Home »
I sense a long and strong career for this writer
Book Review
By Derryll White
Whittall, Zoe (2016). The Best Kind of People.
I have been a fan of Zoe Whittall’s writing ever since I read ‘Bottle Rocket Hearts,’ her first novel. Now here she is asking more tough social questions such as what is it like to be related to a sex offender? What does that revelation do to your family, your community, your world?
Whittall pulls at all the loose threads of the rape story with a very clear, non-gendered voice. She is very clear on victimology without lauding the strength of will of the accusers, which is the usual argument. Sadie, the 17-year-old brainy daughter of accused teacher George Woodbury, moves through all the expected crap from others her own age and from a privileged community quick to accuse.
This is a strong, compelling story that leads the reader to think a great deal about victimology. Whittall lets the reader experience the problem from all sides, and makes a clear choice. She imbues the character of Sadie Woodbury with the clear ennui of being seventeen. Sadie is gifted, strong and confused. She is put through the heightened trauma of a young woman maturing in today’s world – sex, drugs, emotional demands. Zoe Whittall is straight up and unbending in presenting the turmoil women feel in the 21st century. She is not apologetic and she takes prisoners.
Whittall demanded that I immerse myself in the story she had to tell. Further, she forced me to make choices based on my reality as an ageing, privileged man. I appreciated this work in every way and will recommend it to anyone engaged in the ongoing work of maintaining a relationship in the shifting gender and political sands of today’s world. I sense a long and strong career for this writer.
********
Excerpts from the novel:
PARENTS – The Woodbury parents were the academic sort, floating brains in denial of the body. Sadie reasoned that it was better not to talk about sex with them, to ensure that both she and her parents retained the privacy they both needed. It was less denial, she reasoned, more maturity. The same way that they all went to church on Sundays but never talked about God. Some things were meant to stay inside our own heads.
TEENAGER – When you’re a teenager, it seems that the time for rage is always. Joan tried to think of things to say that might change Sadie’s mind. “You have the right to feel however you feel. Your feelings are valid.”
“I know,” she said, as if Joan were the stupidest woman in the world, saying the most obvious things. “Mom, sometimes you forget I am no longer twelve.”
RIGHTS FOR MEN – “Your father is a symbol of all that feminism has done to cause hysteria in this world. Hysteria has become law! Feminists show specific signs of mental illness, and you can see, this is what happens when these women get too much power. Innocent men go to jail because girls aren’t taught anything about being decent and responsible human beings. They are taught that they can do anything and deserve special treatment, and men have to pay for it.”
CHURCH – “But you know, church people are usually all fakey-fake nice and Jesusy on Sunday, but don’t really give a damn when people are in real need.”
“I don’t believe that’s true.”
“When Dad died, they all brought casseroles over, but after two or three days no one stopped by to help with the sorting or called to check in.”
“We didn’t ask for help, either.”
“We shouldn’t have had to.”
LOVE – The only sign that love still resided within her and between them, fighting like a gasping bird to stay alive for one more second., lay in the fact that even now, she couldn’t do him physical harm, even though it was the closest she’d ever come to understanding the act of violence. This felt like the end of love.
– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them. When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org.
