Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
Hatchet
by Gary Paulsen
(Audio)
This is a book I've always assumed I read as a kid. I was very aware of the book and it was almost always in any classroom. But the more I read the back cover, the less sure I was that I'd ever read it (often in elementary school, a few of us were given the books of higher difficulty to read, so I missed out on books like The Chocolate War and, apparently, Hatchet). I picked up a copy of the second book with this character in it in my friend's Little Free Library. So I got Hatchet out so I could earread properly.
I am not sure how to describe this book. It's the story of a young boy who crashes in a plane on an island in the middle of Canada and has to survive in the wilderness on his own. He's a city boy, so it's quite a culture clash. He has a whole lot to learn and no way to learn it except to either stumble upon it fortunately or make a terrible mistake and learn it the hard way.
I enjoyed the way Brian develops his survival knowledge. He takes information he remembers--little hints or memories--and applies it with common sense and logic and an original sense of reasoning. In a few cases, I thought "well, that's convenient that he learned that in school" whereas some of those things he could have figured out on his own instead. For example, he's trying to make a fire and failing spectacularly. Then he remembers some teacher or lesson about fire needing to consume things like fuel and oxygen. So he blows on the fire. I thought it would be more dramatic if he is down by the fire, huffing in frustration and sees something happen when his breath hits the sparking. smoking wood. Sometimes I felt it was too easy for Brian to come up with a solution.
On the other hand, sometimes I thought things were WAY too hard for Brian. There's a sensation I experienced during Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan series where a character kept showing up and messing everything up so much I just wanted to push the guy out of the room every time he entered a scene. I took it personally, like the author was throwing him in there just to make it harder for the main characters I'd come to love. I kept getting mad at Westerfeld for the added plot complications that came about from the character's presence. The same sort of feelings came to me during Hatchet. Brian would FINALLY be getting a handle on something, and then something HORRIBLE would happen. He doesn't just have to deal with his parent's divorce, he crashes on an island. He doesn't just have to escape a sinking airplane but he rips his windbreaker almost entirely off. Come ON, Paulson. At least let the kid keep all the clothes he's wearing! But nooooo. Every time I'd get comfortable (or Brian would) and think "okay, this kid might be able to survive after all" something absolutely terrible would happen to him. It was realistic, sure. The point is that it's hard and unpredictable... but it was almost predictable the way terrible things kept happening. There was one point where I was actually chanting in my head "Whatever you do, don't drop the hatchet. The worst possible thing right now would be if you drop the hatchet. Don't drop the hatchet." And what does he do? He drops the damn hatchet. LOL I SCREAMED out loud at the audiobook "ARGH! HE DROPPED THE HATCHET!!" Of course he did. *facepalm* Yes, I know it's called tension and drama. This is the classic man vs. nature story, and it's handled beautifully with a lot of different elements I wouldn't have thought about or wouldn't have thought would make it into a juvie fiction book. But it was painful for me at times. I just wanted to reach into the book and take Brian out to take care of him and keep him safe and deliver him back home to his family. Poor little kid.
Incidentally, I just started the "third" Brian book and apparently the author got lots of mail from readers saying Brian got off too easy in the book. TOO EASY? Did they miss when he DROPPED THE HATCHET?!!! LOL I thought it was a fine balance, except for a few moments that seemed like the author was just being plain mean. I guess that means I thought some things were unbelievable or unjustified... but I'm not an experienced outdoorswoman, so I am probably the last person to say what's believable. So, in the end, I liked the character and story enough to want to earread the second book.