Inside Jacket

A few weekends ago, a large kerfluffle erupted over an article posted to the Wall Street Journal website regarding Young Adult books and their often dark, disturbing content and themes. Hundreds (if not thousands) of people have responded via blogs, Twitter (check #yasaves), and other news sources. Two of my favorite replies so far have been provided by NPR and Sherman Alexie. I would also like to add my own thoughts as the YA buyer for the store.

Adults and teens read for many reasons. Some books are pure entertainment, some are for edification, some are just read because everyone else is reading them. The ability for books to be an escape is just as strong for a YA reader. To be able to jump into someone else’s life (regardless of whether the reader’s life is easy or difficult) provides an opportunity for empathy and a certain amount of “This could be me.” The mental exercise of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and realizing the mistakes we all make and the crappy decisions we all have to face is a skill that fosters understanding and compassion.

Reading can also be the starting point for discussions among friends and between caregiver and child. We’ve all had “that friend” who was too reckless, too depressed, too thin. And sometimes we don’t know what to say. Whether we are the parent, or the friend, or the person that everyone else is worried about, these books provide language to start these conversations, to say to someone, “I’m worried about you.” If you are the parent of a teenager, I recommend reading the books that your kids are reading so that if they do have questions, or need answers, or want to share their feelings and concerns about someone, you have some of that language at your disposal.

As the YA book buyer, there are two other points that I think got really lost in the original article. First, how fabulous that we are discussing the “problem” of kids reading! I have seen plenty of parents and uncles and grandmothers come into the store, hoping to find a book that will hook their young reader. If kids are reading, that is cause for celebration, not for hand-wringing. Secondly, if I was that customer originally cited in the WSJ article, I would ASK THE BOOKSELLER FOR SUGGESTIONS. We are here to help you. We know books. Books are our job. We have a secret delight in matching just the right book for just the right person. If you see me on the bus, I am reading. If I’m not reading, I’m listening to podcasts about books. I follow book blogs. I read these books so that if you need a YA suggestion, I’m going to have some ideas for you. Not every book is right for every reader, but, with our help, hopefully we can find a great match.

–Sarah

They’re back! Three more literary charades – we act out the book and you guess the title. Please don’t post the answers as comments. These are just for fun.

The Millions blog tells us about books that should not be read when you are pregnant.

Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin: I admit, I haven’t read the novel, but I love the movie, starring the bewitching Mia Farrow. I have purposely kept my blonde hair very short these last 8 and a half months because I appreciate the cinematic allusion, though I have one friend in particular who urged me, early on, to grow out my locks. “It’s not funny!” she said. “What kind of message are you sending?” How about this: Every pregnant woman wonders, at least once, if she’s got the devil’s spawn growing inside of her.

Everyone loves to play charades, right? Well, this is literary charades with a little help from Youtube – you have the guess the books that Beth, Christi and myself are describing without the use of speech. Enjoy.

Steve Martini is the author of numerous New York Times bestsellers, including The Rule of Nine, Guardian of Lies, and others featuring defense attorney Paul Madriani. Martini will be at Village Books on Thursday, June 2, 7:00pm for his latest, Trader of Secrets. Click here for info.

My earliest experiments with the written word were limited to feeble attempts at poetry in grade school. Story telling did not come to me until later, though when young and foolish I told some whoppers to my father. I was not good at this as evidenced from the red palm print his pummeling left on my ass.

Writing lies for a living did not occur to me until much later, when I was in my early forties. This followed a brief career as a journalist wherein I attempted to tell the truth but was not always successful, followed by a period practicing law in which knowing the truth was often a disability. In short, I was severely handicapped and overcame great odds to become a storyteller and crafter of creditable fables. How did it happen? Elmore Leonard might tell us that I lacked the sand and skill to write believable ransom notes which, according to him, is among the highest forms of writing and pays the best.

What I remember, however, is that during that hazy period between journalism and the law, that confusing transition between searching for the truth and shading my eyes from it, I stumbled across a couple of books that left a marked impression on me. And the word “couple” is precisely right, for I did not have much time during this period to read fiction.

The two books in question were The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth (1971) and Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett (1978). These two books, for me, cut a swath in fiction and in particular the genre of international thrillers that I had not experienced before, or for that matter since. The Day of the Jackal remains in my view the single best international thriller written in modern times. The fact that a true to form feature film followed closely the story of the novel did not hurt its success and served to reinforce the fundamental element of credibility embodied in the book. 

The detailed story of an attempt on the life of Charles de Gaulle, President of France, carried out by a professional assassin code-named “The Jackal” reads not like a novel, but like a memoir of the assassin, co-authored by the detective who tracked him. The meticulous research, the revelation of how to craft a false passport stands up even in today’s high tech era. The political backdrop behind the book, the fact that many of the characters and events peripheral to the story were real, coupled with the ability of the author to move flawlessly from the assassin’s point of view to those who are trailing him and back again all contribute to novel’s success. Within three pages you forget that you are reading a novel. The story is in a word –“believable”. In the end, the reader is left to wonder, did it happen?  This is the ultimate tribute to any novel. And Forsyth did it to a “T”. The story rings TRUTH in upper case letters. It was so evocative that it defined an era in terror when a journalist found a dog-eared paperback of the book at the scene of an investigation pursuing Illich Rameriz Sanchez – Carlos, who was later dubbed “The Jackal” as a result. What more can be said?

Similarly The Eye of the Needle authored by Ken Follett, utilized history, historic characters and events to craft a story so steeped in reality and fact as to leave the reader wondering whether he was reading fiction or a detailed intelligence report replete with dialogue from the major players. The topic this time was the kidnapping, and failing that, the assassination of war time British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

In both stories the authors used minute details from history and dropped in as if seamlessly parachuted the fictional characters of their own creation. The techniques employed very nearly resemble those used by the OSS (the Office of Strategic Services) the predecessor of the modern day CIA and Britain’s SOE (Special Operations Executive) to create believable cover stories and identities for spies who were dropped behind enemy lines during World War II. It was vital that sufficient detail and motivation be given to these operatives so that if interrogated and even tortured, the cover story carried a sufficient breath of believability that it would hold up, that it might save their lives. It often did. In my view both of these books meet that test. It was that commitment to detail that caused me to first wonder when I read them, whether I could come close to that standard myself as a novelist – as a writer of lies for a living.