Book Review: David Stuart Maclean's How I Learned to Hate in Ohio

Thank you to Abrams Books and The Overlook Press for providing me with a copy of David Stuart Maclean’s novel, How I Learned to Hate in Ohio, in exchange for an honest review.

Barry Nadler is a kid trying to navigate high school in rural Ohio during the 1980’s. His father is an adjunct philosophy professor at a nearby college, who is discovering that his once bright future, has become stagnant. His mother works for a major hotel chain and is away for months at a time on business trips to foreign countries. At school, Barry is relentlessly bullied and socially isolated.

Barry’s life changes when a new student named Gurbaksh arrives at their school. By all accounts Gurbaksh, a Sikh who wears a turban, should be the new target of bullying; he is a foreign kid in a town where being different is not valued. However, Gurbaksh, who changes his name to Gary, quickly gains acceptance. Gary befriends Barry, allowing Barry a peripheral access to the popular crowd.

Initially, Barry is happy with his new friend, but things change when Barry’s parents file for divorce and his mom begins a relationship with Gary’s father. Barry’s home life goes down the toilet, with a despondent father and a mother who is still absent, although rather than traveling internationally, she has moved-in with Gary’s father a few blocks down the road. Barry begins to realize that Gary might not be a loyal friend and that popularity is a false sense of security.

I have to confess that I started reading How I Learned to Hate in Ohio, thinking that I was reading a memoir. I was about half-way through the story, where things start taking a very chaotic turn, when I double-checked and was relieved to discover that it is a novel. Relieved, because Barry has one hell of a horrible life, particularly the intense bullying at school. It’s horrific and immensely uncomfortable to read.

I wasn’t bullied much in school. I was a shy kid, who was neither popular nor unpopular. However, Maclean’s descriptions of the many ways that Barry is bullied is very uncomfortable to read. It is uncomfortable because it rings true and doubly uncomfortable, because I, like many people, bore witness to it and most of the time, felt powerless and was gutless to stand against it. Maclean shows the results of what happens when “good people” don’t stand up to bullying.

I felt shamed reading How I Learned to Hate in Ohio. I grew up in the same era that the novel takes place and although we were taught that bullying is wrong, we were not given the tools to know how to stand against it. Not just bullying, but also other issues such as misogyny and sexual harassment. As in the story, teachers and adults got in on the bullying or turned a blind eye. I hope ( and think) that kids today are more equipped to stop bullying and other damaging behaviors. I vow that as an adult, I will do better to fight against them. In the past year, we have seen the rise of the BLM movement and even more recently, violence towards the Asian community. How I Learned to Hate in Ohio is a very timely story as it deals with similar issues. It shows the tragedy that happens when we don’t stand against hate.

How I Learned to Hate in Ohio is an engrossing, unexpected, and important novel. It’s certainly not an easy or comfortable read, but It should be added to your shelf.

Book Review- Alexander Tilney's The Expectations

Thank you to Little, Brown and Company for providing me with a copy of Alexander Tilney’s novel, The Expectations, in exchange for an honest review.

Fourteen-year-old Ben Weeks is a new student at St. James, an exclusive boarding school that has been attended by generations of men in his family. He is ecstatic to continue the family tradition, especially entering the school on the heels of his recently graduated and very popular older brother. Ben is ready to take his rightful place at St. James and fully anticipates that he continue the family legacy.

Ben’s roommate is Ahmed Al-Khaled, the son of a very wealthy Emirati sheik. Ahmed is wealthier than any of the other kids at St. James, but immediately, he is an outsider. Ahmed doesn’t act or dress like the other students, but more than that, he is legitimately self-confident, a rarity among teenagers. Ben is conflicted. He wants to help Ahmed fit-in with American culture, but he is doing it for his own benefit, as he doesn’t want to be looped with the “weird kid.” He also witnesses other students harassing Ahmed and Ben is conflicted as to whether or not he should intercede.

Ben doesn’t lack empathy, but his drive to be accepted overrides almost everything. The importance of being accept was a fundamental lesson from his upbringing and a core value that is reinforced at St. James through hazing.

The biggest issues that Ben faces are a direct result of his upbringing. He comes from an upper-class family that places a high value on money, social class, and tradition. This brings immense pressure and a sense of responsibility to uphold the family name, but a conflict arises when it is revealed that the Weeks’ family has lost their wealth.

Shortly into his first semester at St. James, Ben learns that his family is in a dire financial crisis and his father is involved in a tentative business deal. His father’s desperate business deal involves land for strip malls. Ben is mortified that his father would be in a deal with such a scummy, lowly enterprise as strip malls. This is the heart of the problem: Ben has been raised to be snobby. His parents are desperate to keep up their image of wealth, including hiding their problems, as much as possible, from their son. When Ben learns that there is trouble, his first instinct is to hide it from his fellow students. He doesn’t want to be perceived as different from them and must keep up the image of his family. The idea that he might need to go on financial aid is incredibly devastating and he is desperate to figure out an alternative. When a solution to his problem presents itself, he jumps on it, even though it involves a secret with Ahmed.

The Expectations is an apt title, as the novel deals with a variety of expectations: The expectation that Ahmed will learn to fit in at St. James. The expectation that Ben’s family will seamlessly maintain their wealth and status. The expectation that Ben’s life will continue on the trajectory that Is expected for men of his station.

On a smaller level, Ben is learning to handle these expectations vs the reality of being a teenager. He is a talented squash player and he fully expects to be a top athlete at St. James. His father has even donated money towards a fancy new squash court. The news of their financial situation derails Ben, as he cannot play on this new court knowing that they are no longer rich. Quitting squash is a way that he can directly go against the expectations of his father.

Tilney does a great job at writing teenage anxiety. The Expectations isn’t a story with dramatic plot twists, it is far more subtle and affecting. It is easy to remember being a teenager and struggling to fit in, trying to combine the expectations of your parents with those of your peers. I didn’t come from a wealthy family and I can appreciate that Ben’s expectations were different from my own, yet I feel that any reader will be able to relate to Ben’s conflicts, which include things like stressing over having the right clothes and talking to a girl that he is crushing on.

Ahmed, with his lack of awareness, is a refreshing contrast to Ben. It’s not that Ahmed doesn’t care about fitting in, as he does want to mesh with American society, but he also does not fear being himself. Although extremely wealthy, he doesn’t carry with him the same social status hang-ups that Ben and many of the other student’s carry.

Ahmed’s family has different expectations. The whole reason that Ahmed is studying at St. James is because of an old family friend, who helped Ahmed’s family grow their wealth and status. This friend was an American who studied at St. James and who told them that the private school fundamentally altered his life. Ahmed’s father is hoping that the same will happen for his son and there is a strong expectation that Ahmed will soak in this magic from his St. James experience.

At its core, The Expectations is about two teenagers from different worlds, who are both trying to navigate adolescence, but from under the weight of their parent’s enormous expectations. The pacing is a little slow and it took me over a week to read The Expectations, however the beauty in the book is it has so many layers. It’s a great novel for book groups and classroom discussions. Tilney has crafted a strong social commentary, with memorable and relatable characters.

Book Review- Lisa Jewell's Watching You

Thank you to Atria Books for providing me with a copy of Lisa Jewell’s latest novel, Watching You, in exchange for an honest review.

A brutal murder has taken place in one of the beautiful Victorian home in the affluent Melville Heights neighborhood in Bristol, England. In acclaimed novelist Lisa Jewell’s latest crime novel, Watching You, the reader quickly realizes that there are as many suspects, as there are potential victims and we will not know the truth of the situation until the final moments of the story.

I’ve read several of Jewell’s previous novels and she is simply a master at writing crime fiction. This is not a genre that I often read, yet I am thrilled every time she publishes a new book, because I know that I will love it. Watching You is no exception. Jewell knows exactly how to pace her novels to keep readers engaged. She always has a twist that is unexpected, yet makes perfect sense when you rethink through the hints that she has been cleverly dropping throughout the entire novel. At the very start of Watching You, we are told that a murder has taken place and we know that one of the characters is being questioned as a suspect, yet we do not know the murder victim until the last chapters of the novel. It’s brilliant.

More than a crime novel, Watching You is a solid drama. Jewell’s characters are having affairs, teenagers navigating first love, and families in crisis. The drama is as equally important as the crime element. I feel that this is a strong reason for why I gravitate towards Jewell’s novels. She has rich, well-rounded characters who are facing difficult situations. The crime element ups the stakes and intensifies their troubles, but it is not the root or only cause of tension in the story. Jewell’s characters are complex and troubled, even if murder wasn’t on their street.

Watching You is creepy. It has themes of power and dominance, especially through the character of Tom Fitzwilliam, a school headmaster in his early 50’s. Tom has a history of showing attention to young women. He’s charismatic and someone that women, young and old, tend to crush on. Throughout the entire story, we never quite know if Tom is a villain or victim. Is he a predator or misunderstood? The character of Tom reminded me of one of my college professors, who lost his career for predatory behavior. I never had an inappropriate situation with him, but I did get swept up by his charisma and when he was very publicly fired, it was both a shock and not a shock at all. I kept imagining this professor, every time Tom was on the page.

Culpability is a theme throughout Watching You. The recently married Joey Mullens, Tom’s neighbor, is enchanted by Tom and has an affair with him. She knows that she bears blame for this decision, yet she can’t help but focus on Tom’s power over her, as if she is possessed. Another character is confronted with her extreme bullying behavior as a teenager. Many decades have passed, but she never took responsibility and now her past has come back to haunt her. As the title implies, we are all being watched and cannot hide from our sins.

Watching You is a page turner and I was enthralled until the last word. I think this might just be my favorite Jewell novel yet.