Promoted heavily to teenage readers, If I Stay (2010, Speak, an imprint of Penguin Group, 259 pages), a short novel by Gayle Forman, tackles the biggest issue of all, one that looms large for everyone. The question at its core couldn't be simpler -- to live or to die?
The achievement of probing such a universal theme with sensitivity and appeal alone justifies the book's status as a New York Times bestseller. The heroine has just two options to consider, neither entirely desirable. Her gyrations and difficulties on the way to a decision sustain the tingle of suspense until the final page.
To celebrate a rare winter day liberated from school and work, 17-year-old Mia, a promising classical musician (she plays the cello), and her family decide to go for a drive in their Buick on the roads of Oregon, their home state. As Mia's father says, “We're going on an adventure.” What an understatement!
Next, there's a little foreshadowing. “The road has some patches of snow, but mostly it's just wet. But this is Oregon. The roads are always wet.”
In an instant, fate intervenes, trying to snatch away the heroine's promising future. Does she still have a future at all? “This morning I went for a drive with my family. And now I am here, as alone as I've ever been. I am 17 years old. This is not how it's supposed to be. This is not how my life is supposed to turn out.”
A terrible car accident kills Mia's parents and younger brother. “The car is eviscerated. The impact of a four-ton pickup truck going 60 miles an hour plowing straight into the passenger side had the force of an atom bomb. It tore off the doors, sent the front-side passenger seat through the driver's-side window. It flipped the chassis, bouncing it across the road and ripped the engine apart as if it were no stronger than a spider-web. It tossed wheels and hubcaps deep into the forest. It ignited bits of the gas tank, so that now tiny flames lap at the wet road.”
The author refuses to shy away from gruesome details or tiny ironies. “…the pavement grows slick and there are gray chunks of what looks like cauliflower…. Pieces of my father's brain are on the asphalt. But his pipe is (still) in his left breast pocket.”
Mia suffers serious injuries, but emergency medical help gives her a fighting chance to survive. “Blood. It is everywhere. It does not faze the doctors one bit. They slice and sew and suction through a river of it, like they are washing dishes in soapy water. Meanwhile, they pump an ever-replenishing stock into my veins.”
While Mia's body lies motionless in a hospital bed, her consciousness wanders through the building trying to arrive at a decision. Does she want to live or die, stay or go?
“If I stay. If I live. It's up to me.
All this business about medically induced comas is just doctor talk. It's not up to the doctors. It's not up to the absentee angels. It's not even up to God who, if He exists, is nowhere around right now. It's up to me.”
What happens to Mia could happen to almost anyone? Even when lying unconscious, with the rest of her immediate family dead, the heroine has people who care deeply about her. This “supporting cast” stars her grandparents, boyfriend Adam (a rock musician) and best friend Kim. At times, their devotion merely deepens Mia's dilemma.
Crucial events from the car ride until Mia's ultimate decision happen within a 24-hour period. The author uses flashbacks and the injured girl's thoughts to fill in background and reveal everything that influences Mia's reasoning.
“Sleep would be so welcome. A warm blanket of black to erase everything else…. Is that what death would feel like? The nicest, warmest, heaviest never-ending nap? If that's what it's like, I wouldn't mind. If that's what dying is like, I wouldn't mind that at all.”
While telling this poignant story, Forman slips in some important messages, for example about the importance of love, the power of music, the vitality of youth and the unpredictability of events. Make no mistake – this qualifies as a powerful love story, but not a typical one.
“The places where people cry while reading I was probably crying while writing,” Forman says. “It was a very emotional book to write.”
Previously a journalist, Forman, from Brooklyn, New York, has written for Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, The Nation, The New York Times Magazine and other periodicals. With If I Stay, she substantially raises the bar of expectations for her future work.
“At the end of the day, what really matters to me is what readers think,” Forman said. “I am in this for the long haul. I want to write books for the rest of my life, and it's up to the readers to decide whether I get to do that.”
Teenagers and young adults tend to believe they're invincible with futures stretched out to infinity. By turns fascinating, highly emotional and thought-provoking, If I Stay administers a proper tonic to convince them otherwise, that real life has a harsh streak and definite limits.
To quote Mia's dad again: “Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you.”
Approval rating: 81 per cent.
For more information: www.gayleforman.com
(October 20, 2010)
ARCHIVES |
Gayle Forman:
writing through tears.
|
