Book review: Front and Center
Front and Center by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
In Which D.J. Has to Make Big Decisions
I was so satisfied by the ending of this trilogy. In the space of a year, D.J. has grown up from a really reliable kid to a woman in change of her own destiny.
The story opens as she gets back to school after nursing her brother Wim. It's the start of basketball season, and basketball is her one true sport. She can go back to her normal life, she thinks.
But it turns out that she really needs to step up her "leadership" to be an attractive college prospect, and she hates doing leadershippy things because everyone stares at her. And even though she may be a good enough player to do play division-I basketball, she's not sure she can stand all that attention, the crowds, the noise. Maybe she would be happier at a smaller school.
And if that weren't enough, she isn't dating Brian, so her buddy Beaner asks her to date him, and she agrees, but it's weird, and he's an awesome boyfriend, but she can't stop thinking about what a good listener Brian is.
So, she's got issues right in her weak spot of being decisive, proactive, and getting what she wants. This book is about figuring those things out, and I wound up feeling really proud of her. As if she were somehow my kid or my friend or something. She makes decisions, and she learns from them.
One of my favorite character development moments was when she started doing 1-1 coaching for one of the girls in her class. D.J. thinks through how to make something make sense as a mathematical equation and it helps her friend figure out what everyone has been telling her all along. I think D.J. is going to make a great coach, that this is what she's going to be when she grows up -- someone who can analyze a player -- not just their play, but their personality, and find a way to speak to it. She kicks Brian's butt when he's lazy, but she's gently encouraging to her brother Curtis when he needs it. She gets angry and yells at Wim, but never at her classmate. D.J. herself doesn't understand how good she is with people, but it's going to be true all her life, her ability to imagine herself as someone else.
People might think helping is hard, but really that's the easy part; just look how good it makes people feel. Look how happy all those Red Bend ladies were about chipping in. It's the asking that's so painful. It takes real courage, real strength, to say you're not strong enough to do it alone. Mom must really be hurting for Dad to be so brave.
and
I swear, every person I know gets far more satisfaction from doing good deeds than receiving them. Maybe that's the whole point in the end, all of us putting up with good deeds, tolerating them as best we can, counting the minutes until we have the opportunity to reciprocate.
Murdock says that the letters she's gotten in response to this series have been amazingly raw and honest and sometimes overwhelming for her. I can believe it. D.J. is not an ordinary heroine, and she has a lot of resonance.
Read if: you have ever played team sports, you have ever warmed a bench, you have ever wished that you could be good at what you do without ending up in the spotlight. Read if you have ever wondered what jocks think about. Read it if you have ever kissed someone who ought to be right and isn't.
Skip if: well, I have almost nothing here, but you should read the first two books first.
(in my secret mashup universe, D.J. might turn into West Wing's C.J. Cregg, tall, blonde, and frustrated by bullies)
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