agree to give him Cosette after he pays them a large sum of money. Valjean takes Cosette away to raise as his own daughter.
Nine years later, Paris is on the brink of an uprising (namely, the June Rebellion). Cosette has grown up in Valjean’s care and knows nothing about her past or her mother. A band of young revolutionaries lead by a man named Enjolras is concerned about the impending death of General Lamarque, the only man in government concerned with helping the poor. One of those revolutionaries, Marius, meets Cosette on the street, and they fall in love at first sight. As the revolutionaries prepare for a rebellion, Marius enlists his friend Eponine, the Thenardiers’ daughter, to help him locate Cosette. Even though Eponine is herself in love with Marius, she does help unite Marius and Cosette, even foiling a robbery of Jean Valjean by her father. The attempted robbery spooks Valjean, who is afraid that Javert has found him again, and he prepares to send Cosette away, leaving Marius heartbroken. But when he intercepts a letter from Marius to Cosette that Eponine delivers, he learns about their relationship and goes to find Marius.
Meanwhile, down at the barricade that the student revolutionaries have built, Javert appears and warns them that the government will attack, but he is soon exposed as a spy, causing the revolutionaries to imprison him. Eponine comes to the barricade in search of Marius, but she is fatally shot and finally declares her unrequited love. Then Valjean arrives, also in search of Marius, and volunteers to join the revolutionaries. After proving himself, he asks to be the one to kill the imprisoned Javert, but instead, he lets Javert go. As the battle looms ahead, Valjean prays for Marius’s life to be spared for Cosette’s sake.
In the attack, all of the revolutionaries are killed except Valjean and Marius. Marius is badly wounded, and the Thenardiers steal a ring from him, thinking that he is dead. Valjean carries Marius through the sewers. There, he runs into Javert, who wants to arrest Valjean, but after Valjean begs to take Marius to a doctor first, Javert, confused that Valjean spared his life earlier, cannot go through with it. He cannot handle living in the debt of someone who broke the law when his whole life has been dedicated to upholding it, so Javert commits suicide by jumping off a bridge.
As Marius recovers from his injuries, he and Cosette become engaged. Neither of them know that Valjean was the one who rescued Marius. Valjean then tells Marius of his past as an ex-convict, and that he must go away to protect Cosette. Valjean does not attend the wedding, but the Thenardiers crash it in disguise. They tell Marius that Valjean is a murderer who was seen carrying a corpse away in the sewers. Marius recognizes Thenardier’s ring as the one stolen from him and realizes that he was the “corpse” and that Valjean has saved his life.
Valjean, meanwhile, is dying, and the spirit of Fantine appears to him to take him to heaven. Marius and Cosette get to his bedside in time to say goodbye, and before he dies, Valjean gives Cosette the written story of her past. The musical ends with the spirits of all who died at the barricades singing as Valjean joins them in heaven.
II. THE MUSIC
So many wonderful songs in this musical! My pick for the best cast recording is the 10th Anniversary concert, which puts together a dream cast. Here’s the link to it on Spotify:
And here are some of the best songs from it. (Note: there are some spoilers in these song descriptions if you skipped my plot summary.)
“On My Own” One of the most famous songs. This is sung by Eponine about her unrequited love for Marius. “Without me, his world will go on turning/A world that’s full of happiness that I have never known.” God, who can’t relate to that?
“I Dreamed a Dream” In recent years, Susan Boyle has brought this song back into the public eye. It’s a beautiful, tragic song, and it’s no coincidence that they used it in the first trailer. While it’s easy to make it into a big, showy number, I like Anne Hathaway for remembering that it’s sung by a woman who’s had to give up her child, been abandoned by her daughter’s father, been fired, and been forced to sell her hair and prostitute herself—oh, yeah, and who is also dying.
“Bring Him Home” This song makes me cry, and I hope Hugh Jackman does it justice. Valjean sings it about Marius—even though he doesn’t want to lose Cosette (which is clearer in the book than in the musical), the song is his prayer that the man his daughter loves will be spared. Valjean doesn’t care if he himself dies, but he can’t bear to see the young, scared, somewhat innocent revolutionary killed.
“Master of the House” By far the catchiest song in the whole show—there’s even an episode of Seinfeldwhere George has it stuck in his head and keeps singing it. This is our introduction to the Thenardiers and their way of life, where they cheat their guests while demanding to be worshipped by them. In the book, they’re just straight-up villains, but in the musical they’re also the comic relief. It’s sung by the Thenardiers and the guests at their inn and is a great ensemble number.
“Stars” This is Javert’s solo song and gives you some great insight into his philosophy of life. He sees himself like the stars, keeping watch surely and steadily and keeping order and light in the world. There’s only one way and one path for him, and he can’t tolerate anyone who deviates from it.
“Do You Hear the People Sing?” Big ensemble number sung by the revolutionaries as they’re preparing for their rebellion. Insanely catchy, and it comes back at the finale.
“Drink with Me” One thing I love about show tunes is that while they’re written about a specific situation in a musical, they can apply to so many other situations in life. This might be about the revolutionaries drinking and reminiscing before they go into battle, but how many other situations do these lyrics apply to? “Drink with me to days gone by/To the life that used to be/At the shrine of friendship never say die/Let the wine of friendship never run dry/Here’s to you and here’s to me”
“Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” Same here. Marius sings this after all of his friends are killed, but it could apply to any situation of loss, and in the 90s it became a hymn to AIDS victims.
“One Day More” In the days of AIM away messages, I used to post this the day before anything exciting would happen: “Tomorrow we’ll discover what our God in heaven has in store/One more dawn, one more day, one day more!” It’s sung by the entire cast at the end of the first act.
“Who Am I?” I’m saving this one for a future “Song of the Moment,” but let’s just say it’s the most underrated song in the show.
III. THE CHARACTERS
Some musicals center around one character, but while Valjean is the main character in this one, it’s clearly an ensemble show. I wish I’d had the chance to be in this play in high school (at the time it wasn’t licensed for high schools, but now it is, and apparently I was born too soon because my old high school put it on a few years ago and won all kinds of state awards for it), because there’s no such thing as a bad part in it! Here are some of them:
Jean Valjean:What an awesome character. This is a dude who was imprisoned for stealing—but he was stealing bread, which he couldn’t afford to buy, for his sister’s starving family. After the incident with the bishop, he reforms his life, becoming a mayor and philanthropist and, feeling guilty over his role in Fantine’s situation, adopts her child and lovingly raises her after her death. When the rebellion by the barricade occurs, he saves Marius’s life and lets Javert go even though he has every reason and opportunity to kill him. Life in prison hardened him, but he overcomes that and becomes a person who pays forward the kindness and love that the bishop showed him to everyone he meets.
Javert: You know, it’s strange. Javert is the antagonist of the play. He sees everything in black-and-white: “He broke the law, therefore, he must be back in jail.” “People cannot change—once a thief, forever a thief.” He believes in following the law, but never stops to question the justness and rightness of those laws. He can’t wrap his head around the idea that a convict like Jean Valjean could have good in him. And yet—in a strange way, the most recent time I saw the show, I identified with him. I hate to admit it, but I’m like this sometimes. Even when I know I shouldn’t, I sometimes view things in black-and-white and am more rigid than I should be. But aren’t we all like that sometimes? I think we all have opinions or things we believe that we try desperately to hold onto even in the face of contradicting evidence. Javert just believes it so strongly that when he realizes he can’t act on his beliefs anymore, he can’t bear to live.
Fantine: She might be the most tragic character in a show whose title means “The Miserable Ones.” Her first love abandoned her and left her pregnant and alone, and nineteenth-century France is not kind to unwed mothers. She has to give up the daughter she loves so much and dedicates her whole life to providing for her daughter—when she’s fired from her factory job, she has to become a prostitute and sell her own hair. For Fantine, life’s a bitch and then she dies, literally. I’m glad her spirit from heaven appears at the end—at least she found some joy in the afterlife, and in seeing Cosette grow up in Valjean’s care.
Eponine: Eponine was the character who spoke to me the most strongly the first time I saw this. At the time, I was going through a crush on someone who didn’t feel the same way, but someone whom I wanted to be happy with or without me—and that is exactly how Eponine feels about Marius. She loves him so deeply that even though she knows he loves someone else and that there’s no future with him, she helps him meet with Cosette because she wants him to be happy and, in the end, dies for him. It’s easy to forget that her parents, the Thenardiers, are such scumbags. In a way, I almost see her as a smaller-scale version of Jean Valjean—she is also able to overcome her shady past and act on the love in her heart in a heroic way.
Cosette and Marius:I never really liked Marius because I thought he was an idiot for loving Cosette instead of Eponine, but I can see now how the two of them are actually a good match— they’re both innocent and loving. Cosette has more of a personality in the book, but we do get more of a glimpse of it here. She’s grown up very sheltered, but also very loved and protected, which made her grow into a kind, good person. To use a comparison from another musical, if Eponine is Elphaba, Cosette is Glinda—you like them both, just for different reasons and in different ways, and probably like Elphaba more.
The Thenardiers:This show isn’t exactly a comedy—again, “The Miserable Ones.” But there are a handful of comic moments, and most of them are provided by the Thenardiers. Madame Thenardier’s rebuttal to her husband’s portion of “Master of the House” is awesome.
IV. THE MESSAGES
“The inherent goodness of mankind.” Well, that’s a lot for one musical to do, but there’s honestly some truth to that. Let’s take a look at what Les Miserables is really about.
First, it’s about redemption—specifically, redemption through love. The compassion that the bishop shows him is what motivates Valjean to reform his life, and he does so by showing love to the people around him—Fantine, Cosette, Marius, and eventually Javert. His treatment of Cosette is reflected in her own loving nature—the Thenardiers treated her cruelly, but the love that Valjean showed her won out. Conversely, before he met the bishop, the cruelty that he experienced as a prisoner and while on parole turned him into a hardened criminal when all he’d done to be jailed was steal bread. Eponine, too, isn’t motivated by jealousy but by love, and that informs her decision to help Marius’s relationship with Cosette even though it pains her.
It’s also about shades of gray and how it hurts people to be inflexible and not see the whole picture. Valjean’s only crime was stealing bread to feed his relatives, and yet it keeps him from finding work and being paid fairly. Javert doesn’t take this into account in his relentless pursuit of Valjean, nor does he consider the fate of Cosette if Fantine is arrested or dies. Fantine’s suffering is almost entirely due to other people’s lack of compassion—she is judged for having a child out of wedlock, but her child’s father bears no blame, and it’s only after she is fired that she becomes a prostitute for real.
The funny thing is that the book was written about a very specific place and time, but so much of it is still relevant to today’s world. (Side note: if you read the book, which is also wonderful, you need to figure out which passages to skip or skim—Hugo has these long, rambling passages about French politics where only about one sentence is remotely relevant to the story.) Ex-convicts have trouble finding work, which just leads them to more crime and a more difficult life. Women are judged for their sexual choices while no one cares what the men do. People cling to rigid interpretations of rules despite how those interpretations hurt others (hello, homosexuality and illegal immigration). The government’s lack of concern for the poor leads a group of young people to start a movement to protest it (hello, Occupy). In the book, so much of the criticism is very specific of France during that time period, and it’s sad how little things change.
The other thing that’s hard to ignore is the musical’s Christian overtones. It’s not Christian in an obnoxious, overdone way—more like Sufjan Stevens or U2, and it’s the kind of thing that people of all beliefs or non-beliefs can appreciate. The theme of redemption through love is very Christian, and the focus on compassion without judgment is a representation of the real message of Christianity. There’s a line from the end that has always stuck with me: “To love another person is to see the face of God.”
So…wow. This turned into 3,500 words on why I love Les Mis so much, so I hope I’ve convinced you.
Is it December 14th yet?
I’m back with the Karaoke Ring of Death for this month!
This month, the theme is the 80s. I happen to LOVE the 80s because they were the cheesiest decade- and also, they’re the decade in which I was born. So many great songs to choose from! I’m excited to see what everyone’s done this month. As for me, you can find me at One Red Wall, singing, technically, a cover of an 80s song, but it still counts!
I’m hosting Jes from Jes Getting Started, who’s rocking it out to some B-52s. Hit it, Jes!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFv4GGnY4X8]
For the most part, I’m happy. Both momentarily and in general. I have a nice apartment and a good living situation. I have a job that I enjoy. I have awesome friends and interesting ways to spend my time—singing in the chorus, playing on my office softball team, probably doing another half-marathon in the fall, and possibly doing an open-water swim. I’m planning on taking some trips this summer as well—NYC next weekend, California in July, DC in August, and San Francisco in September, plus a weeklong business trip to Dallas. Nothing in my life right now is actually terrible.
But here’s what’s been bugging me for the better part of the last six months or so: I am ready to be done with this stage of my life. The single-in-the-city stage. The spending-weekends-out-with-girlfriends stage. The cycling-through-dating-sites stage.
I’m done with it. Or, at least, I really, really want to be.
I wrote a few months ago about how scared I am of notgetting the things I want the most. Nothing has changed since I wrote that, except that even more now, to quote Veruca Salt, I want it noooooooowwww!
I’m tired of having to check OKCupid or Match or eHarmony every day when I come home. I’m tired of going on awful dates that leave me checking my watch to figure out how long I have to suffer through the rest of it. I’m tired of wondering if all the good guys out there really are taken or gay, if there was some chance years ago that I should have taken and didn’t, if I’m too picky or if I could really be happy by lowering my standards, why there are people who are so much fill-in-the-blank-er than me who have managed to attract guys and find loving relationships when I haven’t. I’m tired of seeing cute babies everywhere I go and wondering how many years my eggs have until they dry up. (Cue the Marisa Tomei foot-stomp.)
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J-2EIvItVY]
Nothing original there, I know. Most single people probably think all of those things. But one thing has changed recently: I am really freaking sick of the city.
This is a change because, although I love Boston (and its surrounding areas, like Cambridge/Somerville, where I currently live), I’ve always seen it as my temporary home. None of the apartments I’ve lived in have ever quite felt like home—they just feel too ephemeral. Until I actually own a house that I can furnish and decorate myself, I don’t think I’m going to feel that way about any place.
I don’t want to be constantly surrounded by people, bumping into people everywhere I go. I don’t want to have to rely on the T to get anywhere. I don’t want to have to walk everywhere- and therefore have to get nauseated from cigarette smoke everywhere I go. I want to be able to step out my back door and not be ridiculously close to every other house around me, and not to have my next-door-neighbor’s creepy fake owl staring at me while I try to read on the back porch.
I don’t want to have to depend on having single friends for nights out. I don’t want weekends to revolve around going out and trying new restaurants or bars. I’d rather come home and find my significant other there and know that we can spend the whole night watching bad reality shows together.
I want to be able to drive in places where I’m unlikely to run into much traffic. I want to be guaranteed a parking space when I drive, and know that I won’t have to parallel park to find it.
I know the suburbs aren’t for everyone. They certainly aren’t cool, but neither am I. For me, there’s an element of permanence to it that appeals to me. I want to worry about lawn mowing instead of cover charges, paint samples instead of Craigslist roommates, finding a baby-sitter instead of finding a date.
If I could live there now, I would. But I don’t have a car, which I’d at least need to get to and from the commuter rail. I certainly don’t have enough money to buy a place, although I could rent. But there’s also the matter of depending on friends for my social life, and said friends being in the city.
I am lucky to still have friends who are single, but that won’t last forever. And I am so scared that they’ll eventually get married, have kids, buy houses, and have more important things to worry about than when to hang out with their friends—and I won’t. I’m scared that something bad will happen to me– losing a job, a death in the family, some kind of serious illness– and I won’t have anyone to lean on.
I don’t want to be left behind.
But I’m sure as hell ready to leave all this behind.
Happy Mothers Day to all the moms out there!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afy5ZOVxfSs]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO8bEpeQUl0]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NR8tH9tDGQ]
So, now that I’ve ranted about people who get snobby about YA lit, it’s time to recommend some of those books I love so much. Some of these are more middle-grade than YA, but whatever the label, they’re high quality books that you might have fond memories of reading as a kid—or, if you haven’t read them yet, you might enjoy reading as an adult.
The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak
I first read this book about five years ago. Warning: do not read it on public transportation. I started crying on the T when I finished it.
Anyway, it takes place in Nazi Germany, and it is narrated by Death himself. Death is not a villain, just a benign force with a job to do. It tells the story of Liesel, a foster child who has lost her brother and been abandoned by her parents. The family she lives with is hiding a Jewish man in the basement, and as the war goes on and life becomes more and more chaotic, Liesel finds comfort by stealing books wherever she can find them to read and share with others. It’s a wonderful book—sad, but absolutely beautifully written.
I Am the Messenger by Markus Zuzak
This isn’t as heavy as The Book Thief, but just as deep. Ed Kennedy is a nineteen-year-old cabbie and kind of a loser, with little in his life to be proud of. Then one day, after he foils a bank robbery, he receives an Ace of Diamonds in the mail with a list of addresses and times. Soon he realizes that they represent tasks that he must complete. The whole idea behind the book is that people are capable of much more than they realize, and although that’s a platitude that you can tell yourselves a million times but never believe, it touched me deeply when I read it here.
The Giver by Lois Lowry
This might be the highest-concept children’s novel I’ve ever read. It creates a dystopian world devoid of color, of music, of strong emotions, and most of all, of choice. In the community where twelve-year-old Jonas lives, everything is decided by orderly process—a person’s career, spouse, number of children, and the ages at which certain milestones, such as riding a bike, are reached. But when Jonas turns twelve, he learns that he has been selected to be the Receiver of Memory and learn about the past. An old man he calls the Giver transmits memories to Jonas, and he begins to know of the joy and sorrow of the world before the only world he has ever known. Despite the heavy subject matter, it’s easy to understand and extremely thought-provoking. If you didn’t read this as a kid, believe me, you will still enjoy it now.
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher
Eric, a shy, overweight teenager, bonded with his best friend, Sarah Byrnes, over their shared status as outsiders. Sarah Byrnes has lived with horrific scars on her face and hands since being burned at age three. One day, Sarah Byrnes suddenly stops speaking and is placed in a hospital, and eventually Eric discovers a horrible secret that she has been hiding for years. Besides the friendship at the heart of the book, which rings very true, there are a lot of interesting subplots that add a lot to the book—Eric’s conflicts with a swimming teammate (side note: I love this book for actually portraying competitive swimming in a pretty realistic way—movies and TV never get swimming right); a class at school that causes characters to reflect on issues like abortion, suicide, and religion; romantic possibilities for both Eric and his single mother. Although it certainly has flaws, not the least of which is the implausibility of Eric not guessing Sarah Byrnes’s secret earlier, this book has stayed in my thoughts for so long because its characters are so memorable, and even most of the characters who start off unlikeable have moments of redemption. Ms. Lemry, Eric’s compassionate teacher and swim coach, was one who especially stuck with me.
Looking for Alaska by John Green
I just read this book recently and liked it a lot. The book starts “one hundred thirty-six days before” and ends “one hundred thirty-six days after.” In the “Before” section, Miles Halter leaves the high school where he’s been an outcast to attend a boarding school in Alabama. Immediately, he makes friends, including his roommate, nicknamed “the Colonel,” and a beautiful and charismatic girl named Alaska. Halfway through the book, we learn that the “before” and “after refer to Alaska’s sudden death in a car crash that may or may not have been a suicide. As Miles and the Colonel try to uncover clues to explain Alaska’s death, Miles realizes how little he really knew about the girl he’d been so infatuated with. As sad as it is, there is a lot of humor mixed in and a lot of memorable, wonderfully drawn characters.
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
I actually blogged about this book awhile ago, but it’s worth mentioning again. This is a young adult novel that begins after a teenage girl named Hannah commits suicide. The narrator, Clay, had a crush on Hannah and is devastated by her death. Then one day, he gets a package in the mail containing several audio tapes. Before her death, Hannah recorded herself explaining her state of mind before her suicide. Each side of each tape explains what one person did that played a part in her decision to end her life, and the tapes have been passed down from one person mentioned on the tapes to another, in the order that they’re mentioned. A lot of actions had unintended consequences, and Hannah herself is not innocent in that regard. It did bother me how Hannah seemed to blame her problems on so many other people and had so little regard for her parents, who weren’t the source of her problems. But this was an engrossing, thought-provoking read overall, and I like that the book acknowledges that suicidal depression isn’t always caused by one big thing, but sometimes by smaller things that add up and spiral out of control.
The Wayside School series by Louis Sachar
Okay, I feel like I’ve recommended a lot of very dark books here, so now for something lighter. These books—Sideways Stories from Wayside School, Wayside School is Falling Down, and Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger— are really for younger kids—I first read them in third grade—but I find them just as entertaining now. They’re about a wacky thirty-story-high school with one classroom on each floor—except there is no nineteenth story. The books, too, have thirty “stories.” Most stories focus on one kid in Mrs. Jewls’ class on the thirtieth story. All kinds of crazy things happen—a teacher who turns kids into apples, a talking dead rat, three strange men with an attaché case who show up at unexpected times to keep the school in order. They’re hilarious and a lot of fun to read.
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
This is the Newbery Medal winner from 1995. Thirteen-year-old Sal is traveling across America with her quirky grandparents and begins to tell them a story about her friend Phoebe. Shortly after Sal and her father moved to a new town, Sal’s new friend Phoebe’s mother disappears suddenly. Phoebe is convinced that her mother has been murdered by a young man who has been showing up at her front door, or perhaps by a neighbor who she thinks has murdered her husband. But as she tells Phoebe’s story, Sal starts reflecting on the absence of her own mother, a Native American whose personal problems led her to leave home. It’s a wonderful story—gently funny in some places, deeply sad in others.
Absolutely Normal Chaos by Sharon Creech
Technically, this is a prequel to Walk Two Moons, but it doesn’t matter what order you read them in. The main character in this book, Mary Lou, is a minor character in Walk Two Moons. She’s been assigned to keep a journal over the summer for school, and she ends up documenting a crazy summer. While living in a chaotic household with her parents and four siblings, she experiences everything from the unexpected death of a neighbor to conflict with a friend to a developing crush on a classmate to the arrival of a quiet and occasionally frustrating cousin to stay with them for the summer. She also reads The Odyssey and provides her own entertaining commentary as she makes her way through it. There are serious moments, but for the most part, this is a much lighter read than Walk Two Moons, with laugh-out-loud funny moments throughout.
After I read this article, I swear I could literally feel my blood pressure rising. No, it’s not a life-or-death issue, but I cannot remember the last time an opinion piece pissed me off so much.
At least most people who read that article had the same reaction I did. Gina wrote a great post recently about the backlash to YA lit. Well, now it’s time for mine.
First of all, here’s the obvious observation: you can’t intelligently comment on a book you haven’t actually read. So because a book is labeled as appropriate for teenagers (which, mind you, is a distinction that the publisher and not the author makes and is often determined solely by the age of the protagonist), you won’t even try to find out if it is, indeed, something that adults shouldn’t read? If you don’t think you’d like a book, don’t read it. I don’t think I’d like the Twilight books, so I haven’t read them. But I can’t actually tell people I don’t recommend them because, as I said, I HAVEN’T READ THEM.
Second—you won’t read a book that you think doesn’t require enough “brain power.” Really? REALLY? THAT’S why you read fiction? If you were talking about nonfiction, you might have a point. If I want to learn about something, I’d certainly rather do so from a book aimed at adults rather than one you’d find in the nonfiction section of an elementary school library.
But why do you read fiction? Joel Stein, are you seriously telling me that you read fiction because you want to learn? Not to be entertained? Not to marvel at the author’s ability to construct a beautiful description, make a keen observation, or imagine a dialogue you can hear clearly in your mind? Not to see a reflection of your own life, or that of someone you know?
In the 2010 edition of The Best American Short Stories, edited by Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Russo (who happens to write fiction for adults that I thoroughly enjoy), Russo recounted a story about attending a reading with Isaac Bashevis Singer in which a student asked him what the purpose of literature was. Mr. Singer was adamant in his views on this subject: “To entertain and to instruct.” That sounds about right to me, and frankly, I’m inclined to believe a man who won the Nobel Prize in literature over a man who has written one memoir on “a stupid quest for masculinity.” (Low blow? So is banishing Harry Potter and The Hunger Games to the realm of tween girls, Mr. Stein.)
It’s possible that there’s no young adult literature will meet the standards of those who require “Pynchonesque turns of phrase” and “issues of identity, self-justification and anomie” from their literature, subjective though those qualifications are. But if you think that you won’t learn anything from young adult or children’s literature, you’ve either never read any YA books or you’ve only read bad ones. Lois Lowry’s The Giver, which I first read when I was ten, creates an incredibly complex dystopian world which, even as an adult, makes me reflect on the concepts of freedom of choice and an individual’s role in a successful society. John Green’s Looking for Alaska, which I just read recently, drew me in with its narrative format, complex characters, and questions about how well we can ever really know the people we care about. The seven Harry Potter books are full of characters I could write term papers on and say so much about discrimination, corruption, and injustice in both its fictional world and the world we live in. Bette Green’s Summer of My German Soldier tells a unique World War II story with a take on themes of prejudice unlike anything I’ve seen in adult fiction.
And that’s just how those books instructed. I could go on forever about how they entertained, which Mr. Singer notably included first.
Do you really want me to give more examples? To be totally honest, I think that the best of young adult literature is better than a lot of adult literature. Sometimes authors of adult fiction are too busy admiring their MFAs, disposing of adverbs, and sucking up to people more famous than they to remember the “entertain” part of the purpose of literature. And trying too hard to be different or edgy, as many authors of adult fiction do, usually backfires. Authors need to get the memo that infusing your novel with lots o’sex, drugs, and rock and roll is not original, often not very interesting, and has not been “edgy” for several decades. And if you’re writing fiction because you have a Message that you want to Convey, chances are that it’s as obvious as the gratuitous capital letters in this sentence. Christiana Krump introduced me to this awesome video by Ron Charles, the Washington Post’s book critic, where he critiques Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom. While I did like that book overall, I had a lot of the same issues with it that he did.
And anyway—in this day and age, when, according to a 2007 survey, one out of four people do not read books at all and the people who do read only polish off about four per year (trust me, the miserable offerings on online dating sites confirm this), do you really want to shame people for what they read? Think about it. No matter what people read—if it’s fiction, nonfiction, YA, Pulitzer Prize winners, romance novels, mysteries, Harry Potter, Twilight, The Da Vinci Code, or anything else—they are keeping books alive in an age when books have never been more threatened. If you don’t agree with someone’s taste, so the fuck what? I don’t like rap music, but I’m not going to tell people they shouldn’t listen to it.
Not to mention the message it sends to kids when you impress on them that certain tastes are “correct.” Did you ever think, Mr. Stein, that some kids, rather than being embarrassed upon seeing their parents reading a book aimed at children or teenagers, might become excited to read that book themselves? With American students’ reading scores being as dismal as they are, encouraging kids to read is never, ever a bad thing, and one of the best ways to do it is by demonstrating enthusiasm about reading. Through work, several of my colleagues and I participate in a mentoring program called Everybody Wins in which we go to a Boston elementary school once a week to read to a kid in second, third, or fourth grade. It’s a program I really believe in because it shows students how reading can be fun rather than something they “have” to do for school. It makes me really happy to see how enthusiastic the fourth-grader I mentor is to come to our reading sessions, and even happier to hear her talk about the books she’s read on her own at home. Recently, she wanted to read a book on Greek mythology because she’d learned about Greek gods from the Percy Jackson series, which she’d read outside of school. She wanted to read that book because it was fun, not to learn something—but she ended up learning something anyway.
When I started writing this post, I was angry at you, Joel Stein. But now I just feel bad for you. I hope the snobbish standards you’re so determined to hold books up to are worth missing out on so many intelligent, entertaining, wonderful books that happen to be stored in a section of the bookstore that you think you’re too good for.