The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth (2012)

I actually read this book a few weeks ago, and I’m partway through reading it again (it hasn’t even gone back to the library between reads). I’m re-reading for two main reasons:

1. It’s really good (duh), and
2. I still have so many questions!

Not that reading this novel a second time has answered any of those, because it’s not like I skipped a few chapters the first time. The author even says in this interview with Malinda Lo (who’s awesome) that many readers have questions about what happened at the end and have demanded a sequel with answers.

I’ve got a pretty big list of questions:

• Where do Cameron/Jane/Adam go afterwards?
• Does Cam die of hypothermia?
• Does Ruth die?
• What does Ruth think about what they did?
• How long until Ruth even finds out about it?
• What does Lauryn Hill have to do with this book? (Not much, I don’t think… this novel was set before the album even came out. Ha! Came out! Ha! Good music; listen to it anyway!)
• Who helps them? Margot? Lindsay? Mona? Bueller?
• Why didn’t Lindsay or Jamie or someone else put up a fight beforehand?
• How does Coley feel about herself and all the trouble she caused?
• Is Coley’s brother’s name really Tyler Taylor? (If so, I think his fictional parents are dumb.)
• What’s Irene up to? Is she still dating Harrison, the polo player?
• Is Rick really mad? Or just disappointed? Or maybe he’s had a change of heart and thinks it was a good idea?
• Does Lydia just continue being a huge bitch? (I assume the answer is yes.)
• What happens to the dollhouse?
• Do they all live happily ever after?

So yeah, if there’s anything that will answer these questions, I’d definitely read it. And I’d read anything else of Danforth’s that I came across, too (but this is a debut novel, so nothing else at my library as of yet). I really like her style, both in terms of writing, and in terms of what I found on her website, which is pretty cool… it’s so cool I just spent 20 minutes looking at all the stuff on it.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers (2001)

The version I read had a “Pulitzer Prize nominee” sticker on the cover. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This book — you’ll notice I’ve categorized it as both fiction and non — is a memoir-ish account of the few years in the author’s life after both his parents die of cancer and he’s left to take care of his younger brother. Not something I could imagine dealing with in my early twenties, but he handles it as well as he can.

The writing is almost like poetry. Some sections are basically stream-of-consciousness, and others juxtapose different events in his life by jumping back and forth between scenes. Sometimes these two styles are combined for effect: as, for example, he’s making out with an old high school friend, he’s also describing how he visited the anatomy department of a med school to try to find out what happened to his father’s donated corpse. Unsettling, but effective.

The author is very self-aware (or self-conscious), and much of the book is describing what he’s thinking, or what he thinks about what he’s thinking. It gets a bit ‘meta’ that way, but that’s kind of fun, since you get to be in the author’s head. Sometimes it’s meta to the point of being funny, like when his brother (in his early teens at the time) delivers a huge, sophisticated, philosophical monologue, mostly for narrative purposes, and Dave responds “Careful. You’re breaking character.”

For a book about an orphan taking care of another orphan, I didn’t find it sad. It actually had some funny parts. At the same time, I could feel how angry Dave was, how lost, how frustrated. I could picture him and his brother at the beach, showing off their frisbee skills, or Dave bringing a tiny teddy bear to his friend, who was in a coma. It was a vivid and well-written story.

And it has a prologue! What’s not to like?