Like the Red Panda (Harvest Book) [Paperback]

Andrea Seigel (Author)

Book Description

Series: Harvest Book | Publication Date: April 5, 2004

Stella Parrish is seventeen, attractive, smart, deeply alienated, and unable to countenance life's absurdities. She is not nihilistic; she is prematurely exhausted. Since her parents OD'd on designer drugs when she was eleven, she has lived with well-meaning but inexperienced foster parents, while her grandfather, her only living relative, tries ever more ingenious ways of committing suicide in his retirement home. Here are the last two weeks of Stella's senior year in Orange County, California: the intensive AP final exams; the childish, celebratory trips; the totemic importance attached to graduation. Beneath Stella's mordantly funny take on her life is the decisiveness with which she disengages from it, planting clues and providing explanations for those who will try to understand the act she is about to commit. With perfect pitch, remarkable wit, and a spare, vivid prose, Stella turns her farewell to suburbia into a wry philosophical inquiry.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Like the Red Panda is debut author Andrea Seigel's brutal answer to the throngs of Chick Lit novels that have inundated book clubs and influenced the big screen over the past decade. Stella Parrish, Seigel's tragic heroine, is 17, extremely wise beyond her years, completely alienated from her peers and her foster family, and determined to kill herself before she arrives at Princeton's gates in the fall. Seigel's task here is difficult--she's created a character of extraordinary depth, given her an unpleasant (at best) mission, and attempted to make her amusing and interesting, all at the same time. In many ways, the author's success should be widely applauded, even if she falls short on occasion.

Like the Red Panda enjoys its greatest success when Stella is commenting on the people around her. Her wry observations about her cranky old grandfather, her pot-smoking classmates in AP English, and her brilliant, unmotivated drug-dealing ex-boyfriend paint an equally amusing and insightful portrait of suburban life in America. When describing the temple-going practices of her jumpy and awkward foster parents, Stella explains that services are held on Sunday morning instead of Saturday, "mostly so everyone could be on the same worship schedule as their Christian friends. This benefited cross-religion plan-making on the weekends." When Seigel strays from witty observations like these, the novel has a tendency to lose its quirky appeal and simply becomes a tale of disenchanted youth. Thankfully, Like the Red Panda delivers more laughs than tears, and rewards readers with a unique blend of one-part teenage angst mixed with two-parts comedic wit. --Gisele Toueg

Review

Stella Parrish [is] one of the most startling narrators to come down the fiction pike in a while. Highly recommended. -- Library Journal, February 1, 2004

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; 1 edition (April 5, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156030241
• ISBN-13: 978-0156030243
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,057,686 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born inside of forty-five minutes.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dark and sharp, October 9, 2004

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Like the Red Panda (Harvest Book) (Paperback)

Suicide is not exactly a funny topic. But new novelist Andrea Seigel tackles a strange death wish in "Like the Red Panda," and makes it funny too. Incisive, sharp-edged and smart, this look at the final two weeks of high school for a girl who is far and away the wisest person in her community.

Stella is brainy, pretty and wise beyond her years, about to graduate from high school. Up until this week, she was planning on going to Princeton -- now, she wants to die before she gets there. She deliberately flunks tests, ponders her teachers, and contemplates the absurdity of schoolwork (bouncing imaginary balls) and classmates (while befriending the class weirdo).

As the school year winds down, Stella visits her bedridden, emotionally abusive grandfather -- discovering that they have more in common than she thought. She also ponders the loss of her parents when she was eleven, an event that shaped her personality from then on, and the colorless life she has had with her nervous foster parents. In those two weeks, Stella decisely works on how to best leave the world, observing as it moves past her.

While "Catcher in the Rye" is referenced from time to time -- including the observation that you'd want to strangle Holden in real life -- Stella is a wholly different person. This story is a morbid comedy, where "Catcher" is more of an angry-young-man/coming-of-age tale. And it's that very mix of wit and darkness that makes "Like the Red Panda" so exceptional -- few authors could handle such a plot without making it trite or maudlin.

Rarely could cocaine/heroin ODs be considered romantic or amusing. But Stella ponders the weird romantic streak in her parents' deaths (their "hearts snapped in tandem") at her eleventh birthday party. She looks back on them -- and her life -- with a mix of honesty and affection. She's not heartless, just brutally honest about herself and the world.

Seigel does display some first-time difficulties -- she climaxes Stella's problems with her foster parents by having an awkward blowup. And Stella's relationship with her drug-dealing boyfriend seems tacked in. However, her prose is wonderfully written, with a sort of detached grace as Stella observes the little things, from sex to religion. Sprinkled in are wry observations, like the Jewish temple that her foster parents go to: services are held on Sundays, because "this benefited cross-religion plan-making on the weekends."

Stella is not a female Holden clone -- where Holden is resentful, she is quietly brutal. She's witty, wry and thoroughly engaging for smart, philosophical young women. Her foster parents are pale characters, especially when compared to her exuberant druggie parents. And her classmates and teachers are gifted with little quirks and oddities, but not to the point of being caricatures.

"Like the Red Panda" is an excellent first novel for Andrea Seigal. Rather than going into "angry young woman" territory, she opts for a funny, dark, strange journey into Stella's mind. While Seigel has some beginner's problems to iron out, her beautifully written debut is highly recommended.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, May 10, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Like the Red Panda (Harvest Book) (Paperback)

Reading the description of this book, along with its dreary premise, made me want to run screaming from the Amazon page. But something kept drawing me back to this book and I found myself purchasing it. I usually stick with a bestseller, like LIFE OF PI or BARK OF THE DOGWOOD, but thought I would give this new novel a try. The title didn't hurt any either as I was curious to find out what it meant. Suffuce it to say that I have NOT been disappointed. LIKE THE RED PANDA is a truly beautiful, disturbing, funny, heart-felt book and the author of this remarkable journey should be proud of her work. With insight into the human condition and a cast of characters that are at once believable and yet almost over the top, Seigel has given us a wonderfuly warped portrait of suburbia, much like Perrotta's LITTLE CHILDREN or McCrae's THE BARK OF THE DOGWOOD. Both humorous and disturbing, this stellar novel can't help but pick up steam. Kudos to Seigel on this brilliant and wonderfully crated novel.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars not for everyone, March 18, 2004

By 

THREATBOX "junkie of the beats" (Alaska) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Like the Red Panda (Harvest Book) (Paperback)

but hey, what is?

I just finished this book an hour ago. The last time I read a book was 3 years ago, but that was only for my English class. I've attempted to read various books since then, but have gotten bored with all of them before getting to the third chapter.
"Like the Red Panda" was EXACTLY what I needed at this time in my life.
I recommend it to anyone who has ever thought about suicide (not neccessarily as something to do, just something to think about) and those of us who are humored and at the same time bothered daily by the transparency of this world and the people in it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book in every way. The structure was easy to understand but not boring, and the detailed character description affected me the most.
Anyway, this is my first book review and it probably didn't say much, but this is a smart book and smart people will enjoy it. :)