Her new book, JOY SCHOOL, is a glimpse into the life of Katie, a twelve-year-old girl whose life has undergone tremendous upheaval. Her mother has died, and she and her father have moved from Texas to a small town in Missouri. Katie is not close to her father, she misses her mother and her friends, and she is very lonely.
Katie's description of the lunch period at her new school expresses her feelings perfectly. "It is hard enough to do lunch when you know a place. But when you are new, you have never seen anything so big as the lunchroom. There are secret maps, and you'd better not mess up. Which I did, of course."
Along the way Katie begins to make new friends, but they are not like her friends in Texas, and she has trouble reconciling these new relationships with the people she knew before. When Cynthia, a girl in her history class who becomes Katie's first new friend, invites Katie to visit, Katie thinks, "She can't help it that she's so strange. She doesn't know how to do friends. And anyway, she's all I have."
One day Katie goes ice skating, accidentally falls through the ice, and meets Jimmy, a man much older than she is --- and married. She falls in in love with him, unaware, for a time, that his interest in her is merely that of a friend. When she meets his wife and finally understands this, she is terribly hurt, but she comes to understand that love comes in many forms through many different people.
JOY SCHOOL illustrates how the things that hurt the most can, sometimes, teach the most. It is a beautifully written book that every reader can identify with at one point or another. It is a book about resilience, hope and love.
For those of you who are big fans of Elizabeth Berg, JOY SCHOOL takes up the story of Katie where DURABLE GOODS leaves off. JOY SCHOOL stands alone --- you don't need to read DURABLE GOODS to understand the story. But I think you will want to read it and learn more about this amazing young woman.
---Reviewed by Judith Handschuh
Reading a book by Elizabeth Berg is like sitting down for a long chat with your best friend. She writes about women and their problems with sensitivity and humor that never lapses into sentimentality. Each of her books takes the reader into the life, thoughts and feelings of a woman who is dealing with a serious dilemma. Berg is never afraid to let her protagonist make mistakes, and this honesty allows the reader both to understand and identify with her characters. By the time you have finished one of her books, you feel as though you've made a new friend.
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老实说,我花了很长时间才读完这本“大部头”,其中很大一部分时间不是在阅读,而是在与书中的某些观点进行“辩论”。这本书的论辩性极强,它通过设置一系列看似荒谬却又极度真实的教育场景,不断地向读者抛出挑战性的问题。作者的文风极其犀利,像一把手术刀,精确地切开了教育体系中那些看似光鲜亮丽的表皮,直视内部的矛盾和虚伪。我尤其佩服作者对于复杂人物的塑造,书中的每一位教职员工都不是扁平化的符号,他们都有着自己的挣扎、秘密和无法言说的无奈,这种复杂性使得故事充满了张力。这本书的结构设计非常精巧,像一个多层次的洋葱,每剥开一层,都会发现新的层次和更深的主题。虽然阅读起来需要高度的专注力,因为它充满了晦涩的隐喻和大量的哲学思辨,但一旦你被它抓住,就会发现它对你思维的冲击力是巨大的。它不是一本读完就束之高阁的书,更像是一个能长期留在你脑海中,时不时会跳出来提醒你思考的伙伴。
评分简直不敢相信,这本书的结构简直像迷宫一样,我花了将近一半的时间才大致理清人物之间的脉络。这本书显然不是那种提供标准答案的“励志读物”,它更像是一系列破碎的、主观的记忆片段的集合,充满了跳跃性和非线性叙事。作者似乎故意打乱了时间顺序,让读者像考古学家一样,去拼凑出那个“Joy School”背后的真实面貌。让我印象最深的是他对“体制”与“个体自由”之间张力的捕捉。书中有大量的篇幅用于描述那些细小的、几乎难以察觉的规则是如何一步步塑造和限制学生心性的。我特别喜欢那种对话场景,对话往往是开放式的,充满了言外之意,每一次对话结束后,我都会回味很久,试图捕捉到角色们真正想要表达的那个核心观点。不过,这种深度也带来了一定的阅读门槛,很多时候我需要反复阅读同一个段落,才能领会其深层含义。总的来说,它成功地营造了一种既怀旧又疏离的氛围,让读者在怀念校园时代的同时,也对现有的教育模式产生质疑,这是一种高明的写作手法,但同时也让阅读体验变得更具挑战性。
评分这本书的排版和视觉呈现方式,本身就是一种阅读体验的延伸。我必须承认,这本书的叙事视角变化得非常频繁,一会儿是某个学生的内心独白,一会儿又跳跃到一位校工的观察记录,甚至有几页是直接采用了“会议纪要”的形式。这种碎片化的处理方式,让整个故事更像是一幅由无数小图钉拼成的宏大壁画,需要读者自己去连接这些不规则的碎片。它没有一个传统意义上的“主角”,而是将“学校”这个实体本身塑造成了核心角色。我特别欣赏作者对环境细节的捕捉,比如光线如何透过老旧的窗户洒在木制地板上,空气中弥漫着的粉笔灰和旧书本的气味,这些感官上的描写非常到位,瞬间就能把我带回到某种久远的记忆场景中。然而,这种过于分散注意力的叙事策略,也使得故事的主题有时显得有些模糊不清,我花了很长时间才确定,这本书最终想探讨的是“记忆的不可靠性”还是“制度的惯性”。它更像是一份关于一个特定环境的田野调查报告,充满了观察者的视角,而不是参与者的热忱。
评分读完这本书,我有一种强烈的冲动,想立刻去买一本笔记本,开始记录我自己的“不完美”瞬间。这本书最打动我的地方,恰恰在于它毫不避讳地展示了教育过程中的“失误”和“妥协”。它没有把校园生活描绘成一个乌托邦,相反,它用非常写实的笔触勾勒出那些充满灰色地带的场景:老师们疲惫的眼神,学生们为了适应环境而被迫隐藏的真实个性,以及那些“为你好”的口号背后隐藏的权力结构。这本书的语言风格非常独特,带着一种冷静的疏离感,仿佛作者站在一个很远的位置观察着一切,不带太多情感色彩,但这反而让真相显得更加刺眼和有力。我特别关注了书中关于“失败教育”的部分,作者并没有简单地批判,而是深入剖析了“失败”是如何被定义、被强加的。它迫使我思考,我们追求的“成功”标准,到底是谁制定的?这本书的节奏是沉稳的,它不追求情节的跌宕起伏,而是通过对内心活动的细致解剖,慢慢地将读者拉入一种近乎冥想的状态。阅读体验是深刻的,但过程是需要耐心的。
评分这本书,说实话,刚拿到手的时候,我对它的期望值其实挺高的,毕竟书名听起来就充满了活力和希望,让人联想到那种充满阳光和欢笑的校园生活。然而,当我沉浸进去之后,我发现这并不是我预想中那种轻松愉快的成长故事。作者似乎更倾向于探讨一种更深层次的、关于“教育本质”的哲学思考。书中的叙事节奏非常缓慢,很多段落都在描绘一些看似日常却又充满象征意义的场景,比如某个孩子在操场上凝视天空的瞬间,或者老师在黑板前写下一个复杂公式时的沉思。这些细节的堆砌,虽然营造出一种独特的氛围,但对于期待快速情节推进的读者来说,可能会感到有些枯燥。我花了很长时间才适应这种叙事腔调,它要求读者停下来,真正去感受字里行间流淌的情绪,而不是仅仅追逐故事线。我尤其欣赏其中对于“师生关系”的描摹,它避开了传统教育小说中常见的“英雄老师”或“叛逆学生”的刻板印象,转而展现了一种微妙的、互相塑造的过程,这种细腻的笔触,让人在阅读时忍不住要对照自己的求学经历,进行一番反思。这本书更像是一部散文集,包裹在小说外衣下,引人深思,但绝非能让人一口气读完的通俗读物。
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