Customer Reviews

A Terrible Beauty

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

 

 

I had to think about this review for a few days. The author's anger really poured through the pages, and his outrage is, I am sure, borne of experience, but ultimately the novel had shallow characters, awkward writing, and some fairly unbelievable situations, like a thirty-year-old assistant superintendent with (apparantly, given the timeline of her backstory) no prior administrative experience or certification.

There was a lot of educational jargon, some of which seemed poorly understood by the author, despite the fact that he was making fun of it. The central message of the novel was that the school system is broken (which is a given at this point), but also that in the "old days" teachers had the freedom to actually teach, and that parents and administrators do little more than get in the way of education today. Dai's interaction with parents was pretty obvious wish fulfillment in a number of cases, as parents who were represented by a variety of charicatures were called out for their failure to actually parent.

I think all teachers feel that way at times, and it made sense with the characterization and plot. What made less sense was the one-dimensional representation of the students as either gifted children being held hostage by a broken system or thugs and slackers who were not worthy of a teacher's time. Much of the description was both shallow and cruel. I am reminded of Jonathan Swift's quote about genius and the confederacy of dunces, but depite the melodramatic and unbelievable act of heroism towards the end of the novel, the supposed hero among teachers acted more like a sullen child himself for much of the novel--his committments as a teacher should be no more a waste of his time than his class was a waste of his students' time.

As a veteran teacher, I share many of the author's frustrations with enabling parents, clueless administrators, and school board members more interested in politics than progress. I really wanted to like this novel. Overall, though, I found it cynical, inconsistent, and generally weak.

In attempting sympathetically to portray teacher Dai O'Connel's struggle to maintain academic standards in defiance of a misguided educational bureaucracy, this book itself fails to meet a number of minimum standards. It is poorly designed: some pages are right-justified, some are ragged right; a number of paragraphs are not indented; sometimes there's a space after a comma, sometimes there isn't; some quotation marks are missing. Characters' names are not consistently spelled: Patti becomes Patty, which reverts to Patti. One character is consistently Genaro throughout most of the book, but is Jenaro toward the end, then Genaro again. There are word usage problems: "it's" is used as "its"; "your" is used as "you're." The prose is frequently overwrought and occasionally confused; sometimes it's not possible to determine who is uttering a given part of the dialogue. There are impossible happenings: in a torrential downpour, O'Connel rescues a woman from a flooded bridge, carries her back to his truck parked at the side of the road, then backs onto "dry pavement." O'Connel teaches his students that nitrogen is a noble gas; nevertheless, "Some plants can take it out of the air, and make their own fertilizer."

I am most offended, however, by O'Connel's ignorance about and contempt for some students and their parents. Parents who question his methods aren't simply in disagreement; they have "pig eyes," wear "purple sweats three sizes too small," and "exud[e] a pinched confidence." He calls the students he doesn't like "jerks" and "horse's asses." One unruly student is characterized as having "O.D.D.-- Opposition Defined Disability." Presumably this is a reference to oppositional defiant disorder, a disorder that can develop into a serious disability but can be successfully treated with therapy and medication (see "When You Worry About the Child You Love," by Edward Hallowell, M.D.). O'Connel dismisses his ODD-afflicted student as a "loser," in one classroom scene slams him up against the wall, and in more than one instance declares that some students simply can't learn.

A child I'm quite close to has Tourette syndrome and a number of associated problems, including ODD. His parents have been extraordinarily devoted to him and extremely patient with him. He has occasionally been out of control at school, but his school has not given up on him. He has been successfully treated with both therapy and medication, and he is learning a great deal in a classroom with a talented teacher. I wouldn't want him ever to be within earshot of or influenced by any teacher like Dai O'Connel.

I read it and I just could sense the anger in this authors feelings written on the pages of this book. I think I wasted my time reading it and the money paying for it. This was not a free book when I purchased it.
Just read the other reviews as posted and draw your own conclusion if you think this would be a good read for you. It was quite amusing all the typographical errors in this book about education. After you read over the other reviews left about the book I think you will understand what the meaning of this book is truly about. Sorry it took me a bit to post the review but my time is worth something also.

Here we have a book that gets to the root of our problems in education. The school, and ultimately teachers, are held responsible for EVERYTHING. It was reassuring to find that someone out there had the nerve to point out the games played by systems to appease parents who believe that their children are not responsible for their own success or failure, no matter what they do or don't do. It points out the pressure on teachers to pass everyone, no matter how little students might invest, in an atmosphere where they get little respect or credit.
In spite of the typos and rough format, this is a powerful book, one which should be read by all practitioners of education, including school board members. Anyone who can't see the message in this book for the format or takes issue with all the actions of O'Connell, is part of the problem we face in our struggle to return some semblance of sanity and value to education.
Unless we are willing to acknowledge our shortcomings and face the fact that all the new fads in education are simply treating symptoms, we'll continue to get what we're getting. I applaud St. John for shrieking at the top of his lungs that the Emperor, indeed, is buck naked.

Every teacher should read this. Everybody in teacher school should read this. It's what it's really like to teach today. A great 99 cent read. I got mine at Apple or Sony.

The purpose of this book seemed to be to advance the author's negative opinions about our current education system and not to tell an engaging story. I finished the book, but I admit that I ended up skimming over many scenes where characters were going on ad nauseam about how bad things were.

The main character - burnt-out and surly teacher Dai O'Connel - was unlikable. The story begins after he has lost his wife and young child in a horrible car accident. As the product description says, "Dai O'Connel is no longer willing to lie" while doing his job. Unfortunately, this means he is nice to the kids he likes and bordering on abusive to kids and parents he doesn't like. He insults parents of kids who aren't "trying" and physically assaults one boy who is being a jerk but is not physically threatening.

Sorry but "deciding not to lie" does not necessarily mean "being a ass". Many people have stressful jobs and demanding clients/customers/etc.. They do not have the luxury of repeatedly insulting those clients/customers/etc. without consequences, including losing their job. In this story, however, O'Connel losing his job is presented as the result of a witch-hunt by stupid and lazy parents and board members. In reality, the guy deserved to lose his job if he was so burned out or pissed off that he could not control his feelings and his mouth.

(And just to clear something up - I do not have school age children and I am not a dissatisfied parent venting here.)

I did mostly like the main female lead, Solange Gonsalvas. I can't speak to the realism of her being so high up in the administration of a large school district at such a young age (as other reviewers have mentioned).

The writing itself was often confusing, particularly the dialogue. Sometimes more than one person speaks in a single big paragraph, and sometimes dialogue runs into another paragraph with it being clear who is speaking.

There is also a long scene near the beginning where O'Connel discusses abuses of the Bill of Rights, which has nothing to do with the overall story and seems like the just an excuse for the author to insert a political lecture to the reader.

All-in-all, not a "story" that I would recommend to anyone. Grade: D.

This is an excellent book for any seasoned teacher. The characters are fictious, but the endearding themes underling education in today's schools are both real and alarming. I couldn't put the book down. As an educator of 37 years, I highly recommend.

I received this as a free book, but I would not encourage anyone to pay actual money for it. It only takes a few pages before one realizes that this author has a major bone to pick with American education system. The author's anger is thinly veiled and the plot contains many improbabilities: a protagonist, Solange, a young woman (30 something?) who out of her league and yet next in line for the Superintendent's job, the accident that leaves the male protagonist tortured and suicidal, the odd juxtaposition of Solange's impoverished past in Sao Paulo and her present in what appears to be the Pacific Northwest (maybe I missed the exact location of the school because I skimmed a lot just to get to the next interesting bit). Most glaringly annoying, however, is how author projects his own anger through the words and thoughts of everyone from the beaten-down Superintendant of schools to Dai O'Connel, male protagonist, and supposedly dashing antihero (an educator Hawkeye Pierce of sorts) who has a gift for teaching but who predictably bucks the system. Perhaps it was the sexual tension between Solange and Dai that kept me reading but the shifting points of view, typographical and formatting errors and numerous moments when I had to re-read in order to be sure who the speaker was, are a distraction and make the book seem sophomoric. It's a fair first effort at best but stealing W.B. Yeats's phrase for the title is unforgivable; indeed, I'm not sure the author understands the poem from whence "a terrible beauty" was borrowed. An original title might have served better.

Ok, so this book wasn't perfect. A superintendent so young with so little administrative experience is quite unbelievable, but it's fiction, so I can forgive that. I thought there was a great hook; it reeled me in and I read it in around a day. I got it free through Amazon on my Kindle too...great read!

I thank the author for pointing out the flaws and failures of today's educational systems. The formatting is somewhat rough around the edges, but people who rate it lower for that reason are missing the point. Dai O'Connel is a strong protagonist who does what he feels is right. Whether or not you agree with his actions, words, or point of view, he will give you a lot to think about.