This book opens with a horrifying news report about a hate
crime committed against a gay teenager named Patrick Truman. The report explains that Patrick was violently
beaten and tied up to a fuel dispenser at a gas station. He was left for dead with a gasoline nozzle
stuck and held in his mouth with duck tape, and across his chest in blood was
written, “Suck this, faggot.”
The rest of the book follows 16 year-old Cat Robinson, a
friend of Patrick’s, who determined to discover the truth about who committed
this crime. Initially, Cat is
disheartened by the way the local law enforcement in Black Creek handles (or
fails to handle) Patrick’s case. Sheriff Doyle is all but ready to conclude that college boys from out of town were
responsible. Cat doubts this story, and
when she begins to ask around, she grows even more suspicious, because she
receives various, increasing threats to drop the issue (e.g. someone leaves a
severed cow tongue on her pillow with a note that tells her “to stop yapping
her tongue”).
All the while, Patrick remains in a comma. No one is sure whether he will wake up,
or even survive at all. Cat feels especially
bad about this whole situation, because she stopped talking with Patrick three
years prior to the attack. Despite the
danger, Cat keeps investigating the incident, and uncovers several ugly truths
about the small “redneck” town she lives in.
There are several racist, homophobic, sexist, criminal, or generally miserable
people Cat must interact with to find the truth.
In the end (spoiler alert), Cat discovers that Patrick’s
attacker is one of her close friends named Beef, who was secretly gay all
along. Patrick and Beef maintained a
clandestine relationship for a while, but when Beef got addicted to meth,
Patrick planned an intervention for him.
For Beef, this was too much in addition to everything else, so he
attacked Patrick, and staged the scene to look like a hate crime. This is all discovered at the climax of the
book where Beef is high on drugs and threatening a young boy’s life at the top
of a dangerous cliff where kids jump into the water below. Patrick falls off the ledge and is killed by
the rocks. On the bright side, Patrick
wakes up from the comma, and appears to be fine.
Shine is difficult
to read because it shows just how ugly people can be. It is violent, disturbing, and full of uncomfortable language. The book will challenge you and force you to think about your own beliefs. This is why the book is worth reading.
I originally wanted to read this book for three reasons: (1) I wanted read something else by Lauren Myracle after TTYL, (2) my older brother and my sister-in-law are mentioned in the acknowledgements book (they're friends with Lauren), and (3) I've heard that it is a powerful book worth reading from other people in the English Education program here at CSU.
One of the interesting literary features of the book is that the author continually plays around with the title in different ways. There are, for example, several biblical, musical, and cultural allusions to "shine" or "shining" (e.g. the idea that God's light shines through people, the song "This Little Light of Mine," the characters refer to moonshine simply as "shine," etc.). In addition to this, the author infuses the book with the perennial battle between light and dark, kind and cruel, health and sickness, etc. While the overarching theme is about violence toward gays, the book also explores the serious issue of drug abuse, especially meth use.
Will I teach this someday? I'm afraid to, because of the story and the language. But I also see it as an opportunity to confront some of the most serious and urgent issues facing teenagers today. Why are gay people treated so poorly? Why do some people look the other way after a terrible crime has been committed? When and how should I stand up for my friends? How can I face someone who is ready to do physical harm toward me? What do I believe in, and what am I willing to do in the name of this belief? Is violence ever justified? Why shouldn't I do drugs? Why shouldn't I sell drugs? What should I do if one of my friends is caught up in drugs? How do I deal with sexual abuse? What should I do if I've been abused? What should I do if I know someone else is being abused?
I've stated this before, but I strongly believe that a good book is one that raises good and difficult questions - questions that are not easily resolvable. This is because difficult questions force us to think and ruminate on an issue or problem. Shine does this well, so I think Shine is a good book, and one worth teaching. But if I do teach it someday, I will want to see how other teachers have tried to teach it, and discover the problems they ran into before I run into them too.
No comments:
Post a Comment