Special Topics in Calamity Physics

I read another review where the person had trouble choosing between three and four stars, and I can relate. But then, I received an eBook credit and therefore didn't pay for the book. And, compared to several novels I've purchased based on reviews, this book is a 4-star.I read Marisha Pessl's other novel, Night Film, and really liked it. Unlike Calamity, Night Film has a mostly linear plot, captured in a fairly concise manner (dragging some in one chapter). Based on Night Film, I'd considered ordering Special Topics in Calamity Physics for some time, and so:My only real problems with Special Topics: I could have done with half the similes, along with far less of the real or fictive references. This isn't Infinite Jest, after all, and a lot of the parenthetical references don't add much real depth to the characters or situations. While the book is --well-written, funny, and with "clever"-taken-to-over-the-top-- I kept wanting more from the characters, less from the narrator and/or author.But then again, the main character is 16 or 17, and the book is, in many ways, a coming of age story with dark elements. I did like the book, and it kept me entertained. Readers who get impatient with overly verbose style will be frustrated, I think, but the story is ultimately interesting and does have continuity interspersed throughout (even if I did keep wondering how Raymond Chandler would have written it).

The shining star of this book is the author's ability to craft surprisingly unique similes and metaphors to describe things in a way that eschews the more traditional, mundane methods of describing things like a treeline or rain. I found myself using my Kindle's highlight function more frequently than I ever have so that I could remember my most favorite examples.The book's biggest flaw is its verbosity. The narrator references books, periodicals, quotes, and so forth with such great frequency (and often at such great lengths) that the reader is shoved headlong out of the narrative flow. At least half of these asides are unnecessary and create mental disruptions far more than they enhance the reader's experience.This is probably due in large part to the fact that nearly all of these references are 100% fictional. I love how imaginative and fascinating the author is, but these abrupt asides prevented me from getting - and staying - fully immersed in a story that was frankly already a slow, meandering tale to start with.And that leads me to my other primary complaint: pacing. The book opens by telling us quickly what the climax of the novel includes (someone's death). And yet we spend 3/4 of the novel leading very slowly up to that point. Perhaps the pacing was sluggish because of the fabricated references I mentioned above. Perhaps the story itself dragged where it could have at least walked or jogged.That said, the book's climax and denouement more than make up for a lot of the above. I've never before read a novel with so many unexpected twists and turns in such rapid fire. Wallop after wallop after wallop before the final nuclear bomb of a twist on which the book ends. What's wonderful about this whiplash ending is how many clues and hints and winks the author peppered throughout the entire novel that readers were oblivious to until the big reveals.My final gripe is the ending's muted mood. Despite the earth-shattering twists, our beloved narrator wraps up her story in a way that reminds me of a goose down feather floating slowly in the wind. I wish I could go into detail here without spoiling, but I can't. Ultimately, for the profound and impactful twists, it feels as though the author (or the narrator) ran out of steam and wasn't sure how to resolve the emotions hanging in the air.Let it be a testament to the wonderful story and the beautiful writing that despite those two major gripes, I am still confident in my 4-star rating.

For reasons which remain stubbornly unclear, this novel rested on my bookshelf for about 14 years. How could I not have known what a rare and delightful read awaited me?Blue, the heroine-narrator of this tale (I love that her name is Blue; in all its connotations, it's perfect), whose sense of the ironic, the absurd, is evident from the first moments: "Before I tell you about Hannah Schneider's death, I'll tell you about my mother's." Thusly does Pessl bookend her story with a deep-set what-happens-next hook, assuring the reader will have no idea how the story will unfold or end. The mere fact that the author can weave so many story elements into whole fictional cloth is nothing short of stupendous, made even more impressive because it's a first novel. And it's quite a prodigious book, weighing in at 514 pages - about 190,000 words. (Authors, they just don't publish Big Story books like they used to.)Gareth van Meer, Blue's father, an itinerant professor of physics, by hopping from one college to another, in essence orphans his daughter. She idolizes him intellectually, and forms no real bonds of friendship until high school. The relationship between Blue, Jade, Charles, Milton, Leulah (and their favorite teacher Hannah), are tenuous although of critical importance to the story.Pessl reveals Blue, and the plot, in 36 chapters titled after (and therefore suggestive of) famous novels: Wuthering Heights, A Room With a View, Things Fall Apart, proffering a counterpoint to Pessl’s own novel and, for me, often giving pause to consider the metaphor. (This is a DIY thing.)So we have a convoluted plot, an iconoclastic structure, and absolutely brilliant writing. As a writer myself, I often asked myself how much time and thought the author put into creating her scintillating sentences and paragraphs, for indeed, they are clever, intelligent, often humorous and always, always artful:"On the very best of days I was their burden, their bête noire, and so, if you considered Newton's Third Law of Motion, 'All actions have an equal and opposite reaction,' and the five of them spontaneously turned into lil' Baby Face Nelsons and Dimples, they also had to turn into old Lost Weekends and Draculas, which best describes the looks on their faces in that instance." [p100]or"Much of what Jade swore by, when she was drunk or sober, could be trapdoors, quicksand, trompe l'oeil, the hoax of light as it speeds through the air at a variety of temperatures." [p219]or"Or else, their romance had gone flat as uncapped Pellegrino: 'The shelf life of any great love is fifteen years,' wrote Wendy Aldridge, Ph.D., in The Truth About Ever After (1999)." [p449]And in this last quotation we discover another clever trope of Pessl's, the fictitious reference to a book. There are dozens, if not hundreds, to pique the reader's interpretation. This one, like most, are made up, but in a few cases they are not. That in itself is awfully clever, and they provide a clever, powerful counterpoint to her own novel, giving one pause to consider the relationship between the two.As the pages turn and the stakes mount, we read on with contorted perceptions and freighted emotions as Blue's world dissolves into calamity physics, as the title suggests. I increasingly wondered how Pessl would end her novel. Just you wait and see. No peeking!

This is the assured debut of Marisha Pessl and, having recently read her new novel, “Night Film,” I decided to go back and re-read the story of Blue Van Meer and her professor father. Blue travels around the country with her father, attending different schools and being educated, and moulded, by him. Gareth van Meer is a man of mystery – intelligent, sarcastic and bookish – who has a whole plethora of ‘June bugs’ attempting to trap the widower, but who all fall by the wayside, as he and Blue continue their travels.Blue fantasises that they will settle somewhere and is thrilled when her dad announces that they will reside in Stockton, North Carolina, for the entirety of her high school senior year in order to obtain her a secure place at Harvard. Two days after arriving in Stockton, Blue sees Hannah Schneider, who turns out to be a teacher at St Gallway School, where she will attend. Her dad wants her to be Valedictorian and, at first, Blue believes it is her dad that Hannah is interested in. However, to her astonishment, it appears to be Blue that Hannah, and her closest students – a group referred to as ‘the Bluebloods’ are interested in.Before long, Blue has joined the clique of Hannah’s group of privileged students; including handsome Charlies, delicate Leulah, sturdy Milton, the cipher that is Nigel and the stunningly beautiful and wealthy Jade. Accepted into a group for the first time in her life, it appears to be a Golden Age and a special time for Blue, but Hannah is surrounded by mystery and eventually there will be a tragedy which will change Blue’s life.This is a wonderful novel – intelligent, filled with fantastic characters, well plotted and paced and one of those books you can simply sink into. There are few authors I re-read, but Pessl is one of them. When it was released, this novel was compared to “The Secret History” and there is much about Pessl’s writing that reminds me of Tartt, but I believe the comparisons are more due to the academic setting than anything else. I would say that, if you do enjoy Donna Tartt’s novels, you will most probably like this and she is an author that I am so glad I discovered.

I didn't actually finish this one. I really loved the voice & thought it was going to be a new fave, but the lack of plot bored me. I read the end & I'd guessed what was going to happen in the first few chapters anyway.

This is the third time I have read this book. It has great style,energy and humour; an astonishing achievement in a debut novel by such a young author. Excellent and believable characters with a fine plot. Occasionally the book feels overwritten, but usually it is witty and incisive.I recommend it to friends as a great read.

An extraordinary work, full of wit and wisdom, playful yet erudite, and utterly compelling. Having finished it, I went right back to the beginning and read it again, simply to savour every nuance and delightful turn of phrase.

With a title like this one and on reading the first few pages I thought this was going to be a pretentious self indulging book, but thankfully I was wrong. It turned out to be a fascinating story (not unlike The Secret History) with a great slow building plot. I thought it was excellent.