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Sarah Byrnes and Eric have been friends for years. When they were children, his fat and her terrible scars made them both outcasts. Later, although swimming slimmed Eric, she stayed his closest friend.
Now Sarah Byrnes -- the smartest, toughest person Eric has ever known -- sits silent in a hospital. Eric must uncover the terrible secret she's hiding, before its dark currents pull them both under.
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It's a tough one to answer, because there are so many wonderful books out there. But when all's said and done, I think I have to go with "Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes," by Chris Crutcher.
Overweight Eric "Mobe" (as in "Moby") Calhoune and burn victim Sarah Byrnes united during junior high because of their shared "terminal uglies," fighting off bullies and insidious school faculty, to name a few.
Now in high school, Mobe's an athlete on the swim team, despite his efforts to remain plump and preserve his treasured friendship with Sarah Byrnes (sick of every idiot calling attention to her condition and her last name, she makes everybody call her by her full name).
When she winds up in the psych ward, the story launches into something both horrifying and heart wrenching: When Sarah Byrnes was three, her abusive father Vergil held her face to a hot stove.
Mobe's got to find a way to protect her from her father and bring her back into reality.
It's a truly gripping tale, one that will have readers on the edge of their seats. Vergil Byrnes is by no means an ordinary villain; he is a monster. But Crutcher doesn't simply stop with Sarah Byrnes' saga.
On the sidelines, but no less important, is the story of Mobe's rivalry with Mark Brittain, a fellow swimmer.
Mark is hardcore religious, while Mobe's more accepting and easygoing. It's fascinating to watch such different individuals with so different beliefs go head to head, whether in the pool or in their debate class, Contemporary American Thought.
It's heavy stuff, but Crutcher adeptly balances it by giving his characters the ever welcome gift of sarcasm. The humor is a welcome counterbalance to such controversial taboos as abortion, religion and censorship. Virtually every line is one that will make you howl with laughter, even as you are moved to tears by the characters' plights. This, my friends, is real life.
And what characters there are! Besides the aforementioned few, Eric's mother is a delight, the very picture of hip maternal instincts, and her geeky boyfriend Carver ultimately proves heroes can come in surprising packages. Ellen Lemry, Mobe's swim coach/CAT teacher/adviser is a force to be reckoned with.
But my hero is Steve Ellerby, an enigma in and of himself. Son of a preacher and a choir boy, he also possesses an obnoxious blue car and what some would consider a sacrilegious personality. He's acerbic, he's disrespectful, he's fun.
And he has the best scene in the book, but race through it and you'll miss it when Brittain kneels at the pool side to lead his teammates in prayer: "Ellerby drops to both knees, throwing his head back as he stretches his arms wide, and loudly begs Jesus to come swim the laps for him. When there's no answer, he opens one eye to a squint and asks if John the Baptist is home. `Damn,' he says in the face of no response."
In fact, "Staying Fat" is frustrating because no amount of description will be adequate in capturing its splendor in its entirety. This review is only the tip of the iceberg. There's still so much to discover: Read it and find out for yourself.
A strong plotline and strong sense of humor make this book good, but Crutcher's strong characters are what make it great and worth reading. Eric, Sarah, Ellerby, Ms. Lemry, Mark, Mr. Ellerby, Mr. Mautz, Jody, and Dale are all complex and have a story or motive or simply an aura that makes the reader want to know more and more. A really, really strong recommendation for this one, folks.
Oh, yes: Ellerby's celebrated Christian Cruiser, a pale blue with airbrushed clouds station wagon that blasts Mahalia Jackson at full volume and states, "The wages of sin are a buck fifty", deserves an extra commendation. Such creativity.
