4 • The Southwest Portland Post
FEATURES
March 2012
Doctors are at a loss to explain the miraculous recovery in Fracture
BOOK REVIEW
By Stephanie Lodromanean
The Southwest Portland Post
Fracture is a young adult novel writ-
ten by Megan Miranda and published
by Walker & Company (hardcover, 272
pages, $17.99, January 2012). This novel
is her first. Before venturing into writ-
ing Miranda (who lives in Charlotte,
North Carolina) was a scientist and a
high school teacher.
The novel follows the life of Delaney
Maxwell after she falls into a partially
frozen lake and wakes up miraculously
from a coma. There is a great cast of
characters, and Delaney mends and
discovers the intricacies of their friend-
ships over the course of the story.
It is kind of a coming of age story,
but forced into action by the interest-
ing side effect of Delaney having been
in a coma for over a week. Although
Miranda has a bachelor’s degree in
biology from MIT she does not ap-
pear to bring any of this knowledge or
scientific reasoning to the foundation
of the novel.
Delaney finds herself in a medical
miracle after waking up, with her
doctors saying such things as “Obvi-
ously, this is surprising since you woke
up fully aware, memory complete, speech
intact, everything firing as we like to say.”
He stuck his hands into his white lab coat
and continued, “I have no idea how this is
possible.”
While this story device might be in-
tended to create a sense of faith, it really
comes across as far-fetched and leaves
the reader curious as to why medical
science cannot form coherent thoughts
on Delaney’s situation, instead throw-
ing miracles around every place it can.
There are strong points to Fracture,
such as the friendships that evolve
and change throughout the novel. As
a 17-year-old Delaney is at the cusp of
still being a kid and realizing that she
is inevitably growing up.
Delaney’s partner in crime growing
up, Decker, stays by her side through the
grueling week of her coma and was even
the one to save her from the frozen pond.
As a reader you have to wait patiently
to see if all the things left unsaid (and
read between the lines of their friend-
ship) will resolve or fall apart and
whether other friends and enemies will
make their romantic tension build up as
the novel progresses.
Delaney’s relationship with her par-
ents, mainly her mother, is also a great
focal point of the novel. After the trau-
First-time novelist Megan Miranda is
the author of “Fracture.”
matic event of nearly losing her daughter
to such an early death, Delaney’s mother
becomes tightly wound and overbear-
ing.
Delaney struggles to understand her
mother but, after realizing her mother’s
past and how she came to become the
way she is, there is a transformation in
their relationship; they start to under-
stand and respect one another, and that
gives way to a new level of love.
Fracture is a fast-paced, easy and at
times superficial read. The novel lacks
detail in terms of some of the science
behind what is happening to Delaney
and how her world has been turned
upside down by the coma. It is still fun
and keeps the reader entertained, at least
enough to want to know how Delaney’s
life plays out.
Design Commission
approves new
OHSU Life Sciences
building
By Lee Perlman
The Southwest Portland Post
The Portland Design Commission
gave unanimous approval in Janu-
ary to the design of Oregon Health
and Sciences University’s new Col-
laborative Life Sciences building in
the South Waterfront – three months
after the project’s official ground-
breaking.
The building at Southwest Moody
Avenue and Porter Street, the first
structure to be built on OHSU’s new
19-acre Schnitzer waterfront cam-
pus, will comprise 650,000 square
feet of space, including a 470-space
underground garage.
A tower on the north side will be
12 stories high. It is a collaborative
project by OHSU, Oregon State
University and Portland State Uni-
versity. It will house lecture halls,
research facilities and a replacement
for the OHSU Dental School.
The project underwent two infor-
mal Design Advisory sessions with
the Commission prior to a formal
submission of plans, and three hear-
ings after a formal application had
been made.
The second of these, on January
5, might have led to a vote of ap-
proval, but the development team
had submitted their revised plans
too late for planner Kara Fioravanti
to write a staff report reflecting the
changes.
At the final hearing on January
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