number of scenes bordering on ridiculous,
this book kept me turning pages and laugh-
ing out loud until the end. — Vanessa Salvia
Escaping the Rez
First Say Farewell
assuming that novels featuring characters
that sound rather like their authors are thinly
veiled autobiography. The conceit fades
away, though, as the book zips through the
fictional Katherine’s childhood and teen
years at boarding school, coming to rest in
her post-collegiate, uncertain existence in
New York City.
Though good things often seen to
come her way — a rent-controlled
Manhattan apartment, for example —
Katherine muddles along, bartending,
thinking about writing, smoking endless
cigarettes and noting gorgeous details of
life in New York (“Second Avenue was
always full of squashed fruit,” she observes;
dreamily counting the crushed oranges
nearly gets her killed). Her relationships
drive the story; an English boyfriend leads
her to one life in Europe while a later love
gives her a reason to move to Rome. But it
never works out — not the love, and not the
life. “Maybe it’s time for you to start think-
ing about what it is you really want,”
Katherine’s boyfriend tell her, gently sum-
ming up the problem in one simple sen-
tence. Rules is a book full of failure, uncer-
tainty and growth of the awkward, painful
kind that results in lonesome weekends
and too many glasses of wine, but it’s so
acutely depicted that it’s captivating rather
than depressing. Katherine is a chilly voice,
an unfinished person looking for the next
life-shaping thing; she wants to write fic-
tion but finds herself writing magazine pro-
files, telling the stories assigned to her
rather than her own. Until, one assumes,
she got around to writing this novel, which
at times reads like an unbelievably well-
written, candid journal. But Katherine isn’t
Taylor and Taylor isn’t Katherine, or if she is,
it’s irrelevant; this selfish, slowly growing
character takes on plenty of life of her own.
— Molly Templeton
RULES FOR SAYING GOODBYE
by Katherine Taylor. FARRAR, STRAUS & GIROUX, 2007.
Wait For It …
works in this case, I’m pleased; all of
Alexie’s work, from poetry to short stories
to novels, deserves a wide readership both
in the adult and teenage worlds. — Suzi
Steffen
THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF
A PART-TIME INDIAN by Sherman
Alexie. Illustrated by Ellen Forney. LITTLE, BROWN
The Clockwork God
YOUNG READERS, 2007. HARDCOVER, $16.99. WINNER, 2007 NATIONAL
HARDCOVER, $24.95.
BOOK AWARD FOR YOUNG PEOPLE’S LITERATURE. A NEW YORK
Hethor Jacques, a young clockmaker’s
apprentice, can hear the finest watch tick-
ing, can hear if the tiny gears are in tune
or awry … a fine skill to have in his future
profession, but even better when living in
the mechanistic world created by Jay
Lake in Mainspring. The Earth, divided
east to west by a mountainous brass wall,
rolls along a colossal solar gear, ticking
through each day
and year in this
carefully calibrat-
ed universe. Lake
takes a stand in
this novel: God
exists and He
really did make
the world; these
gears and wheels
didn’t evolve. So
when a midnight
visit by a brass angel leaves young Hethor
charged with the duty of winding the
mainspring of the world, his adventurous
journey is most definitely a spiritual one as
well. How he comes to terms with this
mythical charge as well as how he makes
his way through this fantastic world makes
for some great rainy day reading. Author
Jay Lake is an Oregonian (up Portland
way) and winner of the 2004 John W.
Campbell Award for Best New Writer. —
Paula Hoemann
TIMES NOTABLE CHILDREN’S BOOK OF 2007.
I recently reviewed Sherman Alexie’s
2007 novel Flight as a young adult work,
but Alexie himself says he didn’t think of it
that way. The violence, he thought, wasn’t
the usual young adult fare. Then
Absolutely True Diary came out, and if the
alcoholism, severe beatings and violence
of poverty aren’t as harsh as things that
occur in Flight, I’ll be hornswoggled. In any
case, the YA community is (mostly) hailing
Diary as the second coming; it was
crowned with a National Book Award and
should be a shoo-in for the Printz honor list
as well as other YA awards. Absolutely
True Diary also centers around a teenager,
this one much more like Alexie himself
than was Zits in Flight. This one is a
Spokane Indian living on the reservation;
his name is Junior; he’s smart; he gets
attacked a lot; he leaves the reservation for
a white school where, his teachers on the
rez tell him, there’s the possibility of hope.
Hmm, Alexie readers might be thinking,
sounds very familiar from Lone Ranger
and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven or many of
his other books. True, but Diary features
some of Alexie’s best writing of recent
years, a mix of the unbearable and the
humorous with Alexie’s patented grimly
desperate optimism, and Ellen Forney’s
funny, painful illustrations mesh perfectly
with Junior’s voice. What Junior loses by
leaving the rez can’t be regained, but he
has to leave to survive, and there’s no one
better than Alexie at explaining how this
tears people apart. Despite some horrify-
ing losses, though, Junior ends up with a
tentative, tenuous feeling of hope, of
being able to connect in both worlds. And
perhaps Diary will lead youth readers into
Alexie’s other work, especially his short
stories or poetry (some of which appears
in different form in Diary). Not that YA
work should be a gateway drug, but if it
MAINSPRING by Jay Lake.
TOR, 2007.
HARDCOVER, $24.
UN LUN DUN by China Miéville. DEL REY, 2007.
The protagonist of
Katherine Taylor’s first
novel is named Katherine
Taylor. In an interview, the
author has said this is a
sort of double bluff, tak-
ing on the habit readers
and reviewers have of
HARDCOVER, $17.95.
Those who have read some of Miéville’s
adult science fiction works may be sur-
prised by the playfulness of this long mid-
dle-grade book. The story questions both
predestination and the familiar Tolkien (and
Biblical) tropes of those who are picked by
some greater force to take up a mantle of
heroism. Instead, Miéville suggests, you
don’t need to be a prophesied hero like
Lyra Belacqua of The Golden Compass —
or even Frodo Baggins — in order to shoul-
der a quest, especially if you accept the
help of a motley crew upon your journey.
But this heroic journey, which ends by
skewering the nostalgia and lost-world
determinism at the conclusion of many
fantasy stories (if Miéville had his way, Milo
would never say goodbye to Tock, nor
Frodo to his homeland), wanders delight-
fully through wordplay so enjoyable that
adults and young readers both will giggle
even as they recognize the authorial mes-
sage about the bad guy.
Talking much about the plot would
reveal some of the joys of the book too
soon. And if you pick up a copy, don’t
scan the back of the hardback edition,
which tries to capture readers by quoting
one of the more amusing constructions
of the narrative and ends up spoiling
some fun. In any case, heroine Deeba’s
courage and adaptability combine with
Miéville’s obvious adoration of his con-
structed world to create a superb adven-
ture that should charm many a young
reader and even manage to amuse older
youth who like a good yarn. Like most
great middle-grade adventures, Un Lun
Dun has no hint of sexuality and no “bad”
language; if you know a strong reader
ages 8-12 who has gobbled the Harry
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