Teen/YA: April 2007 Archives

Experiences for the two siblings from this point forth could scarcely be more divergent. John is evacuated to Mr Nott’s where he is abused and used as forced labour. Molly meanwhile is ‘molly’-coddled by the excesses of Pernilla, a larger than life, glamorous individual who teaches at the local school and is keen to lavish upon her evacuee the source behind each of her every whim and desire. Personal intent behind this becomes increasingly clear as Pernilla’s efforts to extend influence become ever more overt and desperate.

Caught between her own mother and Pernilla who, unable to have children of her own, is keen to adopt Molly and is most persuasive about the type of lifestyle she could expect with her, Molly faces a difficult choice . Town is played out versus country, modernity versus the pastoral, indusrial versus agricultural and emotional versus materialism as Molly is forced to assess what is important to her.

Skilfully observed and rich in its emotional depth and charge, the importance of this book is its ability to stimulate real consideration as to the modern meaning and worth of family ties in the develoment of childhood.

“This was the sound of death. The door hand began to turn, there was another snort of breath, then – A gunshot, followed by someone yelling, then more gunshots.”

Fear of uncertainty and of the unknown with the ultimate culmination of these being death, is the driving force that powers all horror. Psychological horror, however, takes this one step further examining the means and manners via which we are able to exert control over our lives and the types of influence and affect that cause their gradual corrosion.

“Hunting Season”, Dean Vincent Carter’s second novel explores and unpicks these ideas through the balancing of juxtaposing ideas. Lack of control arises when experience dictates that these contradictions are no longer capable of equilibrium.

Urban influences are pitted against those of nature, visibility in lightness in marked, stark contrast against the obfuscations of darkness, most significant of all, however, is the interplay between the tamed and the wild as urges and desires are painted against societal control and civilisation.

Set eight years after an accident in Austria that apparently killed both of his parents, Gerontius Moore (named after Elgar’s “The Dream of Gerontius”) is living with his Aunt and Uncle when he becomes unwittingly embroiled with gangland activities in an abandoned theatre. Played out in this theatrical setting, the first part of the drama takes on a post-modern level of self-awareness. This develops in quick-fire succession to endeavours to escape being the ‘hunted’ of the title and for Gerontius, to learn more about the death of his immediate family. A heart-thumpingly gripping read with revelation and surprise at every turn!

“It struck me that true evil probably lurked in only a few men but its effect was felt across borders, continents even.”

Opening with full force as brothers Marek and Olaf shoot a deer, the remainder of this notable book by debut novelist Craig Simpson packs a similarly powerful punch. Marek and Olaf’s late childhood is lived out in Nazi occupied Norway. Seeking vengeance against their father’s arrest for conspiring with the Norwegian Resistance, the brothers arrange and execute the assassination of the Nazi, Wold. After killing him, they discover there had been a passenger in the car who witnessed the act.

In a desperate attempt to escape the ramifications of their subversion of occupied rule, the boys flee to the hostile environs of the Hardanger where survival itself is a ordeal. There Resistance workers save the boys who find themselves caught in endeavours to liberate their country from its oppressors.

Simpson successfully mirrors the bleak reality of Fascist rule against the cold and barren landscape of the Hardanger. Careful research and historical accuracy into the method and means of the resistance workers lends a quite literally real sense of urgency and imperative to this gripping and hard-hitting thriller that, in speaking of the past gives chilling warning for the future...

“When she came to write her story, she would wonder exactly when the books and the words started not just to mean something, but everything.”

Opening with the cruel death of Liesel Meminger’s brother on the epoch of a new life as the two children were to be fostered to the Hubermanns, the book is set in Nazi Germany and examines the extremes of human behaviour, from absolute intolerance and hatred to the benevolence of generosity and love against the harshest, most repressive of political and social regimes.

Paranoia regarding the seditious nature of literature gives ready emphasis to the act and the art of reading both in a metafictional sense, as Liesel encounters a variety of personal, political and polemical writings and recordings, and for the reader of Zusak’s book, who piece together the overall picture.

Though fragmented in terms of the narrative – for the most part split between Liesel’s story and Death’s aching attempts to comprehend the nature of a humanity that he is fearful of, but that necessarily delineates his own role and purpose – indelible images are burnt upon mind and memory.

Death’s narration bleeds a beauty and tenderness into the novel, but also an incredibly intense pain. Yearning for comprehension in amongst atrocities that are incomprehensible, the novel is lastingly affecting and inspires depths of compassion.

“As the eye mirrors the soul, the sky quite often reflects the health of the reality. It certainly does here. This is a ‘fast’ reality, evolving many times more rapidly than most. It would take several millennia for a standard reality to age as much as this one has in seven years.”

Hurrah for Micahel Lawrence! Reading ‘The Aldous Lexicon’ has been the literary equivalent of sinking one’s teeth into a juicy orange on the most parched of days and finding oneself overwhelmed by the complex flavours of sweet and piquant that simultaneously stimulate the tastebuds…

Strength and quality of writing delivered throughout this trilogy has been consistently high as too have the heady injections of musings on philosophy and personal history that make these books so far-reaching and exceptional.

Picking up the intrigue and creative space inhabited by his first novel, “When Snow Falls" (Andersen Press, 1995), ‘The Aldous Lexicon’ is a rich, vibrant novel pieced together from the multiplicity of lives we each of us lead. The series lures readers into its ideas-base before guttering into manifest worlds, time-lines and portrayals of identity and self.

The first book, “A Crack in the Line” introduces the cast and promotes the idea of an alternative reality by positing the question, what would happen if the capricious chance leading to the occurrence of a seminal event in one’s life was altered… In it, dual protagonists Alaric and Naia are brought into uneasy alignment as the realisation dawns that they inhabit the same familial space in their respective worlds.

“Small Eternities” the second book takes place four months following the events of the first. Alaric and Naia have switched places. With flood waters high they become caught in a timeslip to 1945 where they witness the premature death of their great uncle, Aldous Underwood and realise the background and impact of this point in their shared history.

In this, the third novel, “The Underwood See”, the potential for change to character, setting and history is fully unleashed. The butterfly wings of caprice that have beaten in previous novels now mean the winds of change blow with an invigorating hurricane force through this impressive third novel.

The book is necessarily discursive, tracking different reality strands and the characters that have formed within these. Lawrence outlines some of the mechanics of these alternate realities and goes on to explore the impact and attempted rationalisation of these phenomenon.

As a whole, the series is demanding and challenging, but readers are amply rewarded with a legacy of expanding conceptual understanding and awareness. It is refreshing to read a series that operates wholly between its constituent parts, devoting little space towards constraining recapitulation. The books are taut, wholly engaging and, when read together move with an exhilarating, almost break-neck pace.

At once incisive and insightful, this criminally under-rated sequence represents some the strongest and most influential contributions to teenage fiction in recent years.