New year, new books to read! :D Here’s a review I did for my Young Adult Literature class on a book of short stories, 'Tunneling to the Center of the Earth'. Since there are so many stories, I’ve decided to just discuss on here the stories I found most compelling. I will issue the disclaimer that this book isn’t for the faint of heart. All sorts of real-life issues are brought up and (as in real-life) not usually resolved. On the whole, the book has a very “Southern gothic” flair a la Flannery O’Conner. Hope you enjoy, and I know you’ll be interested. :)
1. Title: Tunneling to the Center of the Earth by Kevin Wilson, ISBN: 9780061579028, New York, New York, 2009, $13.99, 208 pp.
2. Genre: Short Story/Fiction Grades 10-12.
3. Characters: The characters in each of these short stories are such that they stick in the reader’s memory, unlikely to be forgotten anytime soon. They are all unique and disturbingly true-to-life characters. Since they are impossible to describe separate from each story’s plot, I will discuss them in tandem.
4. Plot: First, we meet an older woman who is hired by families seeking a grandmother figure for their children. In many cases, the real grandmother is dead, dying, sickly, or just not a nice person. Our protagonist pretends to be the biological grandmother of the children, and puts on the act very well, complete with stories to tell the kids, photos of them on display in her house, and favorite foods to cook for them. After some fond memories are made her job is done, and she is “killed off”, in an effort to teach the children about death. At first she finds it easy to “disconnect” from each of her “grandchildren”, but when a unique family situation presents itself, she soon decides to quit the business. Next, we meet a young man who works at a Scrabble factory, sorting letters all day long in search of the elusive letter “Q”. He lives with his suicidal brother, he is in love with his neighbor’s daughter, Joan, and he is obsessed with the prospect of dying as his parents did, by spontaneous combustion. He quits his job in the end as well, determined to make a change in his life. In “birds in the house”, we meet a young boy who’s helping to carry out his dead grandmother’s last wishes. His father and three uncles are folding paper birds (a family tradition) as part of a contest to win the family mansion, and the boy watches as they all continue to fight with each other as they’ve always done. We never learn the winner of the contest, but the boy hopes that his grandmother is happy and at peace; we feel that this boy will break the pattern of his previous generations. Next, we meet three recent college graduates who are trying to delay entering the real world. They dig intricate tunnels underground and live there for months before finally surfacing and getting jobs. They always think fondly of their summer of digging, though, and feeling the soil makes them happy. In “the shooting man”, we meet a man who works at a noise factory and goes to see a magic show in which one man shoots himself in the forehead and supposedly lives. He is forced to sign up for the act himself, but wonders if he’ll make it out alive. Next, we meet a married man and woman who’ve just had a baby, born with a full set of teeth. The man is having an affair with another woman and finally leaves his family to travel to Europe with the mistress. Interestingly, this story is written in second-person, and it’s unclear if the “you” is meant to be a man or a woman. Next, we meet a sixteen year old cheerleader who feels very uncomfortable in her own skin. She starts a relationship with a boy four years younger then her who has obsessions with flying, fire, and this girl. After an accidental fire in which they both get burned, Penny discovers more about herself and learns to accept her uniqueness. In “the museum of whatnot”, we meet a woman who lives alone as curator of a museum filled with other people’s curious collections of junk. She doesn’t seem to want anything or anyone in her life, but by the end she has met a man who helps her realize that it’s okay to hang onto some things. Finally, we meet an insecure and slightly paranoid man who helps people determine the worst-case scenarios for their particular businesses or family lives. He is always the bearer of bad news with his job, but by the end he is willing to accept that other equally good outcomes are just as possible as the horrible ones. In sum, each story is tremendously unique and leaves the reader wanting more from this author.
5. Touchy Areas: There are so many different touchy areas in these stories that I wonder if I could get away with teaching this in a public school without lots of parents becoming very angry with me. Everything from suicide to drug use to homosexual scenes to extremely depressing family situations are all included. To avoid getting fired and/or scarring kids for life, I would only select a few of the more tame stories, such as “grand stand-in” (the story of the fake grandmother), to use in a classroom.
8. Evaluation: I greatly enjoyed this collection of short stories, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in some disturbing stories with a “Southern gothic” flair. The characters and their transformations are haunting, and leave you creeped out but wanting more. I see this as appropriate for people of all ages and backgrounds, and in a high school setting I believe that juniors and seniors would enjoy it the most.
As I said, in order to teach this book I would only select a few of the short stories, such as “grand stand-in” and “birds in the house”, to use in the classroom. I would teach them alongside other absurdist literature such as Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find (1955). I might also incorporate poems that go along with central themes in the stories, such as A Dream Deferred (1951) by Langston Hughes. Other works, such as absurdist artwork like The Fountain (1917) by Marcel Duchamp, would be perfectly applicable as well.
I would rate this book a 10 out of 10, and will be one of the first people to buy Kevin Wilson’s novel next summer.
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