Your brain on Spinelli
Finishing this book, it struck me that I haven't read such a short novel in literally years. This may be due in part to it being technically juvenile fiction, which is generally regarded as a younger (sub?-)genre of young adult fiction. For the purposes of this blog, it still counts as YA.
Eggs.
Shortly after his mother's sudden death, nine-year-old David moves to Perkiomen, PA to live with his grandmother. He resents her and wishes his father's job allowed him to visit David more often. A stickler for following rules, David spends nearly all his time following them in his own world, rarely attempting to get to know anybody else. Then he meets Primrose, a bombastic young teen who wears her hair in two thick braids and collects junk to sell at flea markets and is all too easily annoyed by her fortune-teller mother - and doesn't know where her dad is. Being two lost, angry, lonely souls, an odd friendship begins but occasionally is derailed by Primrose's abrasive personality and David's inner trauma. The only adult who knows of their bond is Refrigerator John, an aimable neighbor who lets the two watch TV at his house. Although a huge fight nearly ends their friendship, they continue to cling to each other even when it means getting themselves into danger.
If most novel-length books may be compared to poems or standard songs, Eggs is very much like a haiku. It has the essentials: two sympathetic, frustrated and frustrating main characters (Spinelli seems to like those), a small cast in which each member gets a scene in which to shine, and an extraordinarily simple plot and setting. Yet it is the way Spinelli uses these essential elements to create a world like ours and not like ours, a world where the biggest struggle for David and Primrose is, on the surface, to remain friends - and to learn how to treat each other. Of course, both of these characters have their baggage, and that plays into their interactions. Also like a poem, this book has many parallels in it. David's frustration with his patient grandmother is mirrored by Primrose's annoyance at her joyful mother. In one scene, Primrose wants to maskerade as David's mother and her over-acting contrasts with his grandmother's and her own mother's parenting styles. And there are two storytelling scenes that bookend the plot, with the second one being particularily sweet and providing some great character development.
If I had to describe this book in one word, it would be "swift": quick but strong, even powerful in its own way. What is most touching is its message that we all need someone who we can reach out to, and will take our hand. Sometimes, though, we don't want to reach out to those who offer right away; sometimes people have to learn how to grasp hands, and possibly it's that effort to learn that makes everything more worthwhile.
Rating: 4.5 sunrises out of 5.