Annotation:
Brent Bishop desperately seeks the approval of his peers, but after being humiliated in front of everyone he considers important, Brent's life is spiraled into a mission of retribution. Ridden with guilt over taking a girl's life, he is set to the task of building four whirligigs on each corner of the United States. Whirligig takes you through a journey of five different sets of people, through their eyes and Brent's, defining the impact that his journey has on the lives of others.
Justification for nomination:
Since this book is so critically acclaimed, I almost feel a bit non-deserving to not put it up for nomination. This truly is a perfect example of how your life can intimately affect the lives of others, directly and indirectly. This book fits into the "Coming of Age" nomination category, where teens learn about the journey of another person and what they had ultimately learned. In this book we primarily follow Brent, who has killed a girl in a driving accident where he meant to take his own life. Brent realizes that he can still go on after the guilt has overcome him, and takes up the task set upon him by the girl's mother. Although that is an interesting part of the book, what I enjoyed most about this piece was the way the author conveyed that the lives of other people were changed by the whirligigs that Brent had created. There are several chapter which break way from the main story at different points and not in sequence, showing how the whirligigs impacted someone who came across where Brent had left them.
The writing style is third person, but doesn't leave you disconnected from the characters in the book unless the author specifically means to. I think that the author lets the reader get closer to Brent than to some of the other characters, since he is the central focus. The narrative voice is very descriptive in some cases and paints a picture of where the character is at any given time, it makes it effortless to picture the campsite with the red picnic table that Bret spends time at. It is sad to see Brent change from a kid who just wants the pretty girl at school to like him to a 17-year old veteran of travel who will not admit to anyone why he the accidental death of the girl he hit took place, but when I finished the book I thought that there really are people who have had this happen to them, and a struggle to re-identify yourself after guilt has taken a hold is a definitely not something to be taken lightly.
No comments:
Post a Comment