Rating: 
Summary: falling off the pedestal
Review: When I first started teaching, I remember wondering to myself how in the world I was ever going to be a teacher . . . after all, teachers were perfect people! Growing up I always thought that my teachers walked on water. How could I aspire to be one of them? Of course it didn't take long to find out that teachers actually weren't perfect. That upset me at first. I guess that's what happens when someone falls off the pedestal.This is what happens to Henry in the novel Disobedience. At the age of 17- half boy, half man- Henry realizes that his mother is more than a mother- she is a woman and she is not perfect. This realization upsets, yet intrigues him. The remainder of the novel is a series of his reflections about human nature, families, and the complications of our lives. I thought Jane Hamilton did an excellent job of examining family dynamics in Disobedience. Her story brings to light what we all know but often fail to acknowledge- that you never really know what goes on in peoples' private lives (unless you know their email password). Seemingly happy marriages- and families- are often not what they appear to be. Often people are disobedient. This may be an "old story with nothing new in it," but it is intriguing nevertheless.
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