Testimony by Anita Shreve
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Book Reviews of Testimony
Book Review: (3.5) "And it was then that the word containment entered his mind."
Summary: 4 Stars
A small private academy in Vermont. A shocking tape that has hit the internet, featuring three male students and one fourteen-year-old female student. It is devastating when the headmaster at Avery Academy learns of the existence of the tape, but when the national media converges on the campus, secrets are exposed, careers ruined and marriages sundered in the aftermath of the press's spotlight. Writing from the perspectives of various individuals, the headmaster, the four students and affected family members, Shreve examines the damage as it unfolds, from one family to another, from one shattered life to another.
It is not surprising that even this entitled, pristine campus is rampant with alcohol abuse, the students able to purchase party supplies from a network of willing vendors on campus, an exorbitant markup making the risk worthwhile. Given the number of well-heeled students attending Avery, most college-bound, party life is at least as important as academics and sports. To some of the talented student's advantage, Avery Academy's basketball team is stellar, a few young men on the cusp of promising college careers. Of the three boys on the tape, Rob, J.Dot and Silas, a local boy, it is Silas whose future looms brightest. And it is Silas who bears the brunt of the tragic consequences. But it is the nature of random behavior and chance that blights the futures of these three young men, their accuser quickly moving on with her life, virtually unscarred by the adventure.
Shreve's storytelling ability is impressive, nimbly tackling a number of points of view, from reporter, to cafeteria worker. But it is the core characters that suffer the consequences of the boys' excesses and the girl's cooperation. The novel deftly explores cause and effect, a small but powerful tragedy that capture's a town's rapt attention and outrage, their community overrun with curious outsiders. Husbands and wives are left to ponder their sons' intemperate decisions, the frail constructions of marriage contracts hiding a multitude of broken dreams and the impossibility of quashing an explosive story. Another news cycle and the public's curiosity moves on, those caught in Avery's scandal, the headmaster, the parents and their sons left to piece together fractured lives that will never be the same. Luan Gaines/ 2008.
Book Review: Explosive cautionary tale
Summary: 4 Stars
When Mike Borden, the headmaster of a prestigious private school in Vermont, is handed a tape by his secretary, he isn't sure what to expect. He certainly doesn't expect to see two highly respected students and a third post-graduate student engaging in sexual intercourse with a 14 year old girl, but that's precisely what he does see. The last thing he anticipates is the explosive effect that this single tape - that this single evening - will have on so many lives, both in and out of the small town in which the private school is located.
This is quite an overwhelming book. The story is immensely more complex than I've just described, but it's very difficult not to give away any details and still write a summary. The author rotates viewpoints, featuring the girl, the boys, the headmaster, some of the parents, and other related people. It really reads like a collection of testimonies from all the players in the very serious events of those few days that determined many futures. At times this is disorienting. Each person's narrative is written in a distinct style so that they're easily distinguished, but it's very easy to lose track of where you are in the story, particularly when a person's chapter is only two or three pages long. They also skip around in the book's timeline, and as I read quickly, occasionally I'd wonder just what was happening with the other people at the time because it didn't seem clear to me. Perhaps if I had spent more time on each perspective, this wouldn't have mattered, but I also really wanted to work out just what happened.
On the other hand, the emotional power of this book is not to be missed. Anita Shreve carefully gathers in all the threads of her tale and brings it to a startling climax that you don't expect until only a page or two before it happens; looking back, however, you can see how the rest of the day's events led to it. It feels carefully crafted to evoke this particular outcome and to minutely examine how everyone felt about the tape.
In the end, I'd call this a very good book. It has compelling characters, a riveting plotline, and terrific attention to detail. The rotating viewpoints are a minor problem, but one that I could get past to enjoy the book. And I'm now compelled to add Anita Shreve to my "authors whose work I should read" list.
Book Review: Another great novel from Anita Shreve!
Summary: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Kam Aures for RebeccasReads (12/08)
"Testimony" begins from the perspective of the headmaster of Avery Academy, Mike. He has come into possession of a sex tape, a tape in which all four individuals involved are students at the academy. The contents of the tape are very graphic and extremely disturbing. "It was a small cassette, not much bigger than the palm of his hand, and when Mike thought about the terrible license and risk exhibited on the tape, as well as its resultant destructive power, it was as though the two-by-three plastic package had been radioactive. Which it may as well have been, since it produced something very like radiation sickness throughout the school, reducing the value of an Avery education, destroying at least two marriages that he knew of, ruining the futures of three students, and, most horrifying of all, resulting in a death." (p.3)
The book continues to explore the implications that one act can have on the future, each chapter told from a different character's point of view. The constant changing between characters every few pages is a little confusing at times, especially in the beginning when you do not know who any of them are. However, as the book goes on and you become more familiar with the players, it becomes much easier to follow.
It is very interesting to see the different perspectives of the life-altering event and the impact that it has on everyone involved. Throughout the book we get snippets here and there of what actually happened and by the end of the novel we have the entire story. The main premise is definitely something that every mother dreads, and unfortunately it is becoming all too common in today's world. It is this very reason that the book is so interesting. It is something you don't want to see, but once you do see it is hard to look away. It takes the events of one night, shows the ripple effects that occur, and the resulting unfortunate consequences.
Anita Shreve has created another wonderful novel! The characters and plot are very interesting and intriguing, making "Testimony" a book that once you begin reading you will not want to put it down.
Book Review: A Compelling Story..graphic in parts but brings to a light serious issues
Summary: 4 Stars
After reading the opening scene of Testimony, I honestly didn't know if I was going to like this book. It does open with a bang, and is quite graphic and shocking. After I read further in the book I realized the significance of the shock factor. This story focuses on how a single act/decision that a person makes can have consequences that are life changing. It involves a group of teens at a private school and relates to a single night and choices that they all make and the series of events that may have impacted those choices.
This truly is a compelling story that is told in a unique style that alternates between all of the characters in the book. It weaves a sequence of events that is gripping and definitely keeps you on the edge of your seat until you get to the end. I didn't want to put the book down until I could find out what happened to all of the characters. The story is mainly told in first person by the main characters involved including several parents. It is told in the style of a Testimony which relates back to the title of the book.
Anita Shreve tends to focus on one issue in her novels that carries throughout the book. In this one, it is underage drinking which has been a serious issue in the news and in many communities. I feel as a parent of a son, I could relate to the mothers feelings about their sons. My son is still young but this is something I will need to be aware of as he becomes a teen and young adult.
This type of issue crosses over many age, sex, race and economic backgrounds. This is an issue that can effect many teens and young adults. It is something to be prepared for and to have an open dialogue about with our teens. I believe that this book would be good for parents of teens to read as well as teens nearing college age. It is graphic in parts and contains sexual content so you as a parent should read it yourself to determine if it is appropriate for your teen to read.
Testimony is a book that makes you think about life and the consequences of our actions and choices. I was still thinking about the characters a day after I finished the book...to me, that's a sign of a good book!!
Book Review: Tragic consequences
Summary: 4 Stars
This novel is a poignant and rather disheartening story set in Avery, Vermont, mostly connected with matters related to the Avery Academy, a private school for high-school-age kids. It is a story of unintended consequences, but is it really possible to contain the fallout from a discovered affair of a headmaster and the mother of a basketball player or, even more significant to this story, from the posting on the Internet of a tape of a drunken orgy in a dorm room involving a prematurely experienced fourteen-year-old girl and three older boys from the basketball team.
The story opens with Mike Bordwin the headmaster watching the tape and knowing that many lives and the world of Avery Academy are about to be profoundly disrupted, if not destroyed. The author allows the story to unfold gradually through a series of chapters told from the perspective of the principals of the events as well as peripheral characters. Besides headmaster Mike, basketball player Silas Quinney, his girlfriend Noelle, and Silas' mother are most important to the story.
While the episode caught on tape was in clear violation of the law, the author's concerns are with how personalities, circumstances, and the various environments developed and interacted to lead to this scenario. The reader is drawn into the story as there are several places where there is a desire to reach out to the characters and advise them to take a different route, to make a different decision. Wouldn't we all like to do that with our lives - change a decision from years ago? But they, like us, have to live with what they have chosen, regardless of unpleasant results.
As might be expected the story gradually changes as more is revealed, as a perspective is contradicted by one more credible. The main characters are fairly well understandable by virtue of their thought processes and actions. The book is fairly easy to read, although the shifting around between characters and time frames is a little difficult to follow, but one can generally figure it out.