The School of Beauty and Charm: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Not what I was expecting
Review: Based on an interview I heard with the author on NPR, I expected the book to be a quirky comic romp about a Southern family. While the book seems to start out that way, it completely turns on you and becomes much more. More than any other author I've read recently, Melanie Sumner completely understands the mother-child relationship in America. In the relationship between Louise and her mother, I see almost every mother I have ever met. The extremeness of Louise Peppers' rebellion may seem like it comes out of left field as one reviewer noted. On closer inspection, however, it's a rebellion like many teenagers have experienced. Louise doesn't know why she does what she does - she just does it because she's a teenager and hasn't figured anything out yet. I would recommend this to any parent having a hard time coping with an unruly teenager and any teenager who feels chafed by their parents but doesn't quite know why.

Rating:
Summary: Not charming enough
Review: Initially, I found this book quite charming indeed. The tale of the Peppers family was quirky (but realistic) and amusing. Once the book starts zeroing in on Louise and her downward spiral of self-destruction, it gets a little boring--another adolescent angst novel involving substance abuse. The thing is, it's never clear WHY Louise should have so much self-loathing. She comes from a loving family (with a neurotic mother, but who doesn't have one of those?) When her brother dies, her emotional problems increase, but there's not enought to convince me that she should remain so distraught for the rest of the story.

This book really jumps around, too, so there isn't a lot of character building. Louise's family is portrayed on a pretty superficial level--I guess they're all supposed to look ridiculous to make us better understand why Louise runs from them. Anway, I did truly enjoy about the first half; the second half loses momentum and the part where Louise wants to be a clown and runs off to join the circus is completely outlandish. But overall, I think it's worth sticking with this book because its good moments are certainly worthwhile.

Rating:
Summary: Think about it for a second...
Review: Repressed and bewildered parents, intemperate and rebellious children, exaggerated and hypocritical religiosity would seem to be fertile grounds for a satiric novel. "The School of Beauty and Charm" attempts to lampoon Southern middle-class lifestyle while investing its protagonist with an edgy restlessness. Sadly, Melanie Smith's debut novel has all the flavor of recycled cardboard and the creative crackle of soggy cereal. Cursed with a predictable plot, caricatured characters and cliched conflicts, "The School" limps along, begging readers to either put the novel, or themselves, out of misery.

Sumner presumably has much to criticize about the inch-deep devotion of Southern Baptists. Their hypocrisy, obsession with surface adherence to religious dogma and patent stupidity all receive ham-handed treatment through the character of Florida Peppers, the wife of the dreadfully dull middle-manager Henry and self-pitying mother of asthmatic Roderick and discontented Louise. In choppily sequential chapters, Florida struggles to give coherence to a family whose centrifugal forces far overwhelm her frustrated attempts to slather a Christian glue on her charges. She fails, of course, but her attempts, rather than appearing comically doomed, demonstrate the author's unwillingness to provide anything else than slapstick. There simply is not one instance where Florida appears human, merely confused and confounded by a world outstripping and overwhelming her Baptist unbringing and her devotion to the words of Jesus Christ.

Even more dreary is Sumner's depiction of the two men in the Peppers family. Henry is deferential and silent at home, hidden behind the pages of his Wall Street Journal in the morning and content with his nearly pathological adherence to routine. Roderick, sickly, insightful and withdrawn, never becomes anything other than a negative image from which his sister, Louise, develops.

In turn, Louise is unequivocally unbelievable. On one hand, she is fat, and in desperation, her mother sends her to a Jewish psychologist who embodies every pernicious stereotype either a mental health worker or Jew could embody. It comes as just a bit less than a surprise to discover that in the subsequent chapter Louise is a svelte sex kitten, just awaiting her immersion into the wonderful world of sex, which, of course, will happen after she bolts a charm-school girls' college for a flea-bag travelling circus. By this time, only the most devoted reader will have any concern at all as to what will happen to the eternally sour Louise.

Preposterous, unbelievable and unimaginative, "The School of Beauty and Charm" may sell itself as a spritely addition to a growing body of literature by Southern women writers who satirically analzye their region. Don't be deceived by the spin; this novel has all the beauty of pancake make-up and the charm of snakeoil salesmen.

Rating:
Summary: lackluster "The School of Beauty and Charm" has neither
Review: Repressed and bewildered parents, intemperate and rebellious children, exaggerated and hypocritical religiosity would seem to be fertile grounds for a satiric novel. "The School of Beauty and Charm" attempts to lampoon Southern middle-class lifestyle while investing its protagonist with an edgy restlessness. Sadly, Melanie Smith's debut novel has all the flavor of recycled cardboard and the creative crackle of soggy cereal. Cursed with a predictable plot, caricatured characters and cliched conflicts, "The School" limps along, begging readers to either put the novel, or themselves, out of misery.

Sumner presumably has much to criticize about the inch-deep devotion of Southern Baptists. Their hypocrisy, obsession with surface adherence to religious dogma and patent stupidity all receive ham-handed treatment through the character of Florida Peppers, the wife of the dreadfully dull middle-manager Henry and self-pitying mother of asthmatic Roderick and discontented Louise. In choppily sequential chapters, Florida struggles to give coherence to a family whose centrifugal forces far overwhelm her frustrated attempts to slather a Christian glue on her charges. She fails, of course, but her attempts, rather than appearing comically doomed, demonstrate the author's unwillingness to provide anything else than slapstick. There simply is not one instance where Florida appears human, merely confused and confounded by a world outstripping and overwhelming her Baptist unbringing and her devotion to the words of Jesus Christ.

Even more dreary is Sumner's depiction of the two men in the Peppers family. Henry is deferential and silent at home, hidden behind the pages of his Wall Street Journal in the morning and content with his nearly pathological adherence to routine. Roderick, sickly, insightful and withdrawn, never becomes anything other than a negative image from which his sister, Louise, develops.

In turn, Louise is unequivocally unbelievable. On one hand, she is fat, and in desperation, her mother sends her to a Jewish psychologist who embodies every pernicious stereotype either a mental health worker or Jew could embody. It comes as just a bit less than a surprise to discover that in the subsequent chapter Louise is a svelte sex kitten, just awaiting her immersion into the wonderful world of sex, which, of course, will happen after she bolts a charm-school girls' college for a flea-bag travelling circus. By this time, only the most devoted reader will have any concern at all as to what will happen to the eternally sour Louise.

Preposterous, unbelievable and unimaginative, "The School of Beauty and Charm" may sell itself as a spritely addition to a growing body of literature by Southern women writers who satirically analzye their region. Don't be deceived by the spin; this novel has all the beauty of pancake make-up and the charm of snakeoil salesmen.

Rating:
Summary: Think about it for a second...
Review: This book was not engrossing at all. It was descriptive in the uninteresting parts and too quick in gliding over the parts that needed more explanation.
But the worst part of it all is explaining to another person what the book is about. So, half the book is about a girl, her odd family, and the way she encounters religion. Suddenly, her brother dies. She ends up working in the cardboard factory with her father and starts dating a 30-something year old. The parents find out and she's shipped off to college where she stays for about two pages before running away to the circus. She wants to become a clown and is sleeping with the fire-breather. They decide to get married, but the fire-breather doesn't appear. Turns out he's been sleeping with the gay clown behind her back.
At this point, I had to close the book. No more pain and agony from this book for me.

Rating:
Summary: Roaming about...
Review: This excellent story of the roamings and "maturation" of an independent young Southern hellcat has kept me howling for two days now. From flower-eating cats to poodle-eating owls to sneakily thrown devil's paws, to unprotected sex with carnies, the parade of oddities and absurdities called forth by this author will give even the most jaded sense of humor a good workout.
Underneath all this is a sweet story about a rural (kind of) Southern family with the eccentricities of all Southern families, and their attempts to keep sane in the face of adversity. Definitely worth your while.

Rating:
Summary: A promising start...but ultimately disappointing
Review: This novel begins as a charming tale of a neurotic Southern family as seen by the young protagonist, a quirky young woman ill at ease in her surroundings. Then, midstream, the narrative abruptly changes and begins detailing the protagonist's self-destructive behavior, ultimately culminating in a poorly conceived trip to join the circus. The writing throughout is strong, but I wish the author had stuck with the original plotline, without devolving into a _White Oleander_-esque parade of horribles.