It is not sheer coincidence that I have read Riding Invisible by Sandra Alonzo and Split by Swati Avasthi back to back. I wish I could say that I was literarily savant enough to read the two best coming of age voices of 2011, but it was actually the result of an alphabetical list. Let me tell you why each is a singular master piece and must be read by those 9 to 99 who are members of a family. These novels give voice to the struggle to survive in a household over which you have absolutely no control and can’t escape no matter how hard you try without some scar tissue.
If you haven’t read Sherman Alexie’s THE ABSOLUTE TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN please do so. Riding Invisible is the best, truest voice of a kid coping that I’ve read since. Initially, the type set made me worry that I wouldn’t be able to read it. It is written diary style with sketches that add to the life of the youthful scrawl. Three different prescriptions in my lenses sometimes makes reading such print difficult at times. Funny thing, after my initial hue and cry, I was so caught up in the rising development of the narrative that I didn’t even notice. I really didn’t want to put the book down. I read it front to back with only Keurig (magical coffee pot) breaks.
Yancy, youngest brother, has gotten to that invisible line in the sand with his family. He mounts his horse and leaves. He chronicles his escape in his diary which in Yancy’s words contains the back story and the journey to the ending as well. One of the many great things about this story is that the parents aren’t screw ups. They are two adults trying to be reasonably grown up although each has their individual means of coping. This is a family that is trying to work together on a problem; the conduct disorder of the elder brother, Will and its consequences to both him and the family. I know the horse stuck in there sounds off, and it should; but I don’t want to say too much because I want you to read the book and meet Yancy, his parents, and yes, even Will. There are significant other characters you’ll meet. Think girlfriends and supportive adults who may even help you run away and not be found…
The parents make the difference in Split by Swati Avasthi. Avasthi too presents us with a family of Mom, Dad and two brothers but these two parents are anything but reasonably grown up. The dysfunction of the family is created by the father’s sociopathic abusive personality and fueled by his wife’s submission to the abuse as a method of keeping her children alive. As the boys age each one eventually chooses to step in between their father in order to protect their mother. How they each react to the brutal consequences fuels the narrative. How they seek to break the cycle and reconcile themselves to their mother’s choices is not only the resolution but their creation of their term for the word “family”. Beautiful, provocative, painful, complicated and brutally honest, it is my hope that this book will be a successful “crossover” and have strong adult reader base.http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/adult4teen/2010/11/03/crossover/
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