Great Read

In three days flat I read A Changed Man by Francine Prose. The thing I like about it is that it raises questions students ask themselves (Can people really change? Can you help another person change or does change come from within? Where does hate come from? Should we forgive people who do bad things? Should we forgive ourselves?) in well-written, digestible language.

For example, read this passage between Vincent--the ex- neo-Nazi turned NGO worker-- and Danny, the teenager at whose house Vincent stays while transitioning from his past.

"Wait a minute," says Danny. "Back up. Let me get this straight. Are you saying that Hitler killed six million Jews because he was gay?"

Vincent taps the side of his head and lets his jaw go slack. "Excuse me? Did I say that? That's your conclusion, my man. Personally, I don't care what the guy did behind closed doors. I don't even want to think about what Hitler did or didn't do. In bed. My point was something else. My point was: all these guys I used to hang with...you couldn't even bring it up. They'd kick your ass if you hinted that Hitler was a little light in the loafers. Because they dug Hitler and hated fags. They couldn't handle the contradictions. That was their number-one problem. They couldn't deal with the gray areas. They couldn't get beyond the point where everything has to be black or white, one way or the other." (165)

Well said, my man. I don't mean to suggest that the language is always gentle or even student appropriate (although that is a whole different blog post in its self) but it is concise, accurate, and convincing, especially for the characters involved. All good literature raises meaningful questions about the world, but diction deeply affects how much those questions resonate with students. Books like The Catcher in the Rye --which still brings up good questions for me, even on my eighth read--sends students to look up words like "highball" and "galoshes." A Changed Man tackles similar questions but with the the zing of fresh language. Bravo Mrs. Prose.