Testimony by Anita Shreve
|
List Price: Our Price: $2.00 You Save: $23.99 (92%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Testimony
Book Review: Testimony
Summary: 5 Stars
An excellent,compelling novel. Good for book club discussions regarding how one event can affect so many.Book Review: Anita Shreve's masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
In my opinion, and I've read all of Ms. Shreve's books, this is her masterpiece.Book Review: bad decisions by everyone
Summary: 4 Stars
I spent 4 years at a boarding school in upstate NY in the late 1950's and I'm faculty at a state university. Tales of impropriety certainly are of considerable interest to me. In Shreve's novel we see boarding school faculty (the headmaster and his wife, etc), students, parents, and others, all caught up in a scandal that the headmaster Bordwin had hoped could be handled in-house. Drinking, drugs, and sex (untaped sex, that is, not something taped and posted on YouTube) are commonplace and apparently are not taken very seriously by anyone. In my halcyon days, such as they were, at boarding school, drugs were "hippie stuff", smoking cigarettes in unauthorized places at unauthorized times resulted in suspension, and alcohol got you a permanent boot. The headmaster was an old English type, and you sometimes got the idea that caning had appeal for him, and that he wished caning were an option. If he had been headmaster at Avery Academy there would probably have been very few students left in the place.
As I read the story I found myself thinking that everyone--the headmaster, the older boys involved, the 14-year-old girl, the parents, the headmaster's wife--were exercising horrifyingly bad judgement. Avery Academy must have lawyers--any private school does, especially a boarding school, since a boarding school is in loco parentis. So the very first thing that a headmaster would do (or should do) is to run to the lawyers. This is not just a case of a student smoking a cigarette behind the gym--it's taped sex involving at least 5 people, including an underage girl. Any headmaster should worry that this could be a felony and would call the lawyers. A headmaster or faculty member would (or should) also seek the advice of veteran faculty. The same thing is true at the university level--you learn to seek advice. Not doing so puts you at severe risk (I've had colleagues who didn't seek advice and who were lucky not to have wound up in court, or worse).
The students involved are also culpable--but one doesn't expect them to use mature judgement. Nonetheless, engaging in filmed sex with a 14-year-old is idiotic. I asked "how could boys smart enough to get into a prestigious school be so dumb?", especially when we have the well-publicized case of a Georgia 18-year-old going to jail for videotaped sex with a (I believe) 16-year-old girl. The parents are not much better, and some are worse. So this was a book that had relevance for me, as a teacher. The basic storyline is interesting and well-told, but I found that I wasn't relating at all to the people involved. I kept hoping that the book would have a centerpoint--someone with good sound judgement who could comment intelligently on the situation--someone who could be at the other end of this moral see-saw--more like Straitley in Joanne Harris' fine novel Gentlemen and Players. Avery Academy must have its own Straitleys--older faculty members who've seen it all--people who Bordwin would immediately go to for help and advice. Such a person could have provided the novel with a life-saving rock before the waterfall, so to speak. You will not finish the novel joyfully--I don't think anyone seems hopeful at the end. It's a sad tale of destruction, self-destruction: relevant, and, I expect, all too common nowadays.
Book Review: What moments have changed your life?
Summary: 4 Stars
I am a fan of Ms Shreve's, but I was disappointed with her previous work, Body Surfing. This book deserves a place on her impressive list of very good books. Set in a small Vermont town, the book is told from several character's viewpoints. It is almost as if they truly are giving the "testimony" of the title. Seemingly unrelated occurrences set in motion events that culminate in a night of drunken mistakes by 4 students of a prestigious boarding school. The ripples of disaster that spread from the poor choices of that evening seem to echo on forever through the lives of the students and their families, faculty, and townspeople. The tension the author maintains as the story unfolds is almost unbearable. The reader is drawn into the sadness and pain as each character walks their path through this miasma, making their own mistakes, finding comfort where they can. The over-arching theme, that actions of a moment can change a life, is not a new one. In a less skillful author's hands, it might seem trite. This book makes you think once again of the moments that changed your own life; where you were when you met your spouse, how you coped with overwhelming confusion, how your life might be totally different had events transpired in a different way. This over-worked theme becomes riveting again as the plot, with all it's ramifications, unfolds.
I can't however, rate it as 5 star. While it is wonderful to have the author back on her game again, there are sentences that strike such a discordant note, they detract from the book as a whole. As a teenage female protagonist watches her boyfriend play an uncharacteristically savage game of basketball she wonders, "Or is Silas, in some strange way, angry at me?" I have often wondered if people were angry with me for a strange reason, or were acting out their anger in a strange manner. The concept that someone could be angry in a strange way stopped me cold, I'm still not sure what it means. In another part the same character describes the metamorphosis of the student center for a dance from work-a-day drabness to a promise of magic at night, "But, at night, with the overheads dimmed and tea lights on the tables, it is just possible to believe in romance." A fine sentence in itself, when it is coming from the mouth of a 17 year old high school student, it is truly unbelievable. Perhaps a better editor would have smoothed the jarring edges, but it is hard to believe that Ms. Shreve's books don't get the best the industry can offer. Still, quibbles aside, I enjoyed reading this book very much. But it should come with a warning label, "Begin when you have the time to finish it" or you will join the bleary eyed like me.
Book Review: Tragic consequences of youthful choices!
Summary: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Danielle Feliciano for Reader Views (12/08)
Anita Shreve's newest novel, "Testimony," is the explosive tale of Avery Academy and the aftermath of one night of poor choices. Avery is an elite boarding school in New England, full of privileged students. These students may be the smartest and the most elite, but they are still kids. Money cannot protect them from drugs and alcohol, and it certainly can't protect them from themselves. One night of alcohol-driven choices tears apart the school, the students and the entire town.
Headmaster Mike Bordwin is handed a tape found in one of the dorms. He views it to find it is a sex tape of Avery students in an Avery dorm, and one of those students is a 14-year-old girl. There are three boys in the tape and an unidentified person holding the camera. Mike is stunned but goes right into "headmaster" mode and does what he thinks is the best thing for the school. He tries to keep the problem internal and thus sends a message that Avery is above the law. That plan doesn't last long and soon enough, lives are destroyed by this tape. Marriages split, students lose their education and one person dies.
The book is told in snippets by a number of narrators. While having multiple narrators could be confusing, Ms. Shreve does a tremendous job of making the transition of voices nearly seamless. As each person tells his or her experience, more and more is revealed, eventually giving the reader the whole picture.
There are some basic flaws in the story that put a negative cloud over my reading of it. It seems that despite the tragedy and its aftermath, not one person learned a lesson from what happened. Regardless of how subtle, there was also too much "blame the victim" on the part of the headmaster and the boys and not enough addressing the real issue, which was a bunch of teenagers who each made horrible choices while drunk. On the other hand, to go so far as to say this girl was sexually assaulted is in my opinion an insult to survivors of rape and sexual assault. Yes, she was underage, but it was clear she made up the "I was raped" line as a way to gain her parents' sympathy and avoid their anger when she found out it was taped. This made me dislike the one person who was supposed to be a victim. At times I felt more sympathy for Silas than I did for the girl. No matter what your opinion of the characters and the events, "Testimony" by Anita Shreve is one of the most thought-provoking books I have read in a while.