Customer Reviews

Make Believe: A Novel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

From the dazzling opening scene, where we plunge into the story by awakening into the nightmarish aftermath of a car accident as seen from the point of view of a child, Joanna Scott, one of - if not THE- most important and significant voices in modern american fiction, takes us into trip through the frail moral fiber our lives are made of. This is an intensely imagined and observed fable, a tale of the strangers among us, and inside us. It is also an adventure of the language, plotted with unique images and a great sense of moral gravity. MAKE BELIEVE is as wonderful, rewarding and relevant a walk into the fictional woods as you'll find this or any year. With this new novel, Ms.Scott takes a departure from her earlier (and by all means must-read literary gothic) novels and explores with that very same keen and bedazzling eye what lies behind everyday lives, everyday characters. It is an amazing meditation on the forgery of realities, a riddle that strikes at the heart and then goes for the brain and the soul. It is also a breeze to read, a pleasure to find such precise, exquisite and well-crafted writing. Joanna Scott is the BMW of contemporary american fiction. If you're still driving that old Subaru, you owe to yourself to discover this national treasure. Pick up ARROGANCE, or Pulitzer finalist THE MANIKIN of MAKE BELIEVE. And don't do it for notions of "literary prestige" or any such nonsense. Just for the pleasure to lose yourself into her magical world, to truly and shamefully inmerse yourself into the sort of novel that makes the world disappear for a while and , then, as we check back in, allows us to understand it, and ourselves, better. Make Believe, indeed. Of the very first order.

Scott's fifth novel is an extreme disappointment. Unlike "The Manikin," her finalist 1997 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction novel, "Make Believe" is dis-jointed, the tone---which should be ominous---is blase, the characters are indistinguishable from each other, and the core of the book is barely discussed. "Make Believe" the story of newly orhaned, Bo, a bi-racial child. Both sets of grandparents are trying to obtain custody of the child. The African-American grandparnets have nutured and loved the boy since his conception; the white grandparents hae refused to acknowledge his existence. Until now. The white grandparents somehow manage to gain temporary custody of the boy, but it is unclear how this happens. the custody battle is only alluded too and is not fully developed. The book's language consists mostly of abstract internal dialogue that is confusing and does nothing to push the story along. Guess they all can't be Pultizer Prize Finalist's. Please try again Ms. Scott, you really area wonderful writer.

Only four years old, Bo knows his African-American father Kamon died before he was born. Now as he dangles upside down in the car wreck, it appears to him that his white mother Jenny left him too. His paternal grandparents have always been there for Bo, cherishing and loving him. On the other hand, his maternal grandparents have not seen him since he was born, shunning him as a pariah.

However, when the hospital initially errs by initially missing the fact that the child suffers from a ruptured spleen, suddenly his white grandparents file for guardianship. Jenny's father sees Bo as a means to making millions in a negligence suit against the hospital. He wins guardianship though Bo's Black grandparents have always been there for him and already given him a new loving home. However, Bo quickly learns how much Eddie detests him as the malevolent treatment turns uglier and uglier.

MAKE BELIEVE may be the best book of this year. The story line is believable and emotionally taut and complex. The story line grips the reader from the very beginning when an injured frightened little boy wonders what he did to cause his mommy to go away. The characters are well written and their motives slowly surface so that the reader realizes how complex each key player truly is. Anyone who relishes a profound relationship novel will want to read Joanna Scott's latest story and some of her previous works such as THE MANIKIN.

Harriet Klausner

Normally this kind of non-linear storytelling drives me nuts. But we're in the hands of a master here--Scott's writing is assured and breathtaking. Dazzling imagery, vivid characters--the only complaint I could possibly have about this book is that I wish it were longer.

I picked this book up at the library recently and I have to say that although the storyline is a good one, I found the telling of Bo's tale to be much too drawn out.

The story begins with a car accident and Bo, a bi-racial child, is dangling upside down in his mother's car. His mother Jenny has been killed and Bo is now an orphan. From here the story continues with both sets of grandparents fighting for custody of Bo. The white grandparents only want Bo when they come to the realization that there may be some money involved. The story of the whole custody battle was slow moving and really not developed enough.

I enjoyed parts of the book but really felt it could have been a little less confusing in its depiction. It was somewhat disjointed and the characters never became real to me.

At the center of "Make Believe" is Bo, a four-year-old child whose father died before he was born and whose mother is killed in a car crash in the opening chapter, with Bo describing the experience through the limited perspective of a toddler while hanging upside-down in the overturned vehicle. Estranged from his maternal grandparents (the Gantzes, both white), Bo and his mother had been living with his father's parents (the Gilberts, both black), where he remains in the weeks following the accident--until the Gantzes decide to fight for custody of the grandchild they have never seen.

Joanna Scott's novel contains a number of memorable scenes: the trauma of the opening chapter that introduces us to the worlds as seen by Bo; the clock-driven, flashback account of the death of Bo's father (the best-written passage in the book); the aborted attempt by the Gilberts to flee the presumed outcome of "white versus black" justice; the increasingly horrific battle between the Marge and Eddie Gantz over how to accommodate and discipline their grandson. These masterful set pieces illustrate pivotal events and justify the motivations of characters, whether it be the grandfather who behaves monstrously toward his adopted charge or a case-worn family court judge with his own domestic concerns. And, along the way, Scott scatters the dramatic elements for one final fatality to shatter Bo's childhood.

True: it can all seem a bit much. The story of little boy Bo at times resembles a made-for-TV movie. Although the occasional interior monologues are purposefully reminiscent of Faulkner, the language lacks the Southern Gothic edge that made his voice so distinctive--this is Faulkner Lite, really. And the veering trajectory of Bo's story borders on melodramatic contrivances that go beyond plain bad luck. Yet, somehow, the sum of this novel ends up being greater than its uneven parts; in spite of the faulty hardware used to assemble Bo's home, Scott manages to create a powerful morality tale of trial and redemption that seems allegorical in its effect--make-believe, if you will.

Joanna Scott, the book's author, writes lyrically astounding portrayals of what Bo, the main character, sees happening to him and his family. Bo isn't even 10 years old yet and more has happened in his life than one could bear in a life time. The struggles and paradoxes that him and his care-takers face are dramatic and show reality; what real people go through.

Although, because this book is very lyrical and also because its looking through the eyes of a child, sometimes its hard to understand if you're not concentrating completely on the book. That's its one, and only, drawback.

The author of MAKE BELIEVE certainly knows how to create a mood. She has a way of becoming the character. I could tell when she wrote through the eyes of the child, Bo. A couple of my favorite lines while reading were:
Laughter was evidence of a person's value...
Who needs words when you can say everything you need to say with your eyes?
All images had stories to tell, causes to explain.
The story will make you smile in some parts as you reminisce about being a child all over again. There are moods of alarm during a few sudden and unexpected events. A few days after completing the book the story made me wonder what is real and what is not (make believe). The reviews on this book were amazing which caught my eye. I am truly glad I read it. You won't feel left out when you're done. It is a worthwhile book!

Scott was masterful and convincing in shifting points-of-view among characters. The trick was being drawn to the child, but, as alluring as the child's perspective was, showing how each character's "make believe" world was compelling. Each character's self-righteous, mothering, cocky, and indulgently adventuresome world in turn created a reality for the child. And then the child's world continues . . .

This book both drew me in with its beauty and realistic portrayal of 3-year-old Bo's thoughts and repelled me with its unstoppable sense of tragedy. About responsibility and piousness as well as familial love, Scott also deals admirably with the tricky subject of interracial relationships. Bo's father dies before he is born, so he is left in the care of his still teen-aged mother (who has been disowned by her own family for falling in love with Kanon, who is African-American and Bo's father) and his father's loving parents. When his mother, Jenny, dies, a custody battle ensues between the grandparents and the situation escalates into one which is dangerous for everyone. I recommend this book due to the poetry of Scott's writing, and also the beautiful fragmentary style with which she switches between characters in the past and present.