Vanishing [Hardcover]

Bruce Brooks (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

Alice just can't stop crying.To her, it seems as if it should be simple. If your parents split up, you live with the one who understands you best. Alice's father had always been the one to "get" her. But somehow she had ended up living with her mom, who drank too much, and her stepfather, who didn't like her and didn't care who knew it. So when a bout with bronchitis lands her in the hospital, she decided she just can't face going home again--ever.

What if she simply stops eating--goes on a hunger strike? They would have to keep her there, wouldn't they? It seems like the simplest solution, even when the hallucinations start, even when they kind of take over. But suppose she goes into a coma--or dies? If that happens, she'll have her new friend Rex, the mysterious boy who says he's dying, but whose jaunty ways have brought Alice to life.

Once again, Bruce Brooks tells an intriguing story that puts new twists on the oldest, biggest issues--love, death, and taking charge of your own life as you move toward adulthood.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Roommates in a hospital ward, both Rex and Alice are 11 years old and both are "vanishing"--he into a terminal illness (although he calls himself the Prince of Remissions) and she into hallucinations from not eating. Alice has imposed a hunger strike upon herself in hopes that she won't have to return to her cold mother and domineering stepfather. The irony of her choice--death over a difficult life--is bitterly amusing to Rex in contrast to his own situation. The story is saved from pathos by the exchanges of gallows humor among the two kids and a wiseacre nurse, as they spar to see who can put up the coolest front. Rex, for example, refers to an unidentified burn victim in the next bed as Bobbie Q, a quip of black humor that shocks even Alice. But when Rex is taken to the intensive care unit for his last hours, he finally drops his pose of sophisticated detachment to convince Alice that "dying sucks"--an admission that helps her make the choice that Rex has been denied.

This genuinely funny--but also quite serious--novel will appeal to younger teens for its short length and quick pace, and older teens for its sophisticated dialogue. Bruce Brooks brings a brilliant surprise to each of his novels: The Moves Make the Man, with its rich basketball imagery; Midnight Hour Encores, with its vivid invocation of the '60s and the mind of a self-centered cello prodigy; and Asylum for Nightface, a strange book about the search for God. (Ages 11 and older) --Patty Campbell

From Publishers Weekly

Beginning with an out-of-body experience for the protagonist, the frequently dreamlike atmosphere of this novel distances the audience from the weighty events occurring here. Alice is an 11-year-old girl whose hunger strike takes her precariously towards death. Through a series of flashbacks, readers learn that Alice is hospitalized for bronchitis because of her father's and grandmother's neglect, and she intentionally stops eating in order to avoid being released to her alcoholic mother and her hateful stepfather. Alice enjoys the heady sensation of defying gravity with her lightness ("She felt herself going a little higher, feeling a little lighter, a little more joyous"). Meanwhile, her roommate, Rex, a cancer patient, concentrates his energies on remaining earthbound. Brooks (What Hearts) draws a compelling parallel between the two children as they struggle to control their fates. Yet Alice and Rex speak to each other in clinical, self-consciously pedantic terms ("You're the legendary Prince of Remission... Whereas I am merely a girl on a hunger strike... still subject to trifling fears at the idea of disappearing into a total lack of consciousness for an indefinite period, possibly forever," says Alice). These exchanges belie the affection Alice must harbor for Rex in order to justify her actions in the closing chapters. The sense of detachment Alice feels during her "lightness" episodes pervades the novel and even extends to her relationship with Rex. At the penultimate moment, when Alice finally "comes down" to be at Rex's side at the critical juncture in his illness, readers will likely wonder why. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; 1st edition (June 4, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060282363
• ISBN-13: 978-0060282363
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,970,601 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant characters, November 1, 2001

By 

Meaghan Good "meggilyweggily" (Venedocia, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vanishing (Laura Geringer Books) (Paperback)

If there's one thing I hate in a novel, it's poor characterization. (Actually there are other things I hate in books, but bad characterization tops the list.) If there's one thing I love, it's good characterization. And "Vanishing" has very well-drawn characters. Rex was my favorite, probably everyone's favorite. If I ever get a terminal illness I hope I can be as upbeat as him. The premise was interesting too, and I liked the descriptions of Alice's hallucinations. The book was, however, shorter than I would have liked, and the ending -- (spoiler) -- is kind of fairy tale-ish. But still, a great book, suitable I think for 12 and up.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life isn't automatic; sometimes we have to choose to live, August 28, 2001

By 

Patrick Gillam (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vanishing (Newbery Honor Roll) (Library Binding)

"Vanishing" isn't written to imitate the speech patterns of 11-year-olds any more than "The West Wing" purports to give an accurate portrayal of dialogue in the White House. Instead, "Vanishing" presents the dialogue you wish you could have spoken when you were an adolescent faced with impotent parents who want to bequeath their legacy of hopelessness to you. What I found most fascinating in "Vanishing," however, was not the plot or the characters but the experiences of consciousness Alice has as the tether to her body gets slimmer and slimmer. The experiences take many shapes: synesthesia, in which Alice sees shapes and colors spill from the mouths of people as they speak; out-of-body awareness; and the ultimate Vedic mind-blower, the reduction of consciousness to a point before expanding to infinity. For the emerging soul, these depictions may be the most enduring contribution of this book. "Vanishing" is surely a book for adults. So the question becomes, is this a book for kids? I'm pretty sure my 10-year-old wouldn't read it. But when he turns 14 or 15 and his nervous system has become capable of abstract thought, it could be good. When he is physiologically capable of experiencing his essential being as pure consciousness separate from thoughts, feelings and the body, it may be important to read this book. When it's dawning on him that the simple act of living sometimes demands that we make a conscious decision to live, then yes, son, I have a book for you.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Vanishing Review, February 7, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Vanishing (Laura Geringer Books) (Paperback)

I think that Brooks could have made Alice and Rex a little more older than eleven years old. If you ask me eleven year olds don't talk like that and they would be a little more scared of dying. Brooks was making a good point though, "you shouldn't do things that could harm you just to get what you want." Alice wasn't only hurting herself but she was hurting her father, mother, and all of the people that cared about her.

Just because Alice didn't want to live with her drunken mother, abusive stepfather, and couldn't live with her father because he wanted to keep peace with his mother, she came close to killing herself. But Rex and her made a promise that she would start eating again if/when Rex died, and she did just that.