An Advent Calendar of Books, Dec. 5 and 6
I suspect I may be putting up a post every couple of days rather than one every day. I'm awful like that.
I felt I had to put these two together, because through coincidence - the kind of coincidence, in fact, that Miles Between features so heavily - I read them side-by-side. In many ways, they feel like two sides of the same coin, and their narrators, whose stories are vastly different, nonetheless make a good pair. More than that, I think the type of READER who will be able to enjoy one of these books will likely be able to make the jump to enjoying the other.
These two books seem to connect well in my mind primarily because there are certain similarities in their wounded narrators. Destiny Faraday, who narrates The Miles Between, tells you from the start that she holds the world at arm's length, and is more likely to tell wild stories of coincidence and synchronicity than any kind of personal information that might let people get close to her, since the abandonment of her estranged parents nine years ago. Micah Wilkins, the protagonist of LIAR, is even more blunt on some levels, much more cagey on others: she's a liar, one that lies all the time, and her life is papered over in these little lies to conceal a bigger lie beneath, one much more important for her to conceal. Both girls attend private schools; both are experts at certain kinds of trouble. The trick of both books is asking you to sympathize with narrators who are both fundamentally expert at pushing people away and keeping people out of their lives rather than drawing them in. The strength of both these books is that they equally manage to succeed. These are also books that it does a disservice to spoiler, so this review and recommendation may dance around specific plot points.
This isn't to say that their stories are totally similar. On the contrary, these are very different books. The Miles Between is primarily an upbeat novel, concerning a road trip of slightly magical origins. On a day where everything seems sure to go wrong for everyone, Destiny Faraday has a chance encounter that will change everything when she meets a mysterious newcomer and declares that she wants nothing more than one fair day -- one day where the good guys win, where the oatmeal isn't lumpy and everything turns out for the best and most just ending. Des makes a point of not making friends, but coincidence leads her to a car -- and three traveling companions on a revealing journey. Not all her traveling partners agree with Des that sometimes, grand coincidences and juxtapositions are simply in the cards and bigger than mere chance, but they all have cause to rethink things during their unexpected road trip and its aftermath. A magical-realist fable, The Miles Between aims to touch your heart and make you smile as it makes you think about the power of synchronicity in everyday life. There's more than just this basic summary, of course, but to explain the way the backstory illustrates the power of destiny as it comes together in the plot of this novel is to spoil its beauty and the way it lets its characters grow and change. It's much more enjoyable to experience it, to let Pearson take you along for this ride with Destiny.
Not so LIAR, a book that aims squarely to unsettle and challenge, and whose premise is considerably darker on a number of levels. Micah Wilkins, as stated before, lies as if born to it; she lies to everyone. But in the first pages, she'll admit to this, and tell you that she's done with that, and that she's about to tell you the truth - that, in fact, she has to tell you the truth. Micah's secret boyfriend Zach is dead, murdered in a most brutal way. She may have posed as a boy when she first came to her private school; she may have told others that her father is a boxer, that she was born a hermaphrodite, dozens upon dozens of lies both fantastic and mundane, but this, she PROMISES you, is the real story, and she did not kill Zach, the boy whom she loved, even if she might have told a few untruths about the last time she saw him to those who asked.
Larbalestier's story unfolds in a manner far from linear. Micah tells you what she finds important, skipping from subject to subject and doubling back again, and the reader must actively fight to determine what is truth and what is a lie. As Micah claims it, if the truth of a situation is unbelievable enough that one must lie about it, the best choice is to paper it over with smaller stories as distraction. But can we trust Micah to even tell us the unbelievable true story -- and it IS a big one - and not tell it slant? LIAR has some things in common with 'The Sixth Sense' or 'Se7en', in that your first urge (like mine) upon finishing it might just be a re-read to try to piece together what you missed on the first reading, to try to make sense of how the story comes together in the end, and see the truth of it. Unlike those movies, Larbalestier does not give us easy truths -- but then, she can't. As unreliable narrators go, Micah is among the most untrustworthy, and while the book has resolution, one of its strengths is that it can be read as having different resolutions depending on what the reader concludes is the real story through Micah's obfuscations and tales. Another strong point is that, despite knowing at the end that the narrative presented is full of holes and problems and outright gleeful lies to the reader, Micah remains sympathetic. You wouldn't want to befriend her, but the reader still cares what happens to her, and sympathizes with her situation. I can't share more than this, though there is a great deal more that one can discuss when one finishes the story; this book also touches on issues of gender and sexuality, illness both mental and physical, and a host of other discussion points. Whether you believe Micah or not, she is never boring.
I think there are elements in both these books that might turn off some readers, but the best literature often has a strong element of taste to it, and these books are both excellent literature. LIAR ties one's brain in knots; The Miles Between carefully takes knots and unravels them to an uplifting conclusion.
I felt I had to put these two together, because through coincidence - the kind of coincidence, in fact, that Miles Between features so heavily - I read them side-by-side. In many ways, they feel like two sides of the same coin, and their narrators, whose stories are vastly different, nonetheless make a good pair. More than that, I think the type of READER who will be able to enjoy one of these books will likely be able to make the jump to enjoying the other.
These two books seem to connect well in my mind primarily because there are certain similarities in their wounded narrators. Destiny Faraday, who narrates The Miles Between, tells you from the start that she holds the world at arm's length, and is more likely to tell wild stories of coincidence and synchronicity than any kind of personal information that might let people get close to her, since the abandonment of her estranged parents nine years ago. Micah Wilkins, the protagonist of LIAR, is even more blunt on some levels, much more cagey on others: she's a liar, one that lies all the time, and her life is papered over in these little lies to conceal a bigger lie beneath, one much more important for her to conceal. Both girls attend private schools; both are experts at certain kinds of trouble. The trick of both books is asking you to sympathize with narrators who are both fundamentally expert at pushing people away and keeping people out of their lives rather than drawing them in. The strength of both these books is that they equally manage to succeed. These are also books that it does a disservice to spoiler, so this review and recommendation may dance around specific plot points.
This isn't to say that their stories are totally similar. On the contrary, these are very different books. The Miles Between is primarily an upbeat novel, concerning a road trip of slightly magical origins. On a day where everything seems sure to go wrong for everyone, Destiny Faraday has a chance encounter that will change everything when she meets a mysterious newcomer and declares that she wants nothing more than one fair day -- one day where the good guys win, where the oatmeal isn't lumpy and everything turns out for the best and most just ending. Des makes a point of not making friends, but coincidence leads her to a car -- and three traveling companions on a revealing journey. Not all her traveling partners agree with Des that sometimes, grand coincidences and juxtapositions are simply in the cards and bigger than mere chance, but they all have cause to rethink things during their unexpected road trip and its aftermath. A magical-realist fable, The Miles Between aims to touch your heart and make you smile as it makes you think about the power of synchronicity in everyday life. There's more than just this basic summary, of course, but to explain the way the backstory illustrates the power of destiny as it comes together in the plot of this novel is to spoil its beauty and the way it lets its characters grow and change. It's much more enjoyable to experience it, to let Pearson take you along for this ride with Destiny.
Not so LIAR, a book that aims squarely to unsettle and challenge, and whose premise is considerably darker on a number of levels. Micah Wilkins, as stated before, lies as if born to it; she lies to everyone. But in the first pages, she'll admit to this, and tell you that she's done with that, and that she's about to tell you the truth - that, in fact, she has to tell you the truth. Micah's secret boyfriend Zach is dead, murdered in a most brutal way. She may have posed as a boy when she first came to her private school; she may have told others that her father is a boxer, that she was born a hermaphrodite, dozens upon dozens of lies both fantastic and mundane, but this, she PROMISES you, is the real story, and she did not kill Zach, the boy whom she loved, even if she might have told a few untruths about the last time she saw him to those who asked.
Larbalestier's story unfolds in a manner far from linear. Micah tells you what she finds important, skipping from subject to subject and doubling back again, and the reader must actively fight to determine what is truth and what is a lie. As Micah claims it, if the truth of a situation is unbelievable enough that one must lie about it, the best choice is to paper it over with smaller stories as distraction. But can we trust Micah to even tell us the unbelievable true story -- and it IS a big one - and not tell it slant? LIAR has some things in common with 'The Sixth Sense' or 'Se7en', in that your first urge (like mine) upon finishing it might just be a re-read to try to piece together what you missed on the first reading, to try to make sense of how the story comes together in the end, and see the truth of it. Unlike those movies, Larbalestier does not give us easy truths -- but then, she can't. As unreliable narrators go, Micah is among the most untrustworthy, and while the book has resolution, one of its strengths is that it can be read as having different resolutions depending on what the reader concludes is the real story through Micah's obfuscations and tales. Another strong point is that, despite knowing at the end that the narrative presented is full of holes and problems and outright gleeful lies to the reader, Micah remains sympathetic. You wouldn't want to befriend her, but the reader still cares what happens to her, and sympathizes with her situation. I can't share more than this, though there is a great deal more that one can discuss when one finishes the story; this book also touches on issues of gender and sexuality, illness both mental and physical, and a host of other discussion points. Whether you believe Micah or not, she is never boring.
I think there are elements in both these books that might turn off some readers, but the best literature often has a strong element of taste to it, and these books are both excellent literature. LIAR ties one's brain in knots; The Miles Between carefully takes knots and unravels them to an uplifting conclusion.