Teen Cynicism Has Its Limits
There is an arresting moment in The Interestings, the great recent novel by Meg Wolitzer, where a group of teenagers are sitting around at summer camp talking. They are all joking around when suddenly one of them mentions My Lai, the massacre that took place in the Vietnam war.
Wolitzer describes the scene: "They were all quiet for a moment; it was perplexing to know what to do when atrocity suddenly came up against irony. Mostly, apparently, you were supposed to pause at that juncture. You paused and you waited it out, and then you went on to something else, even though it was awful."
There is no such pause in Prep School Confidential, the new book by Kara Taylor. And that is the book's major flaw. To be fair, Prep School Confidential is not supposed to be a heavy read -- one reviewer accurately described it as "fizzy." Furthermore, author Kara Thomson, a new writer, has genuinely potential and shows the ability to turn a phrase nicely -- she describes the Headmaster's office as "Not at the end of the hall; it was the end of the hall." The murder mystery in Prep School Confidential is interesting and the resolution satisfying. Kara Taylor is good at making us keep the pages turning.
Still, Taylor has created a main character, a high school troublemaker named Anne Dowling who narrates the story, who is so saddled with glibness and OMG sarcasm that moments of great seriousness that would even give a valley girl pause don't seem to register with her. She is introduced as a bold anti-hero leader that draws people to her, but for the whole of the book we are left wondering why.
Prep School Confidential is narrated by Dowling, who is supposed to be a smart, charismatic, and brave girl from New York. Dowling is so fearless she will dangerously investigate an unsolved murder, yet her character does not suffer any moments of genuinely self-reflection or seriousness -- a necessity for the antihero, even if they are young (Harry Potter).
When Anne finds out her roommate at an elite private school has been murdered in the woods, her reaction is to say, "It makes me want to throw something." At the beginning of the book she almost burns a school down by accident, but as she watches the flames rise she can only say, "I am SO not talking my way out of this one." Would a teenager actually be thinking that while watching her school almost burn down from a fire she lit?
A young character needn't have all the angst of Holden Caulfield to show signs of terror and depression, which are often the downsides of being wise beyond your years. It lends gravitas, but also some teen slapstick -- recall the scene in Risky Business when the lead character Joel gets in trouble with a prostitute, and finds himself in a car chase with her pimp. From the backseat we hear Joel's best friend: "I've got a trig midterm tomorrow, and I'm being chased by Guido the killer pimp." A lot of Prep School Confidential, particularly the desultory party scenes, lack this kind of spark.
True iconoclasts, especially young ones willing to break into a Headmaster's office and steal files, tend not to be ditzy. Taylor nicely opens Prep School Confidential with Dowling describing the three things girl's at a Catholic prep school need to know: skirt length is adaptable depending on if a teacher is around, nasal spray works well on zits, and the door to the Headmaster's office can be picked with a credit card.
Yet this cocky tone is soon lost in a speedy current of lighthearted teen-speak, even in the most serious of all situations, homicide. Unlike the wonderfully drawn teen characters who fell silent at the mention of My Lai in The Interestings, Dowling never pauses to acknowledge, even if through the present-tense focused mind of teen, that there are grim metaphysical realities in life.
