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Executive Times |
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2008 Book Reviews |
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Goldengrove
by Francine Prose |
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Rating: |
*** |
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(Recommended) |
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Click
on title or picture to buy from amazon.com |
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Mourning The
protagonist and narrator of Francine Prose’s new novel. Goldengrove,
is a thirteen-year-old named Nico, and she is grieving the death of her
sister, Margaret. Prose displays great writing skill in the way she allows
Nico to grieve over the loss of her sister and mature as she struggles in a
variety of relationships, especially one with Margaret’s former boyfriend,
Aaron. Grief does something to our brains, and a teenager’s brain in not yet
fully developed, so what Nico does can often seem brainless. Here’s an
excerpt, from the beginning of Chapter 2,
pp. 21-22: None
of us knew. No one knew. That was what everyone kept saying. First we didn't
know what had happened, then we didn't know how it happened, and then we still
couldn't understand why, why Margaret, why our family, though it wasn't like
us to say,
"Why us?" What did it mean to be like us? What did us
mean without
Margaret? They searched for Margaret,
they dragged the lake. Parked beside the water, the police car kept flashing its
beacon. It wasn't night, it wasn't dark, they weren't speeding to a crime
scene. Maybe the spinning light was meant to reassure us. Help was on the
way. All the time the divers were
working, my parents didn't let me go outside. We sat on the porch, listening
to the men shout from boat to shore and watching a trick of the light that
made the red beacon seem to revolve on the white porch ceiling. My parents
each held one of my hands with a steady pressure: half comfort, half
restraint. They were afraid I'd see something that might scar me for life.
But I was already scarred for life, and I couldn't look at the lake. I
couldn't imagine letting my skin touch its filthy water. I'd been planning to
go to the town's algae-problem meeting and show off what I'd learned on the
Internet. Let the phytoplankton bloom. Let the fish strangle and die. We watched the beacon until my
father said the light was driving him nuts and went to ask the cops to turn
it off. Even after the light blinked out, a red shadow stained the ceiling.
Some time later my father came in, and we took one look at him and knew that
they had found her. Still, every breath I took was
a prayer. Let my sister be alive. I would devote my life to saving the lake
if it didn't kill her. I kept hoping it was all a
mistake, that she'd gone into town to meet Aaron. But I knew that hadn't
happened. Mom had suggested we phone him. Just like that, she'd said,
"We should probably call Aaron." What had all that play-acting
been about, those sisterly trips to the movies? That my parents had known all
along made me furious, for a second. A second was all we could afford. We had
to be good to each other. "I'll call him," I'd
said. I didn't want him hearing that Margaret was lost from someone who
thought he had a screw loose. High
school English teachers may be tempted to assign this coming of age novel to
students as they also read and study the Gerard Manley Hopkins poem Spring and Fall, with its Goldengrove
and Margaret references. Don’t let a potential high school application dissuade
you from reading this fine novel. Every reader will find something to like on
the pages of Goldengrove.
Steve
Hopkins, November 20, 2008 |
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The recommendation rating for
this book appeared in the December 2008 issue of Executive Times URL for this review: http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/Goldengrove.htm For Reprint Permission,
Contact: Hopkins & Company, LLC • E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com |
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