From Publishers Weekly
Opening with a scene of the narrator, Susanna Dantine, being born (she narrates from the womb), Moeyaert's (Bare Hands) novel reads like a convoluted fairy tale, complete with a character named Wolf and a dark wood. Fourteen-year-old Susanna's own flashbacks of early childhood are spliced into her present-day account of the gloomy events in her tiny European village. Nearly all the townspeople have signed a petition to get rid of the dog kennel run by Helen's husband. Helen, an old family friend, was the midwife at Susanna's birth. So when Susanna's mother succumbs to the neighbors' pressure, the teenager is outraged. In a surreal plot point, a dashing puppeteer named Wolf suddenly appears in the village. Around him, Susanna feels attractive and adventurous. At the height of the summer festival, Wolf tells her she must either "poke a hole in the [hornet's] nest" and bring the town's tensions into the open or run away. Readers may find the introduction of the book's key elements disarming, like the appearance of the puppeteer, flashbacks that reveal Helen's husband's abusive ways or the description of Susanna's father's sudden death (he was accidentally shot by a wealthy hunter while walking in the woods). Because the dreamlike quality of the tale so outweighs the actual events, readers may be hard pressed to understand the intensity of the tensions that run through Susanna's village and the outcome of her actions, which takes place offstage. Ages 12-up. (Aug).
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 8-10-Moeyaert is a prize-winning author in the Netherlands, and is considered an important innovator in Flemish literature for young adults. In this oblique yet intense novel of belonging and reconciliation, 14-year-old Susanna's village is rife with discord stemming from an old family friend's barking dogs. When Susanna's mother joins the other villagers in signing a petition to banish the animals, the teen is angry at her mother's betrayal. She is also still dealing with her father's accidental death years before. A visiting puppeteer, to whom Susanna is attracted, inspires her to stir up trouble in the village's hornet's nest of grudges. With adolescent rebellion, Susanna frees the penned dogs, causing a tragic confrontation. The writing in this first-person narrative is awkward, perhaps due to the translation. Events and characters are difficult to follow, as past and present blend with an edginess that is sometimes jarring. The ending seems inconclusive. The brevity of the story and the flatness of the characters give the novel a fablelike feel, yet its lack of clarity causes the book to miss that mark. This unusual novel will appeal to a limited audience.
Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
