After by Francine Prose
"This reminds me of..."
One issue that I found when reading this new genre was the fact that the characters are often coming at me in an "unnatural" way--what's with this? For those who have never read this book, (although for the most part I am enjoying it), it is about a school in which a new counselor joins because in his old school there was a murder and as an investigation unfolds, we soon realize that the counselor has much more issues than we knew about--he has plans to try and take over the new school, and eventually wants to be the leader of the world. This plot in one sentence doesn't do the book justice, but I don't wish to talk about that.
From what I have read, the book was written from the mindset of a 15 year old child, but the author, as I am getting deeper in the story, does not seem to develop her characters in this way. Her writing seems to be a little stiff and rigid for the most part. I am more so curious to try and pick up on her writing style so I can better understand if I should be reading the characters in a different way.
After, does in fact have a good plot behind it, one that wants you to keep going deeper into the book as you read. I can appreciate this as a reader, because if I am thinking like my students, they are going to want books that they cannot put down. Now, I am sure they wont be analyzing character roles like I tend to do, but they will mostly want to see how the plot thickens and progresses--this, Prose does a good job with.
For never reading any type of Sci Fi novel, I would say that my curiosity has definitely peeked a little more. I would be more interested in reading more.
The on thing that this book reminds me of was a show I have recently started watching called "Wayward Pines" in which innocent people are pretty much kidnapped from their lives and forced to live in this "community" under the rule of the Sherriff. They are forced to forget their past and "be happy"...in some twisted way, the counselor is trying to do this! He wants the students at the school to forget what has happened (even though I think he is the murderer) and follow what he wants done so he can take over! Crazy!
If you can get past the poor writing style and somewhat stiff and irrational characterization--give this book a try! (And watch Wayward Pines)
ds
Okay, this is certainly response, but can you please tell me what prompt you are responding to in your heading? I am trying to contextualize the response, but struggling to do so. And her's another question--what theory do you think is driving your critique of the way the text is written? You are pulling out of the text for a reason--Love the text to world connection--you know Dr. Oglan would love that:) I do appreciate your reading out of your comfort zone--as teachers, we really do need o have read widely--this is a good challenge for you.
ReplyDeleteI am so proud of you Davontae for pushing yourself to dig into a dystopian novel! I want to know what you mean by the characters are coming at you in an unnatural way. Do they seem like the author was trying too hard to make them realistic or is it like bad acting? What kind of audience would you suggest this book to?
ReplyDelete@Mary Styslinger,
ReplyDeleteI remember reading this book and I still do think it's very different. I believe one theory on why I was so hesitant to reading a Sci Fi book was for the simple fact that I had never been interested in the genre as a whole. Never seen Star Wars etc...so for me, I guess I just shut the whole genre down as something that would not be appealing to me. I can see how this can be an issue--especially if I have students who "feel the same way". We will be reading books of all genres and I would want them to give it a chance as well. I'm glad I had the experience thought.