The Wednesday Wars is a book about a 1960s schoolboy who has interpersonal interactions, makes friends, and discovers that Shakespeare doesn't have to be boring. That's one of the most stereotypical book-review sentences I've ever written, but I couldn't figure out a better way to start it, so there you are.
The titular Wednesday Wars refer to the fact that our protagonist Holling Hoodhood is the only person in his entire class who's neither Catholic nor Jewish (he's Presbyterian) and therefore doesn't have a reason to not be in school on Wednesdays. So he's stuck in his English class with a teacher who (at least at first) he's pretty sure hates him; after all, what other reason could she have for making him read Shakespeare outside of class?
They're not super antagonistic for super long, although there are some clashes over Shakespeare when the teacher wants Holling to read it for the Literary Value, and Holling wants to read it for the murder and the interesting new things to shout at people. Most of the plot comes from Holling's day-to-day interactions with the people around him (the teacher, his classmates, his parents, his attempted-flower-child sister) and the world around him (his school, the escaped rats in his school, a school bus, et cetera). Though when I say "plot" that should really have some air quotes around it, because this is slice-of-life so it doesn't really have a proper plot.
(Not that that's necessarily a bad thing; not having a properly plotty plot is pretty much the entire basis of slice-of-life. Which this is. Just because it doesn't have a plot per se doesn't mean it's bad.)
Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for some violence.
4 stars.
Favorite lines:
I mean, a potion to almost kill you? She drinks a potion to almost kill you? Who would drink a potion to almost kill you?
Page 134. It's Holling describing his low opinion of Romeo and Juliet.
(Endnote: Toads, beetles, bats light upon thee!)
No comments:
Post a Comment