Dear Zoe, Philip Beard
On September 11, thousands died, although not all of those deaths were caused by hijacked planes and falling buildings. Tess DeNunzio's little sister, Zoe, died that day, and Tess tries to come to grips with Zoe's loss, her own place in Zoe's death, and the fact that Zoe's death will remain anonymous in the face of a national tragedy.
Dear Zoe, is a series of vignittes written by Tess, a fifteen-going-on-sixteen year old. Kudos to Beard for truly sounding like a teenage girl. Unfortunately, I found much of the second half of the book to be cliched and predictable. (However it is only the second book I've read which deals with September 11, albeit indirectly, so I guess that is something. Maybe.)
Illuminating? Not really. I was enticed to read the book because a snippet had appeared in a writing magazine. It seemed to have depth, to offer order out of chaos. I was suckered. The book was okay, but definitely lacked profundity. Perhaps if I had stopped reading after the first half, I'd think differently. Ho hum.
In a nutshell: Meh. If you don't have anything better to read, go for it. It's pretty short. I got the hardback on sale from barnesandnoble.com for about 2 bucks. That's saying something, no?
God, I feel like a jerkoff.
Bibliolatry Scale: 2 out of 6 stars (1 of those might be out of pity; I'm not sure.)
2 comments:
Please come visit my blog. I have lots of English teachers visiting.
Are you hiding in my TBR room? This is yet another of the many books I have marinating in my collection of unread books. I actually bought this one in hardcover because I'd heard rave reviews about it. It is still sitting there. This is why I shouldn't buy hardback books. If the paperback comes out and I still haven't gotten around to the hardback, I feel very stupid.
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