Gentlehands Book

I first read this in 8th grade English class, probably around April or May of 1992. About 3 or 4 years ago I remembered it, and scoped it out online. Being poor it went on my "to get" list on Amazon, and stayed there until last week when I needed to get one more thing to qualify for super saver shipping for some other item, and Gentlehands finally made it to the shopping cart, and got checked out. When it got here, I opened it just to read the first page or so to see how I would like it, and I ended up setting The Mayor of Casterbridge aside to just read this. The prose is nice and light, even if the subject matter isn't, so it didn't take too long. It is, after all, geared toward teenagers.

I've seen this described as a teen romance, but I don't know if I'd call it that. There are certainly elements of romance in this, but it's so much more than that. There's a kid dealing with his shitheaded family. The issues of class differences, antisemitism, drug use, alcohol, forgiveness (or lack thereof), acceptance (or lack thereof), and many others are explored. I found myself getting really pissed off while reading, and rooting for things to go the main character's way, and being so emotionally vested in the work is a sign of a good story. I found myself torn between a desire to see justice for crimes committed and forgiveness for a character I really liked.

I don't want to have to post a spoiler alert for this because I think everyone should read it. It seems my memories were correct: I did really like it, and I still do. It's not great writing, though I probably say that because I've been immersed in the classics for the past few years and those are tough acts to follow as far as careful sentence crafting is concerned, but this is still a great story. Check it out.