Last week I read Marly's Ghost by David Levithan. Marly's Ghost is about a 16 year old boy, named Ebenezer Scrooge (Ben), whose girlfriend dies of cancer. After her death Ben is very depressed, and cannot let go of his pain. The YA novel is based upon Dicken's A Christmas Carol. In the authors note Levithan explains rewriting or remixing A Christmas Carol paragraph by paragraph from beginning to end, and then editing the novel until the writing transformed into his own voice. Like Dicken's Scrooge, the boy has given up on love, family and friends. Instead of an unhealthy attachment to wealth, the main character dons an unhealthy attachment to the memory of his dead girlfriend.
Many moments revealed in this book remind me of being a teenager. I, like Ben, had a good friend who was a senior with whom I would go see bands play and dance. I never lied to my mother about what I was doing or who I was with as happens in the book, but I found this part of the book realistic. That Ben and his friends need to lie proves that the parents involved want to know what is happening in the lives of their children. Also, the excerpts about the hurt and depression Ben was going through read as if a teen had written the descriptions and observations. I enjoyed seeing gay characters portrayed very positively and with normalcy. Ben's parents, other adults and all other people in the story are try to nurture him, but he rejects their help before the spirits come. Ben believes in the beginning of the novel that he has no future. This is all clearly conveyed with insight.
However, the book was a little boring and corny. I wonder if teens might have a different opinion than mine, especially younger teens. I am just beginning to work with teens now in a mentorship role, and I have a lot to learn about teens, and need to work to remember what it was like and what material would have been interesting. I like some of the ways that the story was similar to A Christmas Carol, but I did not like others. I think the book should have departed more from the original developing the spirits into more compelling characters. I felt my eyes rolling when I learned the main character's name was Ebenezer Scrooge, and at the spirits overtly didactic roles. Their complex messages required more nuance. I did not feel I connected with the ghosts. Their characters needed to be vamped up. The novel before the 4 spirits arrive has an authentic quality and flow (a little slow) that make it enjoyable to read.
1 comment:
I have to confess I don't think I've actually read Marly's Ghost all the way through because of everything you wrote. And, I've heard similar opinions from others who've read it.
I think a lot of it can be attributed to the idea of rewriting a "classic" (I ask, what IS "classic" anyway???) and all the parallels that had to be drawn in order to keep it connected. It sounds like there were pieces of it that still rang true though.
For the library (and to mentoring), this comes down to recommendation...Would you give a teen this book to read? Would you give it just to a Levithan fan? Would you give it to a new reader? Would you give it to someone who's assigned to read the original? My guess would be it would work best in the hands of the Levithan fan...Thoughts?
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