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cahn3+/5, 4/5 - I can't find it (I wish I could), but in one of Sheila O'Malley's awesome book excerpts she talks about how when you read some books you identify completely and totally with the protagonist, so that reading the book is a terrifying and cathartic sort of experience. The book she said this about was one I read later and didn't actually like that much (one of the reasons I can't find the quote), so another lesson is that what resonates deeply with one person may not with another.
There is a class of YA books where, I think, one's mileage can vary widely. I don't know how to describe them, exactly. I don't want to say, high-school-issues book, because that doesn't seem to quite describe it; I shall say: they are the YA books that touch on the basic themes of life. For example... Chris Crutcher's books are about sports and abuse, yeah, but they're about... his best stuff is about the painful process of loss, loss of people, of one's illusions about people, of one's certainty of being right, of one's certainty of being able to do the right thing. And, you know? Some people need to hear that. And some people don't. (I think I had to hear the parts about losing one's illusions about people and losing one's certainty of being right.)
So: Saving Francesca and Just Listen. For me, reading Just Listen was basically like getting hit by a ton of bricks. I wrote a whole long thing about why that was so (because on the most superficial level the narrator of Listen and her experiences are nothing like me and mine), and then I decided I was not comfortable hanging all my issues out in public. Saving Francesca, which is actually a very similar book in a lot of ways, didn't flatten me. Because I didn't identify with the protagonist and what was going on in her life in the terrifying and total way I did with the protagonist of Just Listen. But I can totally see how it could be the other way around; how someone could get smacked in the face by the Marchetta and be lukewarm on the Dessen. (I think I'd actually be rather surprised if someone had a strong reaction to both, because while they are similar books they, I think, speak to different conditions.) I've also read other Dessen where I was all, okay, that's nice, whatever. Because those weren't my issues either. But this particular one cut me to the bone.
But I am sure as heck going to make sure my kid reads the books of both these authors when she gets to be that age, because I won't know necessarily which ones will speak to her.
There is a class of YA books where, I think, one's mileage can vary widely. I don't know how to describe them, exactly. I don't want to say, high-school-issues book, because that doesn't seem to quite describe it; I shall say: they are the YA books that touch on the basic themes of life. For example... Chris Crutcher's books are about sports and abuse, yeah, but they're about... his best stuff is about the painful process of loss, loss of people, of one's illusions about people, of one's certainty of being right, of one's certainty of being able to do the right thing. And, you know? Some people need to hear that. And some people don't. (I think I had to hear the parts about losing one's illusions about people and losing one's certainty of being right.)
So: Saving Francesca and Just Listen. For me, reading Just Listen was basically like getting hit by a ton of bricks. I wrote a whole long thing about why that was so (because on the most superficial level the narrator of Listen and her experiences are nothing like me and mine), and then I decided I was not comfortable hanging all my issues out in public. Saving Francesca, which is actually a very similar book in a lot of ways, didn't flatten me. Because I didn't identify with the protagonist and what was going on in her life in the terrifying and total way I did with the protagonist of Just Listen. But I can totally see how it could be the other way around; how someone could get smacked in the face by the Marchetta and be lukewarm on the Dessen. (I think I'd actually be rather surprised if someone had a strong reaction to both, because while they are similar books they, I think, speak to different conditions.) I've also read other Dessen where I was all, okay, that's nice, whatever. Because those weren't my issues either. But this particular one cut me to the bone.
But I am sure as heck going to make sure my kid reads the books of both these authors when she gets to be that age, because I won't know necessarily which ones will speak to her.
