Night Film by Marisha Pessl

A lot of the books I read are about the power of storytelling -- to entertain, to understand, to heal -- but stories can also lead us astray. If we aren't sufficiently aware of our own biases, if we make too many assumptions, we end up creating a story that isn't true.

The protagonist of Pessl's second novel, Night Film, is a journalist recovering from a career-ending blunder: he didn't verify an anonymous tip accusing famed-yet-reclusive film director Stanislaus Cordova of unspeakable crimes against children. Instead McGrath, who was already suspicious of Cordova, blabbed the allegations on a talk show only to have the tip proved a hoax (done, McGrath is convinced, to discredit him before he uncovered the director's secrets). Years later, McGrath has an eerie encounter with Cordova's daughter shortly before her death that causes him to reopen his investigation, determined to both show the world the true Cordova and vindicate himself.

McGrath is an unlikeable character, full of himself and full of edgy nonsense about life in general and New York City in particular. But he is a determined (if occasionally careless) journalist who follows every lead, no matter how tenuous, in his quest to understand what happened to Cordova's daughter, and what Cordova did that led to her death. The problem is that he never stops to question the truth of his initial premise -- Cordova's deeply disturbing films are necessarily the product of a deeply disturbed mind -- which leads him to misinterpret what he learns. By the end, not only McGrath but the reader must call into question everything learned. I didn't love this book the way I did Special Topics ..., but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Book Round-up: Dark Academia Edition

 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark: The original Dark Academia, although not actually that dark. Spark's tale of a female teacher in 1930s Scotland who has a tendency to collect students she considers special in some way has spare prose, piercing insight, and all-too-human characters.

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz: a thriller (and satire of the publishing world) about a failed writer who uses his dead student's plot idea to make the bestseller list, only to have someone threaten to reveal everything. There was a huge clue that hinged on having read a certain literary novel, but figuring out the twist early on didn't lessen my enjoyment of watching it all unfold.

The Scholomance series by Naomi Novik: Novik's trilogy is set at a ludicrously dangerous wizarding school where only a quarter of the students actually survive through graduation. Galadriel is a prickly, overly verbose, but endearing character; "fated" to be the greatest maleficer ever, she is shunned by everyone, even as she steadfastly and grumpily refuses to take advantage of her dark powers or fellow students. I really appreciated how Novik does not just depict the casual cruelty of the Scholomance system while engineering a happy ending for a few characters, but instead shows those characters committing to righting wrongs for all students, present and future, and not giving up until they find a way to do so. In this way, it contrasts with The Absolute Book that was clear-eyed about the horrors of the Tithe but ultimately punted the issue. 

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl: Another re-read. Having now read Spark's novel, I can see the similarities -- a charismatic teacher encourages an almost cult-like devotion from the students she singles out. The difference -- the hidden connection between the teacher and the narrator -- provides an added complexity that ultimately results in murder. I love this book, and I find myself wanting a sequel just to reassure myself that Blue finds herself surrounded by good, honest people who care for her.

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

Special Topics in Calamity Physicsis a super-literate, dense but highly readable first novel.  It's a coming-of-age tale, a gentle romance, a murder mystery, and a whole lot more.  Blue van Meers is the sixteen-year-old daughter of a peripatetic single father, who decides to accept a year-long position as a professor of Political Science so that Blue can spend her senior year in one school, a highly regarded prep school.  Blue quickly becomes enraptured by a mysterious, fascinating teacher and her little cluster of over-privileged students/groupies.

Actually, trying to summarize the plot is difficult because there is so much going on.  We learn in the first chapter that the teacher commits suicide during the year (or was murdered), a death that overshadows the whole book.  But Blue also struggles with the social hierarchy of the school and with the supposed "friends" she spends all of her time with, a world completely alien to the highly intellectual, insular world her father raised her in.  Then, of course, there is the relationship with her father -- he doesn't like her new bourgeois lifestyle at all, while she slowly realizes that he is not the paragon she thought he was.

What ties these story lines together is Blue herself, specifically her growing up, if that makes sense.  Blue is an undeniably intelligent girl, and capable of great insight into the people around her; but she is also a teenager, with all that that entails -- self-absorbed, clueless, smug, blind to the faults of those she admires, willing to overlook the obvious in favor of what she wants to be true.  She is more than strong enough to overcome the (admittedly extreme) trials she suffers her senior year, but it is still vicariously painful to see her learn about frenemies, fickle teenage boys, and fallible fathers.

This book is also tremendously, overtly literate.  Narrated by Blue, it purports to be a syllabus, with each chapter named after a major literary work that thematically suits the events she describes.  She peppers her story with reference after reference to books, articles, research papers, scholarly concepts, films, and so on (only some of these references are "real"); there's even a final exam at the back of the book for us to fill out.  It's not just a narrative trick by Pessl; this style suits Blue perfectly, because a lot of her self-image is wrapped up in her intellectual abilities, much like her father.  Fortunately, she has a level of humility and insight (true insight, not the superficial insight her father is so enamored of) that keeps her from becoming unbearable.  It's a real pleasure to see this unusual girl grow up.