Educating Waverley [Hardcover]

Laura Kalpakian (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 16, 2002

In the autumn of 1939 young Waverley Scott arrives on remote Isadora Island in the Puget Sound. She is to be a student at Temple School -- banished, she knows, because her features too closely resemble those of hermother's married employer. Alone, abandoned, and unloved, Waverley stepsoff the rain-washed boat and into the eccentric world of Temple School.

The headmistress of this all-girl school, Sophia Westervelt, has amysterious past and a passion for education. She instills achievement intoher students, confident that one day they will have "dinner with theKing of Sweden," that they will win the Nobel Prize. Sophia is animmortal teacher, and under her direction, Waverley grows as her ownabilities and vision expand. But far away in Europe, nations clash, andeven isolated Isadora Island feels the impact.

Sophia Westervelt struggles to keep Temple School going, though formidableforces combine against her. And in the midst of this turmoil, for thefirst time, Waverley experiences love -- a love so fierce and sensual that,like her education, it will shape the rest of her life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kalpakian's narrative skill and interest in generational legacies are evident in her latest novel, in which the theory of progressive education becomes the catalyst for a fateful intertwining of several lives. The setting is Temple School, founded by Sophia Westerveldt, the daughter of a lumber tycoon. Sophia had an affair with avant-garde painter Denis Aron in France, where she'd gone to develop her artistic sensibility before WWI. After the war she returned to Washington and, with her husband, started the experimental school for "North American Women of the Future" on Kalpakian's trademark setting, Isadora Island in Puget Sound. Waverly Scott, the 14-year-old illegitimate daughter of a rich man and his secretary, arrives at the school in 1939. Although Temple is past its prime, the next two years are the most important of Waverly's life, because she meets Avril Aron, the daughter of Sophia's old lover, who in 1940 is sent from occupied Paris. Avril and Waverly eventually become "Wavril," two bodies, one soul. Both girls fall for Sandy Lomax, a local boy with aspirations, who becomes Wavril's lover in a teen menage a trois. Their summer of love is cut short when Waverly's mother removes her from the school. While Waverly fails to adjust to mainstream life, Avril marries Sandy and gives birth to a daughter before an accident changes everybody's life. Two decades later, Waverly returns to Isadora, where, adopting the nom de plume of Nona York, she becomes a successful romance writer. Memories of her youth are forcefully rekindled when her summer temp turns out to bear the legacy of long-ago love. References to characters in her previous Steps and Exes add depth to Kalpakian's story, but the narrative's main appeal lies in the well-kept secrets that eventually surface, casting the shadow of history on destinies formed in the wake of tragic events.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Veteran novelist and short-story writer Kalpakian (Delinquent Virgin) spins a fascinating tale of Waverley Scott's experiences from age 14 to the final stages of her life as an elderly, reclusive romance novelist. At 14, Waverley is unformed and uninformed but not na‹ve; she realizes that she has been sent to Temple School on isolated Isadora Island because she looks too much like her mother's married employer (also Waverley's "guardian"). Traveling with them on almost continuous business trips, she has not attended school or made friends. At Temple School, Waverley is inspired by independent, impractical headmistress Sophia Westervelt and forms a bond with classmates and Sandy Lomax, a local island boy. From these first significant relationships, Waverley forms her opinions on love, romance, and the independence of women. The characters are endearingly human and eccentric; the reader will empathize with their plights as they fulfill their destinies against the background of World War II. At times lighthearted and at other times heartbreaking, Kalpakian's novel is spellbinding from start to finish. Recommended for academic and public libraries. Cheryl L. Conway, Univ. of Arkansas Lib., Fayetteville
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition (April 16, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380977680
• ISBN-13: 978-0380977680
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,945,184 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Memorable characters make for an engrossing story, January 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Educating Waverley (Hardcover)

I was pleasantly surprised by Educating Waverley. I took it out of the library without knowing anything about it, because I was in the mood for something light and diverting, which it appeared to be, and I was totally engrossed by it. It's an old-fashioned novel, in the best sense of the term: well-crafted, with a strong sense of place, and a large cast of quirky, interesting, fully realized characters.

The author's craft shows in the way she juggles chronology by having the story jump back and forth in time from the early 20th century to the present day. In less skillful hands, this could have been confusing, but it isn't. Instead, the effect is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle: first one corner of the picture becomes clear, then another, until finally the last piece snaps into place with a satisfying click, and you see the whole picture in front of you.

The locations in the book are described so vividly that -- even though I've never been to the Pacific Northwest -- I now feel I know what it's like to live on a small island in Puget Sound.

But mostly, it's the characters who make Educating Waverley memorable. There are heroines in the book, there are villains, there are a lot of imperfect people making their way through life the best they can -- and every one of them is brought fully to life.

Oh, by the way -- did I mention it's funny?

Educating Waverley may have been the first Laura Kalpakian novel I read, but it won't be the last.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars joyous and inspiring, July 16, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Educating Waverley (Paperback)

i picked up a publisher's copy of this book, knowing nothing about it. (it literally had a blank cover) what a joy! funny, inspiring, masterfully well-written and meaningful on many different levels...i could keep this up, but your time will be better rewarded by reading this treasure. i actually feel lucky for having happened to stumble upon this book - it is one of those very rare ones that truly 'changes your life.' how much? well, to start with, i've never before felt motivated to post something on the web!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Educating Waverly - a "must read", December 28, 2004

By 

Dana Blozis "Virtually Yourz" (Bellingham, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Educating Waverley (Paperback)

In Educating Waverly, local author Laura Kalpakian delivers an incredibly well-written, engaging tale of student Waverly Scott, her cohorts and teachers at the Temple School. Banished to the school on the remote island of Isadora in the Puget Sound, Scott comes of age amidst a cast of eclectic but lovable characters. Meanwhile, World War II explodes in Europe, soon to indelibly impact Scott's life as a French refugee is sent to the school for protection.

Kalpakian artfully describes Scott and her fellow teens as they discover their world in an alternative, private school owned and operated by Sophia Westervelt, the heir of a local logging family. With compassion and understanding, Kalpakian brings her characters to life with believable, memory-invoking descriptions of teen angst as the students attempt to embrace Westervelt's unconventional teachings on becoming a "North American Woman of the Future."

In spite of the book's cover, the Temple School is unconventional and the students' dress is anything but short skirts and penny loafers. Instead, the students are clad in comfortable tunics, slacks and Roman sandals to instill in them the freedom they will need to "see the unseen" and to "fear nothing save ignorance, untruth and ugliness."

Throughout the 300+ page read, the author interweaves life on the island with the tragic events of the war, each having an impact on the other. Slowly, she allows the character's pasts to unfold creating a fascinating interconnection that can only be understood as each piece is deliciously revealed.

With unmatched skill, Kalpakian smoothly transitions from one historical time to another, in one breath telling the impacts of World War II and the next describing the bitter disappointment of those who fought in the Great War before it. Without following a logical or chronological pattern, the author manages to paint the complete picture of each of the main characters as they move through life, love and loss.

Perhaps without realizing it, Kalpakian creates a suspenseful novel, holding the reader's attention with poignant descriptions of our nation's history, while sharing long forgotten adolescent pain and triumph. Her story is beautifully written, her words well chosen, and her story magnificently told. This novel is not your everyday romance novel. Rather, it is a rare treat to the discerning reader, one not easily forgotten.