Black Swan Green has definitely been the book I was excited to read all semester since I have been getting amazing reviews of it since the list of books needed for this course went out. While I enjoyed Catcher in the Rye, and can easily say it was my favorite of the books in this class yet, I think it has met its match with this novel.
I think the main reason I love this book is that dialogue is extremely well crafted and that the plot line itself is something I find pretty interesting. I like that in the first few chapters we are not told right away what hangman or maggot or other personalities of Jason actually are. You have to catch on by yourself. I like this because it makes me feel less like Jason is telling us a story and more like he is living it for himself. Speaking of Jason, as soon as I started reading, I loved his narrative voice. He reminds me of Holden, like we stated in class, but also just a bit like Stephen in the way that he likes to watch and observe.
Another reason why I liked this book is that I feel like this book is going to discuss more on changing and "coming of age" for yourself vs changing and "coming of age" to fit in with someone else. In the first couple of chapters we see several characters alter themselves so someone else will like them better and I wonder if this will become a theme throughout the book. I had never really thought that coming of age was not for yourself, so I am excited to see where this book takes it.
Lastly, in terms of humor, I absolutely love Julia as a character. She knows exactly what to say at the right time and has a massive skill at throwing shade that can be easily overlooked. I think she is a sharp contrast to who Jason is. She is confident and knows who she is and what she wants, while Jason is still figuring it out. This might be because of age difference, but I think Jason could learn something from his sister. So far, I am finding this book to be one I am enjoying and I am excited to see where it goes.
I really agree that Julia is an awesome character, and we see all the best parts of her smart-ass attitude and sharp tounge, but I think it's important to keep in mind that all the narration we get is from Jason's point of view and it's very possible that that could be skewing our view of Julia. A more objective perspective would likely show that she's frustrated with her current circumstances and is struggling dealing with the end of high school, but Jason only sees how calm and cool she is.
ReplyDeleteSo far, out of almost all of the blog posts that I've read about Black Swan Green, every single one has mentioned that they like Julia as a character. Relatable, smart, very well-spoken, which is basically a Uni student usually. I think that it also helps that she is pretty much the same age as us, and happens to be at the same amount of schooling, which allows her to be even more relatable.
ReplyDeleteThe dialogue is really good, isn't it? David Mitchell has said in interviews that he, like Jason, has a stammer, so I think you might really be onto something with your comparison to Stephen. Maybe all that time observing is what gave him the power to craft such realistic scenes.
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