before i fall by Lauren Oliver (mother-daughter review)

Reviewers' Disclaimer: novel purchased at Nantucket Bookworks.

Usually if I don’t like a book, I quit, but I’m glad my daughter convinced me to keep reading "before i fall" by Lauren Oliver. Despite the unlikable characters, the story is meaningful and thought provoking. Oliver’s debut novel captures American high school at its ordinary worst.

Here’s the premise: a popular senior dies in a drunk driving accident. Sam wakes up the next morning to the same day. Given the chance to redo, what would she do differently? In this self-proclaimed homage to the 1993 movie Groundhog Day (video clip below), Oliver replays that fatal day six more times in variations. The problem is we are stuck in the head of a conventional teenaged girl instead of the hilarious Bill Murray.

This observation on popularity made me stop reading on page 18 of "before i fall:"

“So now I have first pick of everything. So what. That’s the way it is. Nobody ever said life was fair.”

Sam cheats on quizzes, dates a popular jerk, flirts with her teacher, goes to drunken parties and ridicules losers. She’s in a clique with three popular girls, who rule their suburban public high school with sassy entitlement. If this sounds familiar, it’s meant to be.

The novel gets much better on day three when Sam realizes that she has to change. This is when the Clique/Gossip Girl world is flipped upside down. The story avoids sounding preachy because Sam acts like a real teenager. Slowly, a code of morality evolves through trial and error mixed with introspection. Despite focusing on death, this amusing book is about living.

Oliver’s frequently philosophical reflections are delivered in a true teen voice:

Sam’s heart-throb boyfriend: “It’s like the idea of him is better than the him of him.”

"I’m popular - really popular - but I don’t have that many friends.”

On sophomores: “Lindsay calls them s’mores because they always stuck together and more than two will get you sick.”

“I’m dead, but I can’t stop living.”

After the first two chapters, "before i fall" is a book you can’t stop reading. Then it will make you think.

Groundhog Day Trailer (one of our favorite movies)

My 13-year-old daughter’s book review:

I picked up "before i fall" on a rainy day on Nantucket Island just after my mom told me about it. True, she didn’t seem very convinced, but that was just part of why I picked it, to see what it was really like.

Oliver narrates this book from a very believable voice. Sam has flashbacks to being a loner in middle school before she got popular. This perspective allows her to understand the loners in high school. I was worried the book would be repetitive, but it surprisingly wasn’t. It was interesting to see how the same day could go in so many different directions and still go back to the beginning by morning time.

"before i fall" was somewhat addicting and a very funny, pleasurable book. My only criticism would be the characters, most of which were not very likeable, although I did love Izzy and Kent. Unlike my mom, I never considered quitting a quarter way through, and despite my mixed feelings, this book was well worth reading.

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@Barrie Summy

Book Blog Watch: Check out a new book blog, The Contemps, posted by a collaboration of authors who write realistic contemporary fiction for teens. Congratulations to Beth Kephart for selling her thirteenth book to Egmont.

10X10 Art Show in Brunswick, Maine

On Friday 10/1/10 I'll be part of a group art show to benefit Arts Are Elementary. This non-profit organization brings artists into Brunswick elementary schools to work with students.

I usually complete my paintings in one afternoon, racing the tide and waiting for the sun to reveal the shadows. Watercolor captures the flow of the ocean. It is also easier than oil paint to take on location. I use a digital camera to capture a moment. I edit the images in Photoshop Lightroom, but I don’t paint from photographs. My studio is a rocky cliff, a secluded beach or a peaceful lakeshore.

“High Tide at Lookout Point, Harpswell” watercolor and ink 

Lookout Point is a favorite place to paint. At low tide this miniature island connects to land, but at high tide the trees nearly drown. Before I painted landscapes, I worked from live models in a studio. Trees are the figures of the landscape, dancing across the page.

“Basin Point, Harpswell” watercolor and graphite

You might know Basin Point better as the Dolphin Marina and Restaurant, famous for its lobster chowder with a blueberry muffin. Next time you dine, take a stroll down the peninsula to admire the wildflowers and the islands of Casco Bay. Feel the wind blow.

“Island Skating, Harpswell” digital photo on metallic paper

Friends invited my family to skate on an island. My daughter glided across rough pond ice as ocean waves broke on the nearby shore. We skated until the sun dipped behind the pines, painting the landscape winter blue. Metallic paper glimmers like the ice. Blog readers might remember this image from my review of Beth Kephart's novel last winter.

You can preview other pieces in the 10X10 Show online or in the gallery spaces from 10-3 on Friday. All pieces are 10X10 inches framed and priced at $200. Tune to WBOR (Maine Public Radio 91.1 FM) Thursday evening 5-6pm for a feature on the 10X10 fundraiser.

The 10X10 reception will be from 5-8pm, Friday, October 1, 2010 in the Morrell Meeting Room at Curtis Memorial Library on 23 Pleasant Street and at St. Paul's Church Hall at 27 Pleasant Street in Brunswick, Maine. The show will be up for only one night. My work will be hanging in the church. I hope to see some of you there.

Jewell Island, Casco Bay

The only way is by boat.

To Maine’s largest tide pool.

And a forest of windblown pines.

Amongst uninhabited islands.

Following the Tides at Simpson Point

We took our last family swim this past weekend. More than the season is changing. My sixteen-year-old drove the four miles from our home to Simpson Point. His recently teened sister was the first to test the water.

At high tide the islands float in a vast blue expanse, but at low tide there is a sea of sticky mud. During the summer, I check the tides daily with the weather, adjusting our rhythms to the pull of the moon and the sun. We are not unlike the herons, except they prefer low tide. Sometimes I follow the birds with my paintbrushes. Too soon they will migrate south.

September light draws a sharp line between ocean and sky. The children return to school, and my view is now a blank wall. To write a novel, I look inside. I see the Atlantic from the opposite shore. My imaginary England is vivid, drawn from memories of our year abroad.

Writing is not that different from painting. First I block out the major elements in washes of pigment. Then I sketch out the plot and place the characters in the landscape. The space between them is as important as their forms. Word by word, I fill in the details and lift the excess with a sponge. The one color I cannot lift is blood red; it stains the page. My characters take a life of their own, and I follow the narrative tide.

Great Blue Heron at Simpson Point by Sarah Laurence

Political Watch: soon the Brunswick Town Council will be considering a proposal to open Simpson Point to clamming. The airboats can be hazardous to swimmers and to kayakers. Also clamming muddies the water. Please urge your council members to restrict clamming at Simpson Point during the summer. Simpson Point is the only public access point to ocean swimming in Brunswick.

Sunrise on Nantucket Island

Good morning!

Climb to the attic with me.

Watch the clouds dance,

The sky burn,

And the sea blush.

Dawn is pink and purple,

And braided gold.

They sleep in silhouettes,

While our sun defies darkness.

Blog Watch: 

More seaside vacations: Bee Drunken drove to Wales. Just a Plane Ride Away flew to Italy. While vacationing in Mexico, Books in the City read about Nantucket.

Congratulations to Alyssa Goodnight on her 2 book deal! Reported by David@The Education of a Pulp Writer.

"Moored Sailboats, Nantucket Island" watercolor by Sarah Laurence 8/21/10