 | First, I want to name some general strengths and weaknesses of this novel. Overall, I found it a worthwhile read. The author does a solid job of giving his characters substance, depth, and believability. The reader will come to care about them like real people. The plot had enough interesting twists to keep the reader turning pages to learn what happens next. That said, though, the style and delivery of the storytelling could use some polish. The author switches points of view and points in time throughout the novel in jarring ways that interrupt rather than enhance the flow of the story. Moreover, the many spelling and grammar errors peppered throughout the book give it an overall unpolished, unprofessional look and feel.
As for its theme, this book seeks to advance the Christian messages of faith, redemption, forgiveness, and unconditional love through the modern vehicle of the teen angst novel. As a fully committed secularist, I have to take the author to task for his uncritical acceptance of these religious precepts. He employs Biblical passages all over the novel to move the plot and to reveal aspects of various characters. Nowhere does he introduce skeptics who openly challenge the merits of faith and scholasticism. This evasion reduces the plausibility of the plot. I could hardly believe that the main players never encountered such challenges, especially at schools for advanced learning. Given the intricacies of the story, the author could most certainly have made room for a few passages to give his faith more depth than the superficial credulity his novel depicts.
I also found Uncle Paul's letters irritating. He could have saved Caroline enormous grief by compiling his letters into a book and instructing her to read it cover to cover several times. Waiting until after the fact to read about an experience works the entire learning process backwards to the detriment of the child.
I could continue with a long elucidation of other disagreeable aspects but I will stop there. Other reviewers have already touched on these and I have new material to cover instead. Overall, I will give this novel an initial Amazon score of five stars, then subtract one star for its uncritical acceptance of religious faith, and then subtract another star for sloppy editing and a confusing delivery style for a final tally of three stars.
Now for some particulars I feel deserve special attention. I gained interest in reading it because I knew the author through our concurrent attendance at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM). This location plays a central role in driving the events of the story and the shaping of the characters' moral development for better or worse. Having attended that school myself 1982-1984, I can vouch for the naturalness of the zany challenges to authority shared in that part of the novel. The pranks, such as the DNA molecule model manipulation and the smokestack banner gag, had the same flavor as some of the stunts I saw pulled during my time at the school.
Moreover, the sorts of illicit adolescent sex that triggered the later tragic events of the novel definitely took place at NCSSM as well. That the central female protagonist, Caroline, experienced an unexpected pregnancy not once, but twice because her male did not wear a condom exposes this novel as less "A Matter of Faith" and more "A Matter of Unreason." In fact, I would subtitle this novel "Caroline's Compelling Case for Consistent Condom-Assisted Climax Containment" just to drive home the glaring mistake this young lady repeated at least twice with her lovers.
This brings me to a point I want to drive home to NCSSM applicants and their parents. PLEASE READ THIS NOVEL BEFORE CONSIDERING NCSSM! The fact that incoming students find their parents replaced with NCSSM bureaucrats should give everyone pause. Would Caroline have had the opportunity to sneak away for unprotected sex had she lived with her parents? The story suggests not. The conception of her daughter Faith plays a pivotal role in the story, even lending to the title of the novel. The reader should start to question the intelligence of sending immature minor teenagers away from caring parental homes to an intense academic environment under the care of bureaucrats.
Moreover, the reader should question the honesty of equating a heavy academic course load with actual productive achievement. Do a Google search for my article "Advice for Those Considering NCSSM" or locate my YouTube video "Dual Enrollment versus NCSSM" to get more information about the school and alternatives that may more aptly serve your goals. If I found myself in eighth grade today, I would certainly get my ducks in a row for Learn and Earn Early College High School or dual enrollment before I would consider NCSSM. Study the numbers in terms of actual college credits earned and resulting dollars saved and you will find yourself drawing the same conclusion.
Voltaire once said: "The perfect is the enemy of the good." Cynical though I may sound, my two years at NCSSM with its onerous work load taught me a hard-learned corollary: "The excellent is the enemy of the adequate." You can get all high and mighty and decide to pull stakes to "pursue excellence" at a distant boarding school. But first, ask yourself what academic "pursuits" will actually be adequate for your career and life goals. Next, show yourself all the other interests you can pursue freely with the time and energy saved by not "pursuing excellence" in that academic way. Only then can you make a well-reasoned choice about whether NCSSM best serves you.
Please do read this book before applying to NCSSM, consider your own values carefully, and decide whether NCSSM supports or erodes those values. |
A Matter of Faith by Brian Morin
