In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Notes on a Near-Life Experience
  • Deborah Stevenson
Birdsall, Olivia Notes on a Near-Life Experience. Delacorte, 2007 [224p] Library ed. ISBN 0-385-90385-5$17.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-73370-4$15.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 7-12

"Something is broken in my family," thinks fifteen-year-old Mia as her parents' relationship becomes overtly strained; in fact, her father soon moves out, leaving Mia, her older brother, Allen, and her younger sister, Keatie, flailing to make emotional and practical sense of their upended family life. There's also a good change for Mia: her brother's inseparable friend, Julian, on whom Mia has long had a crush, is now returning Mia's interest, but will she even be able to enjoy this one welcome development as she struggles with the effects of the family cataclysm? The topic of divorce may have lost its literary trendiness, but it's still a shattering reality for a large number of families every year, and Birdsall treats the issue with keen perception. Her fluid and articulate writing gives Mia a thoughtful, poignant voice as she contemplates the destabilization of her family constellation ("I want to know how adults decide when the truth is necessary and when it isn't, and if there's some kind of age requirement for it," she thinks as she finally grasps how serious the parental breach really is). It's a particularly sharp portrayal of the way all the wounded in the family go to ground separately (the hurting parents aren't really helping or even seeing their hurting children, which is why Mia's brother gets away with skipping school and getting drunk) and of the ripple effects of such a trauma, with Mia's best friend frustrated at being always the support and never the supported. Readers will appreciate the frankness of this exploration, but they'll also cheer Mia's romantic success and her progress toward wholeness in the face of familial fracture.

...

pdf

Share