Sachar, Louis: Holes
Holes
Writer: Louis Sachar
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 233
This is another one of those required Seton Hill reads. I never saw the Disney movie when it came out, so I was rather surprised to see the seriousness of the situation the main character finds himself in. But I read far darker YA novels back in my day (Robert Cormier, anyone?), so I shouldn't be surprised: Stanley gets sent to a camp for juvenile delinquents after accidentally stealing a pair of famous sneakers. At this camp, he has to dig big, big holes, not realizing that the Warden has ulterior motives for wanting her charges to dig.
There's lots to like about this book. First, the plot is very tight. It's cute, in a way, that the book is titled Holes, and at the end, the omniscient narrator tells us that no, not everything's explained, but we'll just have to fill in the "holes" ourselves. To me, there were no plot "holes", because everything is explained. I know this sounds...obvious, but the structure of the tale is the current story, filled in with chapters or scenes about other plot elements. Sometimes, those scenes are about a particular kind of animal that plays a large role at the end of the story, and other times, it's filling the reader in on history that the main character doesn't know, but the reader needs to. So in the end, while the main characters can't make the connections, the reader gets it. The book has a wonderful cyclic quality to it in terms of plot that I really enjoyed, and this makes up for the things I didn't.
The book also tackles some serious issues. There's violence, and there's inter-racial relationships. What? In a YA novel? Why, yes! But it's handled very, very well. The violence is handled in such a way that isn't gratuitous or extreme, except in the case of the villain, the Warden. And the inter-racial relationship was celebrated, and I won't go into detail here, because the book delivers a moral about why such things are PERFECTLY FINE and ACCEPTABLE and I don't want to ruin it for anyone who decides to give the book a whirl. And I think the underlying, adult issue just really made me happy: the book teaches the reader something, and it's something very important, even though in today's age, society should be past such prejudices.
The novel also uses a karma (though never named as such)/destiny theme, which I'm a sucker for when done well. And this is done well.
My only real problems with the book were the cases of violence in relation to the Warden. Yes, we discover she has motivation, but what's so frustrating is that she's a black and white greedy character, and on top of it, she's a bitch. There are moments of her reactions that I just didn't buy, or I decided where too cruel. Granted, it's a YA novel, and villains are allowed (and meant to be) black-and-white, especially for the sake of revealing morals, but my reality meter kicked in anyway, and I couldn't buy her character. What's sad is that I'm sure there's people LIKE her in the real world, but frankly, I don't like thinking they exist, so there. :)
All and all, a good, quick read. It reminded me of why I enjoyed reading good YA fiction (again, Robert Cormier, anyone?) when I was younger, and it makes me look forward to the day I have a "legitimate" reason for buying such books (when I have a YA reader in my family, of course). And I have to give props to the writer: she (he?) handles plot and point of view with far greater skill than some adult (as in, writing for adult audiences) writers I've read, which both amuses me and saddens me. Not that YA is a "lesser" genre, by any means, but it makes me feel sorry for the kids who grow up reading well-written fiction, only to have to wade through the amount of drudge that sits in the adult shelves. Poor kids. Oh well, they, like us, just have to keep wading till we find a jewel.