Schooling

Rating:
Summary: Don't Blame This Great Book
Review: As Twain put it, ""Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do . . . Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do." Thus, reading Heather McGowan's brilliant novel could never be a chore; no one is forced to read it, nor is anyone tricked into it. Instead, it's a choice, and, for those who appreciate innovative fiction, a very wise choice! For those whose tastes run to the more traditional, however, Oprah airs at four. Check your listings.

Rating:
Summary: as good as literary fiction gets these days
Review: I wrote the starred review of Schooling in Booklist Magazine (you can read it above in the 'editorial reviews' section), and I have to take issue with people who say that the book is too difficult, or that it offers little in the way of ample rewards. Schooling was as good as any first novel I can remember reading in all of my time reviewing at Booklist.

The complaint that's always made about literary fiction, and that has been leveled at everyone since James Joyce, is that it's just pure ostentation, a sort of "look ma no hands" linguistic showmanship. That's not, however, why McGowan's book is difficult. The book is difficult to read -- at least at first -- because it is an entirely refreshing reading experience. Because the novel's central character Catrine, is young, and because she is scared and small and growing into an understanding of herself, she is inarticulate.

But despite her inability to articulate words or thoughts, we come to know Catrine very intimately, and MacGowan manages to make her inarticulate thoughts and words the stuff of great literary fiction.

The book can be difficult to read, because it is unlike most books (more challenging in structure than even, say, DFW's Infinite Jest). But eventually McGowan gets you inside Catrine's head, and once that happens, it's no different than any other absorbing reading experience.

Is there adequate payoff for the challenge? I'd say so. I'd say that Ms. McGowan is an enormous literary talent, that her explorations of memory, childhood, and life ont he outside are as compelling as any I've read. If the final message fails to deliver a knock out punch to some readers, I'd say that maybe that's because the messages we can garner from living and schooling are, like Catrine, utterly inarticulate.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome!!!!! to the max!
Review: I'll admit that at times this book was confusing, but it was still excellent. The writing style was really different, ex. no quotation marks, run-on sentences, but as long as you're paying attention, it's not too hard to follow. I LOVED this book!!!!!!!