Gritty and authentic, The Outsmarters by Deborah Ellis left me in tears … a curious emotional reaction for a book filled with rage. Ellis immerses readers into a hard-edged world of outcasts and promises no happy ending.
The title refers to the rejection that the 12-year-old protagonist, called Kate throughout the first half, experiences. She’s been ostracized by her addicted mother, her rule-based school and peer bullies. Gran, her substitute caregiver. has not resolved her own rage and is not a good role model. Kate avoids her whenever possible. With exquisite craft, Ellis lets the reader experience the determination, hope, disappointment and anger that powers the characters throughout a most engaging novel.
I've also been reading The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass and would have to say that Ellis, whether she knows it or not, has mastered the craft of employing emotion and inspiring readers with hope. He writes, "The spirit you bring is the spirit we'll feel as we read, and of all the feelings you can excite in your readers the most gripping and beautiful is the spirit of hope." (page 201).
In my quest for improving my own writing through emotion, I'm now reading, The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats: A Journey into the Feline Heart by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson. Curiousity leads me on.
No comments:
Post a Comment