Story of a Novel

It took me over a month to get to an entry about my first pick of the year, which is a reflection on me as a blogger and not on the book itself, which proved to be a great choice for heralding the start of 2007.

If you are at all familiar with this blog, (and if you weren't then why would you be here, right?) it would seem that Story of a Girl is a book that I would dislike on principle. The entire premise is the antithesis of my mission here--it chronicles the aftermath of the main character's sexual experience, which is a minefield of emotional consequences both public and private in nature. It could very well be titled Story of a Reputation. Yet what Sara Zarr does with the story of Deanna, the girl in particular, is so much more than sex = punishment. Which is why I feel it is important to reassert that, though I have a knack for sniffing out troubling messages in YA literature, I promise I would never scoff at a terrific book just because something about it sets off my avengingsybil radar. Even with Deanna's life being virtually ruined just because she got caught having sex when she was 13, even with her brother and his girlfriend sidelined by teen pregnancy, Story of a Girl is a thoughtful exploration of why people are so quick to judge young women for their sexuality and goes so far as to delve into the girls' motivations for having sex.

What is so powerful and important about the novel, to me, is that it doesn't smack of cautionary tale. Even when endlessly and painfully confronted by the choices she made, Deanna doesn't necessarily have regrets. She is angered and saddened by the way they have impacted her life, particularly in her relationship with her father, but she resists buying into what people say about her. She recognizes the unfairness and doesn't respond by self-flagellating. That is not to say that she's happy and right with herself from the beginning. One of the remarkable things about Story is the way that we see Deanna as well as several other characters experience a tremendous amount of growth by novel's end, which is a credit to Ms. Zarr as a writer and her skill in making you care about the characters, why they do things and how they end up. All the while no easy solutions are offered, no false or cliched emotions displayed.

One of the really interesting points Zarr hones in on is attitudes about sex determined by place in the family. I'm talking about the way fathers regard their daughters as sexual beings vs. how they see sons, and the totally subtle and different approach taken by mothers about their daughters and sons. This is societally pervasive-- I will use my own family as an example, where my father's attitude is far more relaxed toward his son's romantic exploits. The less he knows about  mine and my sister's, the better. My mother spoke to me about birth control when I was in my early teens. She adopted a wholesale "they're all going to do it at some point and I would rather they take precautions" attitude toward her children's sexuality, yet I know she couldn't help putting more importance the way she protected her girls. Where she told us to tell her if we wanted to go on the pill, she just went ahead and put condoms in my brother's Christmas stocking when he was in college. The deviating tacks taken by Deanna's parents toward Deanna, but also toward Deanna's brother Darren and then toward his girlfriend Stacy reflect ways in which one's parents' behavior can not only shape and reinforce one's ideas about the role they play in terms of sexuality and can ultimately effect their actions. How different would things have been for Deanna if her father had initially stuck up for her? The uneasy tug-of-war between parents and their children was rendered with impressive honesty.

While the idea of a 13-year-old girl having sex might be shocking, it is certainly not unrealistic. What's actually most shocking about Story of a Girl is that it's not about sex at all. Sex is a diving board of sorts, it provides the set-up for Deanna's circumstances, but no sex really takes place "on camera." This is a book about perception, about self-discovery, and love and redemption (though not the kind of love you would expect nor the kind of redemption that seems obvious). Well done, Sara.

Written material © 2007 Dawn A. Emerman

Comments

[sara z.]

Whew! Thank you for such a thoughtful response.

[Garret Freymann-Weyr]

What a good review. It actually makes me want to read the book. And I almost never want to read a YA these days (not a good sign, given my line of work). Also, it's so rare that a book review is about the book. Thanks. And Mazel Tov to the writer who wrote the novel and came up with such a great title. A nod to Edmund White?