Saving Lives and Eating Apple Crisp

How do you grieve the loss of a loved one? In How to Save a Life, a young adult novel by Sara Zarr, high school senior Jill is mourning the recent loss of her father. But her immediate problem is that her mother has decided to adopt a baby from a pregnant teen they’ve never met. And that teen is coming to live with them.

Eleven Neland ladies showed up tonight to talk about it. Everyone had opinions, and they were not always in agreement. That’s the sign of a good book club discussion! Some of us liked Jill; some of us didn’t. Some of us liked Mandy, the pregnant teen; some of us didn’t. Some of us found different circumstances realistic; some of us didn’t. But we all agreed that the book draws you in from the first page, and you need to know what happens. And Helen didn’t even read the end ahead of time, which I think was high praise.

Mandy is the product of a sad upbringing, and she has some quirks. One of the disagreements we had was whether or not a young woman with her lack of role models could turn out to be sort of naïve, not overly self-protective. A couple of us thought of examples of people who came from horrible circumstances and still managed to hold onto a sort of innocence, but it is not perceived to be the norm.

Jill seems to some to be too sarcastic; her goth façade is not appealing to others. Still more of us just see the grief that fuels her anger. Alice lost her father at the age of 13, and she couldn’t relate to Jill’s anger. A few of us with teens in our houses could relate to a child who doesn’t really want to share what’s happening in their life. But Sue pointed out that at the beginning of the story, you think you know who Jill and Mandy are. And over the course of the book, you find out who they really are. That’s a pretty nice compliment to a character-driven novel.

Dylan and Ravi, the two love interests in the book, are possibly the nicest two teen males we’ve ever “met.” Understanding, kind, perceptive. They put up with everything and help the women to find their better selves. This is where the book might be putting a toe or two over the line into fantasy, but we’re down with it.

We also talked briefly about the sexual activity of the two female protagonists. Do we, as adults, feel like this is appropriate for the intended teen girl audience? Zarr herself said in an interview with The Williams Telos that she “never wanted to wind up in a position where I was being asked to soft-pedal the adolescent experience.” A couple of moms in the group agreed that you have to be real with your teens—“you know what we think; this is someone else’s perspective, and we don’t need to be afraid to hear what other people say.”

Julie, our resident expert on Denver, verified that Casa Bonita was the perfect restaurant for Mandy’s party. But the talk of “Margins” bookstore in the book just made us wish we could go to The Tattered Cover. If you know Denver, you know what we mean.

Because I led the meeting this month, and because I am sort of a Sara Zarr fan (verging slightly on groupie), I had to take the opportunity to tell everyone about Once Was Lost, Zarr’s book previous to this one and one of my favorites. It is such a wonderful story. Go read it now, if you enjoy young adult lit. But I digress.

Why is it called How to Save a Life? We could think of many whose lives were saved. But the prevailing way to do so seemed to be to trust. Mandy and Jill had to have enough trust in those who loved them to open up and share what was going on.

We eventually had to quit talking because Helen had brought some apple crisp that was calling to us. Oh so worth it. It might not save a life, but it sure makes it better.

Judiciously Recommending "The Dog Stars"

Here's a new novel for all you post-apocalyptic fiction fans. Yes, I realize that this is becoming a rather saturated segment of the book market, but bear with me. In this one, there is no capital, there is no arena. No aliens, no districts. There is just a broken world. And it’s definitely not written for the young adult market.

The Dog Stars, by Peter Heller, is set in the not-at-all-distant future. A flu pandemic wiped out most of the population 10 years earlier, but Hig has survived it. Global warming is also on the rise, so some of the natural world around him is dying and changing. Hig and another survivor, a crusty older man named Bangley, live on a makeshift compound at an airstrip in Colorado. Together they have created a perimeter to keep roaming survivors, who are all considered armed and dangerous, out of their territory. Hig also still has his dog, Jasper, who gives him the companionship he so desperately needs since the death of his wife and just about everyone else.

There is an element of bleakness in this novel, particularly in the horrors that people perpetrate on each other in the wake of the disaster, that mirrors The Road by Cormac McCarthy. However, Heller is, among other things, a writer for Outside Magazine and National Geographic Adventure, and his love for nature and the outdoors is evident. Amidst the grim survivalism of the story, Hig makes his way into the mountains, ostensibly to fish and hunt, but mostly to surround himself with beauty and ease his sorrow. Heller’s description of the natural world is lovely, and Hig’s situation is sometimes achingly real to the reader—he is still alive and he still has a desire to live; he is a man of constant sorrow, but he still seeks and recognizes beauty.

There are a couple of gruesome moments, understandable given the situation that the character is in, as well as some language that makes me hesitate to recommend the book to just anyone. There are also a couple of moments where you must suspend disbelief—it seemed he needed to solve a problem or two with the plot. Furthermore, aspects of the storyline read like male fantasy to me. Yet I loved reading it, and I gave it to my husband to read almost immediately because I knew he would love it too. Neither of us could put it down.

The Dog Stars depicts a man caught in the valley of death, unable to give up on hope and beauty.