Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
Chris Crutcher
Reading level: Young Adult
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Greenwillow Books (March 18, 2003)
5/5 stars

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes is narrated by high school senior, Eric Calhoune.  Back in grade school, he and Sarah Byrnes became best friends because they were both outcasts: she had suffered disfiguring burns on her face and hands, and he was the fattest kid in school.  They banded together and, thanks mainly to the caustic wit of Sarah Byrnes, were able to survive all the bullying.  (Yes, she is always called Sarah Byrnes, at her own demand; she became tired of all those who thought they were so witty making jokes about her appearance and her name and to cut it off before they had a chance, demanded everyone call her by both names at all times.)

The summer before they started high school, the swim coach discovered Eric and drafted him for the swim team.  Eric promised his best friend that nothing would come between them, not even if he lost weight swimming.  He was so terrified that Sarah Byrnes would think he was leaving her behind, that their partnership of uglies would be over, that his first year of swimming, he ate twice as much as ever so he could stay fat for her, even while swimming.  Finally Sarah Byrnes called him on it and as a result, by his senior year he's no longer fat.

Then comes the day that Sarah Byrnes doesn't get out of her desk when the bell rings.  Finally, men have to come and carry her to an ambulance and take her to the children's mental ward and that is really when Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes begins.  Eric feels like his life is in limbo without Sarah Byrnes, but as he begins to get to the bottom of her problem, he finds so much more than he bargained for.

Though it may not sound like it from this synopses, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes is a riveting, moving novel.  These characters are living and breathing people and their decisions and emotions become all absorbing during reading.  The plot takes various twists and turns, but nearly always in a realistic way, with believable consequences.  Though it is often funny, this is is no light read.  Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes brings up such issues as bullying, abuse, abortion, teen sex, religion, the ethics in a friendship, and teen suicide.  Were I a parent, I would want to read it first, to be sure if my young teen could handle the seriousness of parts of this book.

For an older "young adult", though, or for an adult, I recommend this book unhesitatingly.  It is the kind of thought provoking book that will consume you while reading, and for days afterward, and I walked away from it glad I had read it.  No, more than that, I walked away BETTER for having read it.

~~Read for "size" category of the What's in a Name Challenge.~~

The Evil Genius: a Domestic Story

The Evil Genius: a Domestic Story
Wilkie Collins
originally published 1886
5/5 stars

(Project Gutenberg has a free eBook version)

Wilkie Collins is best known as a writer of sensationalist fiction: supernatural suspense, terrifying drama, complex mysteries, and all often used as a vehicle for his complaints against social injustices. The Evil Genius doesn't fall into that category by today's standards, but for Victorians, it's very subject matter was sensational and taboo. The Evil Genius  is novel of marital infidelity, Divorce (yes, with a capital "D"!) and the scandal and injustice that often (in Collins' times) surrounds these issues.

Sydney, a young governess raised without parents to guide her in correct ways, finds her gratitude for her employer gradually slide into infatuation. Mr. Linley (the employer), finds his enchantment of Sydney returned by her infatuation, and an indiscretion is made and immediately regretted. Sydney loves Mrs. Catherine Linley, and considers her a dear friend, and she loves her pupil, Kitty with deep affection. They agree that Sydney must leave and Linley will confess all to Catherine. Catherine forgives, Sydney leaves for another position, and all would have returned to normal except that Kitty became grievously ill and wouldn't rest until she could see her dear Syd again. Accidentally alone, Sydney and Linley renew their forbidden love and are witnessed by Catherine. This time she can not forgive, and she banishes them both.

What follows in the meat of the novel is a, not always under the surface, discussion of the unfairness of the law and society toward women in this situation. For example, as long as they are married, Linley only is the guardian of the child, by law. Only if a Divorce occurs does legal parental guardianship go to the mother. One character, Catherine's lawyer, expresses hope that the future may see a change in this law.

When it is discovered by the residents of a small seaside resort that Catherine is Divorced, despite the fact it was her husband's infidelity, she and her daughter are shunned. Dear friends that are (as Collins puts it) "deeply religious", see any potential remarriage as a sin, in spite of the fact that (again, as Collins notes) the very verse they are quoting follows a verse that presumes the Divorced woman to have been the unfaithful one.

Collins is really stepping out of the Victorian mores and making some controversial statements with this novel, and yet it doesn't read like a morality tale. The prose is excellent and the point of view shifts gently, sometimes so subtly as to be nearly undetectable, between main characters and causes the reader to change views of the characters as the point of view shifts. While melodramatic by today's standards, the story is still tense and interesting. Granted, Collins found a bit of an easy way out with the ending, and one that I (as a non-Victorian reader) was not quite comfortable with as a resolution. This isn't a fault of either novel or novelist, though, it's just a symptom of the times, and shows that Collins, while revolutionary in some ways, was still a Victorian gentleman.

Collins has been one of my favorite novelist for many years, and The Evil Genius only increased my admiration for his talents.

~~Read for the Victorian Literature Challenge
and for the What's in a Name Challenge.~~

What's in a Name Challenge

Yes, another challenge that caught my eye! The What's in a Name Challenge is quite intriguing, as well!

Between January 1 and December 31, 2011, read one book in each of the following categories:

1. A book with a number in the title: First to Die, Seven Up, Thirteen Reasons Why

2. A book with jewelry or a gem in the title: Diamond Ruby, Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Opal Deception

3. A book with a size in the title: Wide Sargasso Sea, Small Wars, Little Bee  Completed 17 March 2011; see below.

4. A book with travel or movement in the title: Dead Witch Walking, Crawling with Zombies, Time Traveler's Wife

5. A book with evil in the title: Bad Marie, Fallen, Wicked Lovely  Completed 14 January 2011; see below.

6. A book with a life stage in the title: No Country for Old Men, Brideshead Revisited, Bog Child Completed 5 November 2011, see below.


The book titles are just suggestions, you can read whatever book you want to fit the category.

I look forward to seeing what I can find to complete this one! :D

Proposed reading and books read:
1. "A book with a number in the title": Moon and Sixpence by Somerset Maugham. I've never read Maugham, but have always intended to, so this is a good time to start.

3. "A book with a size in the title":  Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes Read 17 March 2011; read my review here.

5. "A book with evil in the title": The Evil Genius by Wilkie Collins. Will cross over to my Victorian Literature Challenge.  Read 14 January 2011. Read my review here.

6.  A "book with a life stage in the title": Millionaire Baby by Alice Duer Miller.  Read 5 November 2011.  Brief discussion here.