4.5Very difficult read due to the stream of consciousness style, but very clever and interesting.From Publishers WeeklyIn her emotionally resonant and keenly observed first novel, McGowan employs a stream-of-consciousness prose style to describe the trials of a 13-year-old American girl when she is sent to an English boarding school following the death of her mother. From Maine, Catrine Evans travels to Monstead, the school north of London that her father, Teddy, born in Wales, attended during WWII. His memories of Monstead are halcyon, but the reality is different for Catrine, who is subjected to hazing by intensely class-conscious, cynical students who smoke, sniff glue and commit arson. Poised on the threshold between childhood and adolescence, Catrine's na‹vet‚ begins to harden into defensiveness when she realizes that even those who do begin to befriend her still consider her an outsider. Memories of her mother are painful, and she is also increasingly troubled by the knowledge that she and her friend Isabelle, back in Maine, may have caused a fatal accident. Unable to connect with her father, Catrine turns to her chemistry teacher, Mr. Gilbert, who seems to consider her special and encourages her interest in art. As this relationship progresses, Catrine faces the toughest lessons of all: she must learn to know her own mind and the limits and consequences of her emotional needs. McGowan works in an experimental mode. At once lush and harsh, and inventive in form, the novel reads like an extended sensory exercise. Readers who prefer a straightforward narrative may be bemused, but those willing to accept the challenge will be rewarded with a beautifully written coming-of-age tale. (June 19)Forecast: Blurbs from writers as varied as Rick Moody, Jonathan Lethem and Alice Hoffman should give some idea of McGowan's range. Though initially she may be consigned to the writer's-writer ghetto, some good reviews and handselling could get the novel out to a wider audience.From Library JournalMcGowan's first novel tells the story of 13-year-old Catrine Evans, who moves with her father from Maine to his native England where he places her in the boarding school that he attended. While adjusting to losing her mother, living in a foreign country, and attending a new school, Catrine is also attempting to come to terms with her participation in a reckless prank that may have cost someone's life. Filled with guilt and loneliness and yearning for love and attention, she becomes entranced with her chemistry teacher. McGowan, former writing coordinator at the Fine Arts Works Center, Provincetown, MA, combines a stream-of-consciousness, first-person narrative with dramatized representations of events, bits of third-person narrative, and sporadic journal entries. As a result, navigating one's way through the novel is not an easy task; the very nature of the narrative leaves the reader confused about motivations and intentions and about what Catrine is imagining vs. what is really happening. Still, McGowan's narrative techniques are unique and intriguing and call for repeated readings. Recommended for academic literature collections.
Revives a very Woolf-style stream-of-consciousness effect, but McGowan seems determined to make it even harder for the less-than-fully-focussed reader by allowing past as well as present events to crowd in on the narrative. That is not too surprising though when you consider that the protagonist is a 13-year-old girl, Catrine Evans, transplanted from America into an English public School, Monstead, while still grieving for the loss of her mother. Given her efforts to fit in, her guilt over a possible accidental death and the attentions of her Chemistry teacher, Gilbert, who is stirred by her in ways he does not even fully understand, then the chaos going on inside her head leads quite naturally to this extreme-of-consciousness.So it becomes a novel with a difficult style and problematic subject matter - teacher and underage pupil relationships always will be. I guess your reaction will be based on how much you sympathise with Catrine and empathise with Gilbert.
Do You like book Schooling (2001)?
This was a strange book and not the easiest to follow, but very rewarding, if you can handle the experimental style. McGowan seems to move effortlessly between different currents of thought, memory, and sensation, suggesting a multiplicity of perspectives while still remaining true to the subjectivity of the protagonist, Catrine Evans. I enjoyed the occasional obscurities of this novel, the references to art and literature, and the experiments with form; in fact, the long dramatic cycle at the end of part one was what really won me over. I did become lost in parts, which is why I am withholding the fifth star, but I would definitely give this a 4.5, if I could. Schooling is a novel of great heart and humour, and McGowan clearly an adept stylist. I look forward to seeing what else she has written.
—Laura
So Heather McGowan was my grad student professor at Brown in a creative writing class that I adored. I think she had a short story of the same character published in an anthology prior to the release of this novel. Prepare yourself. She is a tough writer, and this was a crazy read. The narrator is this young girl who you can't really trust - is it her imagination or reality? She's very stream of conscious, which I love, but again, you really have to get into the narrator's mind, go with the flow, and often backtrack a bit when you get lost. It's a tough read, but well worth the effort. I just saw that she has another book out, Duchess of Nothing, which the reviewers are stating is also a tough read. Man, I adored Heather McGowan in college. Possibly because she actually liked my short stories that had no point. sigh. Duchess of Nothing will go on my wish list of new reads.
—Deborah
I quite enjoyed bits of Schooling, but stylistically it annoyed the hell out of me. The narrative was all messed up and smothered by stream of consciousness, poorly punctuated, multi narrative mess, taking a lot of the feeling out of the story. Catrine gets sent to boarding school in England after maybe or maybe not killing a man. She gets in with the wrong crowd at school, has an affair with a teacher, and grows up a little bit. But it's disjointed and awkward and maybe that's supposed to just be teenage, but I found it incredibly irritating. Took me ages to read espite being relatively short, and that's just not a good sign. Ho hum.
—Becky
