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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extraordinary!, September 18, 2005
Nate Chance's life was fine. He has a best friend that did almost everything with him. His father taught him everything he knows (which was quite a lot), but after a freak hailstorm killed off the hay crop that would take the family out of debt, everything changed. Nate's mother became a walking vegetable and Nate's best friend doesn't even act like Nate ever existed. Only sister Junie believes that everything will be better. Nate somehow sees a ray of light in his klutzy science partner, Naomi. If they could win 1st Place, they could see their father in a mental hospital on the way to the state finals. Of course, this would never have happened if his father wouldn't have shot himself. But what if this family falls apart before then? Only time will tell.
The Cloud Chamber was one of the saddest books I've ever read! If you read this book because it sounds like a book full of hopes and dreams-- don't. It is sad in a very layered way. You get sad when the father shoots himself and even sadder when Nate's mother stops caring about life. There's a lot more layers that that. The descriptions and imagery in this book were amazing. I had an internal picture in my mind word for word through the entire book. You find yourself relating to all of the characters through your emotional journey. Towards the middle of the book, I hoped and prayed that the character's lives would turn back to normal. Overall I don't really count this as a book, but a life in itself - it was THAT extraordinary.
Preteen, teen, and young adult book reviews and recommendations.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Cloud Chamber: The Pefect Classroom Novel, June 10, 2005
As I read Joyce Maynard's new and powerful young adult novel The Cloud Chamber, the writer in me bowed to Maynard's use of language and image. The teacher in me saw the dozens of ways that I could use the book to illustrate social and literary themes. Maynard has created a book that achieves a place of its own in young adult literature. And though it is all the things writers of this genre hope for, i.e., a powerful coming-of-age novel, a timeless story with universal values and truths, it is also a book all its own. Though I was reminded in tone and theme of two of my favorites-Harriet Arnow's The Dollmaker and Eleanor Estes The Hundred Dresses-I was thrilled that I had found a book that breaks new ground. As I read it, I knew I was reading a novel that will last and that will be referred to often when young adult literature is discussed.
Nate, the central character of The Cloud Chamber, is barely a teenager, when his father attempts suicide. Immediately readers are caught up in his life and that of his worn-out mother and heartbreakingly joyful younger sister. They become pariahs as the words "tried to take his own life," are whispered in the small Montana community, aptly named Lonetree. The family is suddenly isolated by shame and tragedy, as if getting too close to them and their trouble would create a pandemic. What makes this a great book is its "every family" connection. The obstacles that Nate and his family face are experienced publicly or privately by most of us. Teenagers will recognize a friend in Nate, someone who, like them, lives in fear of being cast out of the norm or, worse yet, of being different-which in teenage talk translates to mean "wrong." Though Maynard makes no overt judgments, we are all brought up short by religious people who seem less so and by the good people of the community who disappear when Nate's family's greatest needs arise.
At the core of this unforgettable novel is Nate, a young boy who struggles fiercely to protect his tormented, dreamer of a father. Maynard's book will be a friend to those children-and there are oh so many-whose lives extend far beyond their tentative classroom smiles to homes in which dark secrets threaten to shatter an already too-fragile existence. From the beginning to the end, the book has a breathlessly magnetic pull.
The Cloud Chamber speaks allegorically to redemption and forgiveness, to optimism and perseverance. Throughout the book, we hope against hope that things will turn out for Nate and his family, while experience tells us to fear that they won't. In a world that no longer believes great and creative writers go hand in hand, Maynard has flexed her literary muscle and given us a novel to love and to cherish.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A heart-wrenching but enjoyable story, June 28, 2005
Nate Chance steps off the school bus to find policemen and their dogs crawling all over his family's ranch in Montana. Even scarier and more shocking is when they take his father away, covered in blood. And what makes it worse is that no one will tell him what's going on. Just the day before, Nate had been planning his science fair project and discussing baseball tryouts with his best friend. Now his whole world has fallen apart, with the eye of the storm centered right on his family. Sure, Nate knew his father hadn't been feeling well, especially with yet another financial disaster striking when the storm destroyed their crops. But his father has always been there for him. Now he's gone, and no one will explain why.
Nate eventually figures it out, but not with the help of his mom or his grandparents. The kids at school suddenly refuse to talk to him; even his best friend won't sit with him at lunch. And then at the store, he overhears some women gossiping in the next aisle over. Nate's father had tried to kill himself, and is now in a mental hospital a few hundred miles away.
Nate is desperate for someone to talk to, but the only one willing is his little sister Junie, and she's just as confused as he is. Life attempts to continue as normal with Junie's seventh birthday party (though only one of the many invitees shows up), Nate gets a science fair partner (the most unpopular girl at school), and spring slowly thaws its way out of winter --- but Nate's heart refuses to be warmed. He figures if only he could visit his dad and talk with him that things would be a little better. But his mom refuses to take him. So he concentrates on building the best science fair project ever in hopes of winning, and hence securing a ticket to the state competition located right near his dad's hospital. In the process, he discovers a couple of special friends who he never before had taken the time to notice; they give him a strong shoulder, a willing ear, and a warm heart to lean on.
Joyce Maynard does a superb and amazing job with this sensitive story. Readers will feel the depths of Nate's emotions as he struggles through this impossible time in his life when his family is falling apart. THE CLOUD CHAMBER hooks the reader's interest and beckons for the pages to be turned. This talented author delivers a heart-wrenching tale that everybody would benefit from --- and enjoy --- reading.
--- Reviewed by Chris Shanley-Dillman, author
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