OK, OK, I'll be honest this was an audio book for me. Because there is no way on God's Green Earth, I was even going to try to make it through this monster at 528 pages. I wasn't even sure I wanted to read it. Oh course this utterly backfired on me when I had to sit in the car and listen because I just needed to get to the next chapter. This book is fantastic. Listening added just a little extra something special. I'm not sure if the magic would come across in printed page but probably.
Calamity is Marisha Pessl first novel. It's obvious, writing is what she is meant to do for the rest of her life. Either she is incredibly educated or is one hell of a researcher as the novel is chuck full of little tidbits of goodness.
Teen narrator Blue Van Meer is the daughter of Political Science professor Gareth Van Meer (and long deceased butterfly-obsessed mother). After the death of Blue's mother, her father packed all belongings and floated from college town to college town dragging Blue along. By age 16 she's attended 24 different schools, never staying anyplace longer than a semester. A loner at heart, Blue is delighted when her father announces they will be spending the entire semester in Stockton, N.C.to prep for Harvard.
All of the sudden Blue finds herself a member of the most illustrious club on campus, the Bluebloods, and befriended by their ringleader, film studies teacher Hannah Schneider. When Hannah is found dead hanging by an electrical cord from a tree in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Blue is convinced her death is anything but suicide.
It's tough to put a finger on just what makes this novel utterly fantastic; the beatific prose..."To the far-off tune of the blue Volvo driving away, it slipped over me, sadness, deadness, like a sheet over summer furniture", the irreverent facts, the descriptive settings, or the surprise ending. Tough to say.
For a little added touch of goodness visit the website:http://www.calamityphysics.com/main.htm
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