Customer Reviews

Splintering

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TITLE: Splintering
AUTHOR: Eireann Corrigan
PAGES: 184
PRICE (hardback): $16.95
PUBLICATION DATE: April 2004
ISBN: 0-439-53597-2
CATEGORY: Fiction

"Upstairs that night, my mother and sister and I piled the bedroom bookshelves against the door and stood with our backs pressed there, waiting to hear my father and brother fight him off. But we heard nothing. We heard his footsteps- first up the staircase, then right outside." It's about the aftermath- the consequences of a stranger breaking into a family's house and ruining everything about their life- it's about the Splintering effects of one night's tragedy.
The book, Splintering, was written by Eireann Corrigan, also the author of, You Remind Me of You: A Poetry Memoir. Splintering, written in a rather interesting style, alters back and forth from the perspective of a young girl named Paulie to her brother, Jeremy. The story goes on to speak of the aftermath of what a family went through after that tragic night. Jeremy feels as if he was to blame for the family's problems. He constantly tries to forgive himself for hiding from the stranger while his mother, father and sisters were being attacked. While Paulie, Jeremy's sister age 15, has terrible reoccurring nightmares and takes comfort and shelter by sleeping with a college boy. As you well know could only make matters worse. Does the family recover from this tragedy or do troubles continue to tower upon each other until the family can't take anymore? Read on and your imagination and understanding of family problems and issues will open many new doors for you.
The book is written in free verse poetry, which helps to shy away from the monotony of most books. Because it is written in poetry form, switching back and forth between the sister and brother, Eireann Corrigan, uses different fonts so the reader can distinguish between speakers. The book was a very interesting and enjoyable book to read. I really enjoyed the fact that Corrigan used poetry to tell the story rather than everyday free style writing. I thought that Corrigan could have expanded more on the night of the break in to really give the reader the magnitude of tragedy that the family experienced that night. I personally feel as if that would have helped to explain exactly why the family was having such a hard time dealing with the aftermath and why they were acting the way they were. Overall the author did an excellent job in keeping the reader interested and yearning for more. It really draws to the teen audience because of the characters and their problems that most everyday teen's encounter. Splintering truly was one of the few books that I couldn't wait to see what the outcome was. I loved the characters and what the book had to offer. It made me feel as if I was right there in the middle of the excitement.

Reviewer: Sarah Thompson
Date: May 10, 2004

I loved this book. Each poem left me screaming for more details and overcome with emotion. While I normally have a hard time understanding free verse poetry, the writing is very readable and Corrigan avoids complicated metaphors that require an English class to decipher. In fact, Many of the poems didn't seem like poems at all until I read them aloud (hence, read them aloud!!!). Not to say that the poems aren't deep, this is definitely a book you will want to read more than once.

I loved this book, not only for the story it told, but for the way it made me feel.

Splintering is told in series of 1-2 page poems. It's a story about family and the aftermath of what some may describe as a tragedy. The poems alternate from Paulie, the 15 year old daughter/sister, and Jeremy, the high school senior son/brother. The book is a very quick read at 184 pages, but the message is so intense and raw that it cannot be ignored.

I found this book to be tragically moving and rooted so deeply within the psyche of these teens that I was enthralled with it. Corrigan presents the story through poems and it works really well. Paulie and Jeremy get to tell their sides of the story and their feelings are shown in clipped vignettes that somehow get under the reader's skin. The book hit me really hard and even though I've never gone through what these teens go through, I could still easily relate. Fundamentally, it is a story about family and the love [or lack of love in some places] of a family. This isn't for the faint of heart though. There are drugs and there's some sexual content, but it's all realistic. Splintering is hard-hitting for a reason and the drama, conflict, emotional isolation, and pain make it an unforgettable story.

In my opinion, this is a must read.

My two favorite poems were "The Love Story" and "The Greenhouse Conspiracy."

As a reluctant fan of YA literature, I browsed a copy of Splintering on a recommendation from a friend...and was blown away. It's quite an accomplishment, especially when set against the customarily dimmed backlighting of contemporary teen/YA fiction. A novel told in various poetic voices, Splintering accomplishes even more than it promises: the voices are at once harrowing, telling, and beautiful, echoing Corrigan's erudite literary background and balancing literary merit with accessibility. Splintering tells a story for all readers, and -- to it's credit -- comfortably targets a normally (though not in Ms. Corrigan's case) misunderstood audience. Long story short: regardless of your age -- or regardless of what you think about verse novels -- get this book.

A drug crazed man breaks into Mimi's home- she is with her parents and younger siblings after her marriage has ended. As the father attempts to kept the knife wielding man at bay, the three women barricade themselves in an upstairs bedroom, until the man begins tearing the door apart. In the months after the attack, Splintering tells the story of what has happened to the family in poems alternating perspective between the younger sister and brother.

Quote: "The receptionist isn't permitted to give out student room numbers. And anyway, she doesn't have a listing for a Mister Evan Filthy Hippie."

I didn't expect to like this book, but it grew on me as I read further (although I enjoyed the brother's story more than the sister's). An interesting look at how one event comes to define and shape a family in more ways that even they could have thought possible.

Weaving a fractured-family narrative that makes you think, Eireann Corrigan poses a challenge to her readers -- which should be met with such aplomb as if one were to approach a literary Rubic's Cube. Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying" immediately pops to mind, transposing the multi-character/narrator story-structure into a modern day suburban family dynamic... By using a slasher film vernacular and various other forms of pop culture-ese, Corrigan lets her family express their sense of horror, aftershocks or otherwise, in such a subtle way that, for the reader, turning the page has the same effect of a movie-viewer calling out to the screen, DON'T GO IN THERE! The reader loses their barings long enough to feel as if they themselves are following a first-hand account of a family trying to heal, only to find the horror of every day life waiting behind every corner...