Review #15: Dead End in Norvelt

Review:  Dead End in Norvelt

Bibliography

Gantos, Jack.  2011.  DEAD END IN NORVELT.  New York:  Farrar Strauss Giroux.  ISBN 9780374379933

Summary

Twelve-year-old Jack Gantos spends the summer of 1962 in Norvelt, Pennsylvania, a town with an unusual history full of eccentric characters.  Grounded by parents who catch their son in the crossfire of their domestic disagreements, he is assigned to help a neighbor who writes obituaries for local residents—who for some reason seem to be dying rather frequently….

Analysis

In somewhat postmodern fashion the author tells this story in the first person under his own name.  The story is semi-autobiographical, with much fiction and fantasy blended with actual reminiscences.  The whiny, self-centered narrative voice is believable in a character at this stage of life, but no less off-putting for that.

There is a great deal of humor, much of it of the gross-out variety.  In places it is rather morbid, especially when the narrator visits the local funeral parlor.  One gets the impression that the author is trying much too hard for a whacky, edgy feel.  There is something heartless in the way so much of the novel’s humor laughs at death.  In the early chapters of this overlong story the effect is mainly annoying.  By the latter part of the novel one gets the impression that the author is trying to work through some existential despair of the sort that has become the default mood of so much “serious” adult fiction.  Whether this is appropriate in a novel for younger readers is open to debate.

One could observe that there is probably nothing in the novel that most young readers will not already have been exposed to through movies and television, and that some of them will greatly enjoy the gross-out humor.  This reviewer nonetheless finds the novel a deeply unpleasant book and would not recommend it.

Review Excerpts

“Gore is a Gantos hallmark, but the squeamish are forewarned that Jackie spends much of the book with blood running down his face and has a run-in with home cauterization.”  Publishers Weekly

“Jack makes a tremendously entertaining tour guide and foil for the town’s eccentric citizens.”  Booklist

Connections

Norvelt was a real town founded as part of the New Deal under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.  First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was personally involved in the project.  Talk about the Great Depression and the federal government’s efforts to create new ways to help its victims, and how these form the basis of modern programs such as Social Security.  Include discussion of the role of Eleanor Roosevelt.