Weekly Reader Thursday Next Edition: First Among Sequels (The Thursday Next Series Vol. V) by Jasper Fforde; New Adventure Makes Thursday More Metafictional Than Before

Weekly Reader Thursday Next Edition: First Among Sequels (The Thursday Next Series Vol. V) by Jasper Fforde; New Adventure Makes Thursday More Metafictional Than Before




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: Well he did it. I did not think it was possible but Jasper Fforde achieved it. I didn't think his Thursday Next Series could not get more meta and it has.

While the first four books in the series followed a straight story arc and carried concepts that were resolved by the book, Something Rotten, Fforde decided to do something completely different with the next tier of the series.


This time around over 20 years have gone by moving the series setting to the early 2000’s. Thursday is now in her early 50’s and lives with her uneradicated husband, Landen, her lazy son, Friday, her genius daughter, Tuesday, and her other daughter, Jenny who spends most of her time at her friend's houses.

Thursday is much older but still very active. She works at Acme Carpets, actually a front for Spec Ops which is forced to go underground. She also works for Jurisfiction as a sometimes agent so yay Book World is back!

Of course Thursday and Co. are in trouble (aren't they always?) in both worlds. People who were affiliated with Thursday's arch enemy, Acheron Hades are back and causing trouble. The Goliath Corporation are rearing their ugly heads once more. The Chronoguard want Thursday's son, Friday to join them to eventually become their leader and they don't mind killing the current Friday to send their Friday to replace him.

Meanwhile in Book World, Sherlock Holmes has been killed. He was last seen by Reichenbach Falls during “The Final Problem” with no Generic to immediately replace him. (Oh if only Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had written a follow up story taking place near “The Empty House.” Oh wait.) Now Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan is in fear of her life inside her book. (Bones so far is the only copyrighted character to be featured in Fforde's series. He thanks author, Kathy Reichs, in the acknowledgement). The clones of Mrs. Danvers, the creepy housekeeper from Rebecca who are often required to do grunt work in Book World, are acting creepier than usual and now attack Thursday. Thursday is also training two new recruits which are……herself and….herself.

That's right, Fforde introduces the concept that if Thursday Next is technically a fictional character, then she should be subjected to the same regulations as the other fictional characters in the Book World including having fictionalized versions of herself.

Thursday's adventures in the previous four books became a fictional series of its own inside the series. However, they went through a change than the ones we know.
The first four books are dark, violent, sexy gritty noir tales and the Thursday that emerges from that is a tough talking gun toting badass.
Our Thursday, the one from First Among Sequels, wanted the fifth book, The Great Samuel Pepys Fiasco to be more diplomatic and peaceful and the Thursday that emerges from that is a flighty dizzy hippy. So Thursday has to train her fictional counterparts, I mean her more fictional counterparts...I mean oh forget it!


The moments between Thursday and her fictional counterparts, Thursday 1-4 (the violent one) and Thursday 5 (the hippy) are some of the highlights.
Our Thursday has to come between them as Thursday 1-4 goes really bad and Thursday 5 goes really good.

Thursday also comes to realize that her counterparts, and by extension, she are fictional characters so they too are controlled by the whims of Author, Reader, and the limitations of fiction hood. The three share this realization as they impersonate each other and even take turns narrating First Among Sequels for stretches at a time. At one point, Thursday 5 recites the opening of the Eyre Affair which is word for word the opening of The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde from our world.

Understand, this is not breaking the fourth wall. This is jumping on the fourth wall, smashing it with a hammer, obliterating it, selling the spare parts for scrap, removing any evidence of it, and acting like the fourth wall never existed in the first place and doing the same to the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Walls while Fforde is at it.

With a plot as meta as this involving three versions of the same character, time travel, and other plot devices things intentionally get confusing. Perhaps some coherence in the narrative would not be too much to ask. The time travel aspects get hand waved leading to a plot hole with the other books in the series that is too headache inducing to get into. The murdered fictional characters subplot starts strong but is left open ended possibly for a resolution for another book as does the possible non-identity of one of the characters. Thursday's fights with her counterparts are intriguing as she realizes that she truly met her match, literally.

While this one is the most confusing and meta of the series, it definitely stretches Fforde's imagination to its limit. It makes any fan of the series clamor for the next book, One of Our Thursdays is Missing.

At the very least, it will be entertaining to see how many more walls Jasper Fforde can break.

New Book Alert: Shiri by D.S. Taylor; Strong Leads Steer Dark and Violent Novel About Slavery in Ancient Egypt

New Book Alert: Shiri by D.S. Taylor; Strong Leads Steer Dark and Violent Novel About Slavery in Ancient Egypt




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: Shiri is a book that begins dark and violent and pretty much stays that way. When early on the protagonist's family and the entire village is wiped out except her, you know that you won't be in for a fun jolly time. Also considering the majority of the book involves slavery, regicide, child rape, forced prostitution, abuse, and characters having to assume false identities for decades, you are in for a disturbing but unforgettable time.

One thing that keeps the narrative from being oversaturated in violence and dark images are the protagonists. They are both strong figures that use their wits and persistence to fight against these circumstances which they are forced in. They are both survivors and fighters to the end.

The first of our main characters is Shiri, who lives in a Habiru village in the desert. (There is no specific time set but the plot suggests that it is pre-Biblical days since the people around Shiri worship Ba’al and they fight one of the Amenhoteps though no number is given).

Shiri is shown to be close to her loving family particularly her father, a former warrior turned diplomatic village leader. The Egyptian Army massacres the entire village at the orders of their Prince Amenhotep. There are many graphic moments but one of the hardest to read is when Shiri is an eyewitness to some Egyptians cutting her father down with a sword then raping and murdering her mother.

Shiri manages to escape and runs to the dwelling of the so-called Shepherd King, the ruler of the various desert tribes. His wife, called The Beautiful One, was abducted and possibly murdered by the Egyptians so he has been at war with them ever since. Shiri arrives to warn the Shepherd King of the approaching army.

In other novels, this may lead to a decisive battle in which the protagonists come out if not the winners then at least ahead. But in this novel, all her actions do is lead the Egyptians right to them and we are witness to another violent battle in which the villagers are captured or killed including the Shepherd King leaving behind his son, Joseph, our second protagonist.

Joseph has to face some quick decisions after his servant, Yuya turns traitor on him. Joseph kills Yuya and assumes his identity. The Egyptians “reward” him with a new slave, of course, Shiri. When the two are alone, they quickly realize that they are on the same side but must play the roles of Yuya, the Egyptian Master and Shiri, his new Habiru slave, while in Egypt.

So begins a masquerade that lasts over 20 years as Joseph assumes Yuya’s identity, his place in his family home, and his arranged marriage with Tjuya, the High Priest's daughter. When Tjuya threatens Shiri with revealing that she knows that the man claiming to be Yuya is a fraud, Shiri willingly submits herself to the abuse given by her vain mistress and Tjuya’s sadistic handmaiden, Meira.

D.S. Taylor puts brilliant lead characters in this dark setting. The antagonists are terrible but they are supposed to be. Amenhotep is written as a spoiled Prince committing foul deeds for his father's attention. Tjuya is a manipulative jealous bitch who delights in abusing Shiri. Meira gleefully humiliates Shiri on her mistress's behalf. They are a ghastly bunch which makes Shiri and Joseph more likable.

In Shiri and Joseph's struggles with their enemies, we see how they differ in gender and social structure and how those differences play into their conflicts. Shiri is forced to endure the worst treatment that a slave woman has to overcome. She is raped by male masters and abused by Tjuya. She is forced to allow her daughter, Tiye, to be raised in Tjuya's household, but she stoically holds her ground and bonds with the girl in secret.

Shiri is maternal and loving towards Tiye and she continues to love Joseph even under his false identity. While their romance begins rather quickly, it makes sense considering that Shiri lost her family and only has Joseph to hold onto.

Shiri fights as well as she can by showing kindness when none is given to her, strength when her body is weakened, and courage when her masters try to break her. She is able to endure the long years of suffering.

Joseph has a different path facing his antagonists. Acting as a wealthy Egyptian male, he has to play the role of stern overseer on the outside while being the Shepherd King on the inside. He shows kindness to slaves so he can gain their loyalty and they act as his army in an eventual rebellion. He is a consummate politician negotiating and strategizing between allies that aid him in facing his Egyptian enemies. He also is able to see the big picture and plan far ahead for the future of his people while Shiri has to live day to day, moment by moment for herself, her daughter, and the man she loves.

However, Joseph has to keep up the lie of being Yuya for years. He is forced to compromise his beliefs and religion, hide his allegiances with his former people, and his love for Shiri all under the guise of being a wealthy Egyptian. This makes Shiri a stronger character than Joseph. She may be in horrible circumstances, but at least she is honest about who she is, who she loves, and what she believes.
Fortunately, as dark as the book is, there are some great hopeful moments towards the end as secrets are revealed and unions are made. Even when some characters die, their legacies live on.

In one juicy moment, the tables are turned as a master becomes a slave and vice versa. This moment shows the real heroism in Shiri and Joseph and how they are able to use their strength, leadership, and endurance to visualize a better world than the one they entered.

New Book Alert: The Companion by Kim Taylor Blakemore; Intriguing Suspense, But Lack of Character Development In Novel About Forbidden Love and Murder in 19th Century New England

New Book Alert: The Companion by Kim Taylor Blakemore; Intriguing Suspense, But Lack of Character Development In Novel About Forbidden Love and Murder in 19th Century New England




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews





Spoilers: Kim Taylor Blakemore’s The Companion is one of those novels that begins in a way where you think you know everything, but then it turns you around into being about something else entirely different. In this case, it makes for a novel with an intriguing suspenseful plot but lacks in character development.

In the opening, a woman is awaiting her execution and tells the Reader that she is responsible for three maybe four deaths. So, the Reader prepares for a novel about a serial killer explaining how she killed her victims. Instead, we learn that everything is not as cut and dry as we thought and the woman on death row is less a villainess and more of a victim.


The woman on death row is Lucy West and she was originally hired as a maid in the home of a 19th century well-to-do New English couple, The Burtons. Even in the first few pages, there are hints that all is not as it seems. There is the fact that Lucy's predecessor, Mary mysteriously drowned. Eugenie Burton, the mistress of the house, is blind and has to be led around but harbors some other eccentric behaviors. Rebecca, Eugenie's companion is highly suspicious and intensely jealous of any attention that anyone else gives Eugenie. Then there is Lucy who is herself a contradiction by hinting that her references are fake and is in grieving for her deceased son.

Blakemore is great at building suspense. Even though the book is told in flashback from Lucy's first person perspective, we only get droplets of information as Lucy (and Blakemore) sees fit to show us. Early on we learn her son, Ned, died but we don't learn how or the circumstances surrounding his birth and death and why this results in her being on the run until later in the book.

We learn about the death of poor Mary, but don't learn how it is connected to the rest of the book until later. For a long time, Mary is almost a red herring until suddenly she isn't.

While the suspense is palpable and makes you question the plot and character, unfortunately it comes at the expense of good characterization. The Reader is always on guard so they don't get much of a chance to understand or even empathize with the characters including Lucy.

Lucy purposely hides information and doesn't let the Reader in on her real intentions that once the resolution is made, we have to read back a few pages to make sure we understood it. It doesn't help that Lucy makes herself a subject of suspicion as many people sharing prison with her remark that she doesn't feel remorse for any of her crimes, when at least one should have based on the information we are eventually given.

The lack of characterization in favor of suspense also doesn't do other characters any favors. Rebecca seems to have been auditioning for the role of Mrs. Danvers in Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca (maybe intentionally so, considering the name). We get the creepy servant part, but we don't get what made her so trustworthy and alluring to Eugenie in the first place.

Eugenie Burton, who is by far the most intriguing character, falters as well. She and Lucy get involved in a romantic relationship which has some sweet moments but is tempered with more suspense. Their romance of course plays into the conventions of its day and it is interesting how the two women manage to coordinate their alone time away from prying judgmental eyes. However, Eugenie and Lucy's romance is hampered by accusations that Lucy is one of many extramarital Sapphic flings Eugenie has had. We are not sure whether it's malicious gossip or the truth and honestly Eugenie's behavior suggests that it could go either way.

Unfortunately one of the strongest most emotional moments, when Lucy and Eugenie agree to run away together is muted by the machinations of the plot and the realization that nothing in either woman's previous behavior suggests that this is plausible or even a believable outcome.

A novel that is built on suspense cannot just rely on the twists in the plot to keep the Reader interested. Sure it will keep them reading and guessing. In the end, it may even surprise them. But a good suspense novel has to give us strong identifiable characters that experience the twists and surprises. Otherwise, the suspense falls flat.

An Apology

First off I want to apologize for being so late with my reviews. Earlier in July, I was seriously ill and in intense pain with a bad ear infection. I took some medicine and recovered but because the pain was so severe, it was difficult to read and write. By the time I got better I had to catch up on my reading then catch up on my reviewing. I didn't realize until now that I haven't updated my blog or reviewed in a month. I apologize and I will try not to take so long between reviews again.





The upshot is that I have approximately two weeks worth of reviews to write. So here they are, again I am very sorry.

Weekly Reader Thursday Next Edition: Something Rotten (The Thursday Next Series Vol. IV) by Jasper Fforde; Return to Swindon Brims With Shakespearean Jokes and Comedy

Weekly Reader Thursday Next Edition: Something Rotten (The Thursday Next Series Vol. IV) by Jasper Fforde; Average Return to Swindon Brims With Shakespearean References and Comedy




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: On Jasper Fforde's website, he stated that when he wrote The Well of Lost Plots, that he missed writing about Swindon and Thursday Next’s eccentric family, so he had Thursday immediately leave Book World to return in the next book, Something Rotten.

Unfortunately, I am just the opposite. Swindon is nice and it's good to see some characters returning like Thursday's time-hopping father and her well-meaning but intrusive mum. As before with the books there are plenty of humorous moments, literary references, and strange situations. But darn it all, I miss Book World!

Anybody could write about a place like Swindon, anybody. It takes a true creative spirit like Fforde to take his and other literary characters and build an entire world around them with its creatures, rules, technology, and events. It's like coming down from the ultimate Imagination Trip or a high. You have been to this exciting colorful place that afterward seems like a let down.
It's not that Something Rotten is a bad book. It's great, but the Swindon setting is dull in comparison to the bright, imaginative, colorful Book World.


Anyway, Thursday misses her normal life in Swindon so after two years as the Bellman (leader in Book World), she returns to Swindon with her two-year-old son, Friday and memories of her still-eradicated husband, Landen. No sooner does she return to her hometown and her LiteraTec job in Spec Ops, than she as usual is hit with problems.

First, she has to bring Hamlet along so he can study how the various Outlander play productions and movies portray him. In his absence, the other characters in Hamlet revolt and write their own play called The Tragedy of the Not-At-All Boring Polonious, Father of the Noble Laertes, Who Avenged His Fair Sister Ophelia, Who Was Driven Mad by the Callousness of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Catchy title aside, the characters need a master copy and since one no longer exists Thursday has to find a clone of Shakespeare's to break up their revolution and set things straight with the characters.

St. Zvlkx, a friar from the 11th century has returned to Swindon and his prophecies are spot on including that something bad will happen after Swindon wins the Super Hoop Croquet Tournament. So Thursday and co. have to dust out their mallets and do some footwork on the croquet field.

The Goliath Corporation is suddenly declaring itself a religion and Yorrik Kaine, who had been a disgraced politician and a fictional escapee from Book World, now suddenly has gained a cult-like following and goes on a rampage against all things Danish (Don't ask.) including burning books by Danish authors. Not to mention that Landen is still eradicated and Thursday is the target of an assassin who kills by slapstick (No, really don't ask.)

Let's get the good stuff out of the way first. The way Fforde draws in Hamlet is pretty clever. According to Thursday, he is concerned that he is portrayed as a “ditherer” and he would worry even if he had nothing to worry about so he makes the most out of his trip to the Outland. He compares notes on various productions with his favorite being the Zeffirelli Film where he is played by Mel Gibson (“Horatio is played by Danny Glover, yes?”) He also spends some time flirting with Lady Emma Hamilton, the mistress of Lord Horatio Nelson who is staying in the Next home after a time traveling expedition gone awry.
Thursday also reveals a secret shared among book, author, and Reader. Everyone brings a little of themselves into what they read so each time they read a book, they experience it differently. “To each their own Hamlet,” she says.

Thursday deals with the various adventures with her usual cunning and resourcefulness, particularly when she is assigned to locate and destroy Danish books. She sends SpecOps agents in the wrong places (“The Danish Embassy is the first place they think we’ll look! Check the Singaporean Embassy instead!”) while gathering up all the Danish books by truck loads and sneaking them into the Socialist Republic of Wales. (By a stroke of luck, there also happens to be a Shakespeare clone in Wales so two of her problems are resolved.)

There is some great attempts at political satire with the character of Yorrik Kaine. A political figure with no previous experience suddenly luring followers against a select group and creating legions of fans who are mesmerized by his every word and swayed by his “off-the-cuff-he-tells-it-like-it-is” shtick may sound awfully familiar until you realize this book was published in 2004! Still, the parallels are so uncanny that this Reader wondered if Kaine’s followers wore hats that said “Make Swindon Great Again,” before they were considered cool.

There are parts that don't work so well. After the nuances and cleverness that Fforde gave to the various literary characters, the Swindon characters just aren't as interesting.

After three books, Thursday finally gets Landen back. But his return is so anticlimactic and his presence in the book is so minor that he may as well have stayed gone. 

There are a couple of new characters like St. Zvlkx and an assassin called the Windowmaker (a typo on the business card) that seem very Pythonesque in their characterizations. They have some interesting clever moments, but they are more set up as jokes, jokes that run thin after awhile. 

Many of the various plots and characters don't jell as well as they had in the first three books. They make a hodgepodge of ideas that don't go anywhere and aren't tied together very well. The less said about the croquet and Goliath-as-religion plots, the better.

Something Rotten was intended to be the final book in this tier of the Thursday Next series and it shows. Certain storylines are wrapped up and character's identities are revealed. One revelation appears odd at first, but it makes sense the more one thinks about it and answers several questions.
The other character revelation doesn't work quite so well because it leaves a large gaping plot hole about how another character didn't know about that person’s identity. Not only that but another possibility would have made a lot more sense.

Something Rotten is okay for a normal book series but when the previous three Thursday Next books were so creative, so clever, and so bursting with literariness and imagination, it becomes even more of a shame than it should be.

Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The Red Queen (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. III) by Philippa Gregory; The Lancaster Side With A Very Different But Equally Memorable Protagonist

Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The Red Queen (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. III) by Philippa Gregory; The Lancaster Side of the Cousin's War With A Different But Also Memorable Protagonist

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: One interesting thing with Historical Fiction is that you can get multiple perspectives from the same point in history. Like Rashomon, different characters will give their own versions of the events based on their background and relations to the events in question. These multiple points of view aren't necessarily wrong, after all what really is fact and truth when history is written by the winners? But they are how the characters see them.

Philippa Gregory had previously told of the War of the Roses from the Yorkist point of view from Elizabeth Woodville, wife of King Edward IV and protagonist of the White Queen. In Lady of the Rivers, Elizabeth's mother, Jacquetta of Luxembourg's allegiance shifted from the Lancasters when she was a Lady in Waiting to Margaret d'Anjou to York when her husband and son supported the Yorks and her daughter plead for mercy in front of King Edward IV.

Now in her third book in the Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series, The Red Queen, Philippa Gregory gives us the Lancastrian side from the point of view of someone who is a very different lead character from Elizabeth Woodville, but just as memorable in her own way: Margaret Beaufort, cousin to King Henry VI and mother to King Henry VII.

When she is a little girl, Margaret believes that she is headed for a life of spiritual piety.
Unfortunately, her opportunistic relatives particularly her cold mother have other ideas. She is arranged to marry Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond. The marriage is brief as Edmund is a young man who is more interested in hanging out with the guys than being a husband. He is killed but not before Margaret gives birth to a son, Henry Tudor.

After his birth, Margaret has a vision in which Henry, her son, is God's anointed king. She never wavers through that vision not during the War of the Roses. Not during her two subsequent marriages to Sir Henry Stafford and Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby. Not during the reigns of King Edward IV and King Richard III, and not when she is separated from her son as he is sent in exile to be raised and trained by his paternal uncle, Jasper Tudor.

In writing The Red Queen, Gregory made a conscious effort to make Margaret Beaufort as different from Elizabeth Woodville as possible. In a way, it reminds me of the approach Marion Zimmer Bradley gave to Guenivere and Morgaine in Mists of Avalon by making them two different women with different religions, motives, and approaches but making them very strong forceful characters in their own individual ways. Gregory pulls the same feat here.

While Elizabeth Woodville is from a family rooted in their Pagan past, Margaret is clearly a die-hard Christian. Even as a child, she is happy to have “saint’s knees” (wounds from kneeling in prayer so much) and has ambitions to become an abbess or after she hears about Joan of Arc, a warrior for God. Her whole life is driven by the desire to do something significant in the name of her God.

While Elizabeth Woodville has loving parents who encourage her to put herself forward and brazenly approach King Edward, Margaret’s home life is less cozy. Her father committed suicide before she was born and her mother has so little affection for her daughter that when Margaret goes through a troubled labor giving birth to Henry, her mother insists that they save the baby and let Margaret die. Margaret's unloving home could be one of the factors why she is so devoted to her religion. Finding no love from her earthly mother and father, she seeks it from her Heavenly Father.

Margaret's role she is told is severely limited to being the wife of one powerful man and the mother of another. While she acquiesces to the role, like her rival Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret Beaufort finds a way to use it to her advantage. Once she believes that Henry, her son, is chosen to be the next king she visualizes herself as Queen or rather Queen Mother singing her name “Margaret R,” as in Margaret Regina or Margaret Richmond.

Throughout the book, Margaret shows single mindedness in her goal of making her son King so everything else is secondary. After Edmund Tudor’s death, she clearly falls in love with his brother, Jasper and vice versa but they don't act on their emotions because Margaret feels that she has a higher purpose. Jasper is also sent away to raise Henry in exile and to make sure the boy fulfills his eventual duty as King. Margaret is so driven by her desire to make Henry king that she foregoes a maternal relationship with him and is not physically close to him until he reaches adulthood.

During the War of the Roses, Margaret is firmly on the side of the Lancasters because of Henry VI’s spiritual faith which she doesn't realize often prevents him from ruling since he spends more time in prayer or in a coma than making decisions. Still Margaret is committed to that side to the point where she shames her second husband, Stafford into fighting the Yorks which for a long time he resists. She never lets go of that image of being Joan of Arc fighting for her God if only from the side lines.

The only husband who is a match for Margaret's steely resolve is Stanley. Unlike Margaret's unwavering devotion to her side, the Stanleys are known to turn coats for whoever is winning, often keeping the Yorks and Lancasters, as well as Margaret, guessing. Stanley is the only one to call Margaret's spiritual belief into question by asking whether it is God's will or really hers that her son is to be King, a question that she cannot answer.

Stanley also is able to put many of her thoughts into action. After King Edward IV dies and his sons are put into the Tower of London, it is Stanley who reminds her that there are currently three obstacles in the way of her Henry becoming King and at least two of them are young defenseless boys and what is she going to do about it. Her answer is, of course, historical speculation but leads to a very possible outcome and eventually tragedies to come farther down the Tudor line.

Through Stanley's influence, Margaret does learn to compromise slightly when she realizes that she and Elizabeth Woodville share a common enemy in Richard III. Even though Margaret thinks Elizabeth Woodville is a witch and her daughter, Elizabeth of York, is a slut who is in love with her uncle, she willingly arranges the marriage between her son and Elizabeth's daughter. However, she clearly lets the younger Elizabeth know who's in charge. Though Elizabeth of York counters with a great comeback suggesting that she won't be so easily swayed and possibly foreshadows more potential trouble in the union between the two former rival houses.

The Red Queen presents a very different protagonist from Elizabeth Woodville. Like her predecessor, Margaret Beaufort is not always likable. She is militant, fanatic, and egocentric with her view of God and her destiny. But she is definitely unforgettable.

Classics Corner: Holes by Louis Sachar; Three Stories Blend To Make One Superb YA Classic

Classics Corner: Holes by Louis Sachar; Three Stories Blend To Make One Superb YA Classic




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews


Spoilers: I always said that Louis Sachar's Newbery Medal Winning novel, Holes is deep for a YA novel. Heck, it is deeper than most adult novels. Teachers wisely have used this book to teach their students about paying attention to detail and multiple narratives.

Holes doesn't tell one interesting story. Instead, Sachar tells three and wraps them all in one ambitious, cleverly written superb classic.

Story #1 is that of Stanley Yelnats IV and his adventures at Camp Green Lake. Stanley's family has been under a curse for five generations. This curse often puts Stanley in the wrong place at the wrong time such as when he is caught with a baseball player's pair of athletic shoes that was donated to a children's home. Stanley is arrested and sent to an all-boys detention camp, Camp Green Lake.
The camp is in the middle of the desert and the nasty Warden and her cohorts demand that the boys dig one hole a day. They claim that they are trying to “build character” but it doesn't take long for Stanley to realize they are looking for something but what?

Story #2 is about Stanley's “no good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great grandfather,” Elya Yelnats and the origin of the Yelnats family curse. Elya was a young Latvian man who fell in love with a girl. To win her over, Elya's friend, Madame Zeroni suggests that he should take a pig up the mountain and tend to it so it will grow stronger. When he is done with that, he should then take Madame Zeroni up the mountain so she can grow stronger. However, if he fails, he and his family will be cursed always and for eternity.
Unfortunately, Elya rejects the flaky girl when she can't decide between her two suitors.
So, Elya flees to America forgetting about Madame Zeroni and his promise to carry her up the mountain. He realizes the consequences when his family becomes hit with bad luck, particularly his son, Stanley Yelnats I who has a chest of valuables stolen during a stagecoach robbery.

Story # 3, my favorite, is of Western outlaw, Kissin’ Kate Barlow. Kate is a schoolteacher in the once-thriving town of Green Lake. She becomes romantically involved with Sam, an African-American onion farmer. When they are caught kissing, Kate's schoolhouse is burned down and Sam is lynched and shot to death.
Out of revenge, Kate goes after the members of the lynch mob by shooting them then leaving a kiss as her trademark. Kate begins a 20 year career of robbing trains, banks stagecoaches (including a stage that had as a passenger, one Stanley Yelnats I), and killing people who get in her way. Rumors are eventually spread that she buried the loot that she stole out in the desert and anyone who searches for it will have to go digging. And what a coincidence, that in modern times there is a delinquent camp for boys that can do just that.

As you can tell, Holes is not an easy story to tell and that's what makes it a great book. In my previous entry for A Wrinkle in Time, I praised YA books that recognize their Reader's intelligence. They can tell an engaging and inventive story that draws in young Readers while using bigger concepts and effective storytelling that doesn't talk down to them. Holes has all of that and more.

Off-handed conversations become important later on. Some things happen to Stanley in the present which are answered in one of the flashbacks stories. Characters are introduced in the present whose relatives had great significance in the past.
Sachar chose not to write his book in a chronological linear manner. Instead, he combined the three stories using excerpts from each into the chapters sorting them by plot and thematic element. The questions asked by characters in the present are answered by characters in the past and struggles caused by character's actions in the past are resolved by character's actions in the present. Confused yet?

Holes is not just a book with a deep narration. It also has a lot of humor, depth, and a lot of warmth. Much of the humor lies in Sachar’s writing. He first describes Camp Green Lake as “There is no lake at Camp Green Lake.”
He describes Kate Barlow as a beautiful school teacher loved by her students and many of the men in town. The men came to her adult education classes hoping to get a date with her, but Sachar tells us “all they got was the education.”

The humor isn't just limited to the narration. Names add to the funny elements to the story. Stanley Yelnats’ first and last names are the same forward and backwards (His great-great grandmother thought that was clever and it stuck with subsequent generations.)
All of the campers and staff have nicknames. The campers call each other names like Zig Zag, X Ray, Armpit, Magnet, Squint, Twitch, and Zero after some physical characteristic or personality trait. To receive a nickname means that you are accepted as one of the gang, as Stanley (later Caveman) discovers.
The staff are called The Warden (her title to show she's in charge), Mr. Sir (The Warden’s sadistic second in command) and Dr. Pendanski AKA Mom (the boy's counselor who affects a kind demeanor but is really condescending and patronizing to the boys, particularly Zero).

Besides the clever narration and word play, Holes discusses real world issues like homelessness, child abandonment, juvenile delinquency, and most notably racism. Kate and Sam are an interracial couple in the late 1800’s. Their encounters as Sam fixes Kate’s school roof, window, door, and eventually her broken heart are beautiful making them among the best literary romantic couples of all time.

Sachar, however, doesn't shy away from the ramifications from a racist town that may not have minded Sam when he sold them onions but raises Holy Hell when he and a white school teacher fall in love. After Sam is killed, Kate transforms from a sweet schoolteacher to an angry outlaw and Green Lake changes from a lush green garden spot to an arid decayed desert. These changes reveal the hateful nature that was buried under the residents of Green Lake bringing that hatred out in the open.

Stanley's family also has much to answer for. While Elya's crime of forgetting about Madame Zeroni wasn't as great as Sam’s murder, he reveals his egocentricism and ungratefulness by not even thinking of her until it is too late. Elya's actions still led to many generations of bad luck, poverty, and tragedy for his family. The only way the curse can be resolved is through Stanley.

Stanley unwittingly becomes the catalyst for great change during his time in Camp Green Lake most importantly in his friendship with Zero.
Zero is a small camper who doesn't say much and is frequently bullied. Stanley and Zero strike up a friendship when Stanley teaches Zero to read and Zero helps his new friend dig his holes. They defend each other after they are bullied.
When Zero runs away from camp, Stanley orchestrates a daring escape attempt to find him earning them the support of the formerly apathetic campers. When Stanley and Zero are reunited, things happen that tie all three stories together and allows Elya's curse to be broken and Kate to finally receive some peace. What was broken by hatred and selfishness is made whole because of friendship and self-sacrifice.

Holes is one of the most ambitious YA novels with its multiple perspectives, time hopping narrative, and combination of humor, social issues, and warmth. Louis Sachar won the Newbery Medal for his efforts and rightfully deserved it.