Text to Self Connections

If you were a teacher or student in San Diego Unified school district during what is sneeringly referred to as “The Bersin Years” you don’t need an explanation for the title. For the rest of you, here’s a little tutorial. It’s actually a wonderful reading strategy. The implementation may have been a smidge heavy-handed and Gestapo-like.

Also, this post contains a spoiler--although I really think you’d still love the book even if you do read this post.

I have spent the last 13.25 hours or so that I’ve been alone in the car fully absorbed in Laura Moriarty’s '>'>The Center of Everything. To say I have loved this '>'>book on tape would be a bit of an understatement.

The protagonist is five years younger than me, so all the cultural references to the Reagan years resonate deeply with me. Fawn Hall anyone? While the kids in Kansas were wearing OP sweatshirts and dreaming of California I was wearing OP sweatshirts and living in California. Her smart, sassy but beleaguered young mother with bad taste in men bears more than a passing resemblance to my own mother.

Lots of text to self connections that I was thoroughly enjoying as I sat through three cycles of lights a mere two miles away from my destination on my daily commute.

Then Ms. Moriarty hit me with the big one. Evelyn Bucknow is the main character and near the end of the book her nemesis, Tracy Carmichael, dies in a car crash.

How long has it been since I thought about fifth-grade and Andrea? A long time. She was my elementary school and Girl Scout nemesis. A thorn in my side. Her very presence grated upon me. She was bossy and competitive and utterly lacking in tact.

Strangely, she had plenty of friends. Which annoyed the hell out of me; didn’t anyone else notice that she was bossy and competitive and utterly lacking in tact? To add insult to injury she disliked me just as much as I disliked her.

From an adult perspective I have to wonder if we didn’t bear more than a passing resemblance to one another and that was the problem. Bossy and competitive. I suppose there might be times when I fit the bill there. Like Evelyn and Tracy there was also the poor girl/rich girl dynamic going on. I was the poor girl.

The point is I hated  her and she hated me. I wished her ill on more than one occasion and I’m sure the feeling was mutual. In spring of our fifth-grade year, when she was a mere three blocks from home, a car ran a stoplight and broadsided the car she was in, killing her instantly.

My guilt was tremendous. Like Evelyn Bucknow I knew I didn’t have the power to cause car accidents and yet . . ..I could not, would not go to the funeral—the hypocrisy would have been too much.

All of this happened 35 years ago, but this book had the power to bring it back to me, the feelings as fresh and raw as if it had just transpired.

I read for many reasons and a powerful text to self connection is one of those reasons. Thanks for delivering, Ms. Moriarty.

Comments

[Jocelyn]

Now THIS is a review. I'm currently listening to The Thirteenth Tale on tape in my car and wishing I needed to drive to Canada, as it kills me to pull into our alley and have to turn it off.

Interestingly, my enjoyment of the book stems out of virtually NO self-to-text connections...

[phd in yogurtry]

Sounds compelling. I love books that share deep emotions I can relate to.

[jenn]

Wow. The book sounds great, and your personal story is so powerful. There's no hate quite so powerful and personal as those elementary school nemesis, and we ALL had one. Great post.

[jenrantsraves]

Wow! Those are the kind of books that I enjoy - ones that you continue to think about days and weeks later.

[kcinnova]

Is this family-friendly enough that we could listen to it on our next long car trip?
If not, we'll have to check it out for my dh. He commutes to books on tape and shares them with me.

[Jenn @ Juggling Life]

Hmmm. I have to say it is more of a chick book--everything takes place in the mind of a girl from the time shes about 7 to 17. 

Jenn

[busy bee suz]

Wow. I did not see the ending coming...some powerful memories. I can't help but think of Andrea's parents. That is where my mind always goes since I became a Mom.
The book does sound good though. I have not thought of books on tape, I should though, as much time as I spend in the car!

[Little Miss Sunshine State]

I'm adding this one to my list.

[Reluctant Blogger]

I can't add it to my list because my list is already too long!

It's interesting your story. I had something vaguely (well, very vaguely) happen to me. I had a little job at the local library and there was this guy who did the same as me but he was a lazy slacker. One day he didn't turn up and I sounded off about him to the boss, saying that he had forgotten to come or was in bed at home and then a call came later to say he had been killed in a car crash. Boy did I feel awful. Although really there was no reason to. He was a lazy slacker. But I couldn't go to the funeral either.

[Melanie @ Mel, A Dramatic Mommy]

I read this and loved it. I have to get her other two books queued up at the library, stat.

[Green Girl in Wisconsin]

This sounds good. Real good. Am adding it to my "short list."

[Manic Mommy]

Sounds wonderful. I would kill for a long car ride and a good book.