I am a bit conflicted on Randy Powell's YA novel Swiss Mist. There are parts of it that I thought were spot on but others that did not read as true but rather convenient. But I have to wonder if what I perceive as weaknesses based on my reading experience would register the same to teen readers. In other words, just because I have seen something one too many times, would they see it as well?
The book follows Milo who initially is in the fifth grade and deeply impressed by his teacher's stories of how she lived in Switzerland for a period during college. As his parents break up and his hippie father leaves (always staying in loving contact but not offering concrete support), those stories gain greater significance to Milo who clings to them as an ideal of what could life be. Over the next five years he loses his childhood home, moves to a crappy apartment in a nearby town with his mother who works like a dog to put herself through dental tech school leaving Milo to fend for himself. He stays out of trouble but certainly becomes bored, dull and on the road to trouble. Throughout this period he sees his father and the women he lives with and the various things his father does while on a self-directed path to enlightenment and happiness (you remember that whole hippie thing I mentioned?). Dad is okay but he's not really much. Mom is a decent person but so determined to get the perfect life in order for her son that she misses the point that he is growing up and floundering while she spends her time on the happy family plan. Then bing, bang, boom, Mom meets a high school boyfriend, falls in love, gets married to new decent guy who is - you guessed it! - fabulously rich and so she quits work to become super mom to high school aged Milo and the step daughters.
Yeah, all those years working her ass off and then the minute she gets married she quits. That just drove me crazy.
The old teacher returns to his life and Milo reveals how much her stories meant to him - only to be disappointed in a major way and then the book goes in another direction where it becomes about creating your own stories, your own myths and finding your own truth. Essentially you aren't supposed to believe anyone, even yourself. You just have to go live life and see what you find. (This is exemplified by the father who is off on another grand adventure in the final pages.)
What I liked was Milo's frustration by his mother's behavior. After struggling in the apartment for a while he asks her if he can get a motorbike but she says no - that it's not a good choice. He wonders why he has spent so much time being a good son (and he has been) after she and his father made so many bad choices and yet his good behavior is not being rewarded. Then later when she falls in love he remembers how she asked him to help her so often, doing chores around the house, staying close to home so she didn't worry and then his reward - again - is that she moves on without him. She gets a new life and tells him he has to fit into it because it is good for her and as the parent that is supposed to mean it is good for him as well.
I can't begin to tell you how much that resonated with me.
So does the good make up for the bad? Ah...I don't know. For every moment when I nodded my head, a few pages later I wanted to throw the book across the room. And it was so convenient that the mother would find a rich guy and just quit, thereby disappointing Milo even more. In fact it was hard to find anyone in this book who didn't prove to be a huge disappointment for Milo. Even his old friend/sort of girlfriend is odd (to say the least) and doesn't seem to grasp the things that matter to Milo. In fact, he is written as more thoughtful than everyone else which might work for teens who identify with him (and think they are the only ones who know what's going on in their own lives) but was hard for me to take.
In the end I think Swiss Mist suffers from being a shallow book that teased with real depth but couldn't commit. It might still work well with the 12 and up crowd though - especially the ones who are genuinely pissed off at their parents. Thinking of my own fourteen year old self, I don't know if it would have worked for me or not. Thus I am still conflicted on this one.
[Hey FTC - this copy was provided by the publisher!]
March 5
2010
04:34 AM
It's hard to say for certain without having read it, but from your description I don't see any growth or conflict on Milo's part. I'm not getting that there was a problem or situation that he was able to work out or solve on his own. It sounds almost like an adult novel observed/narrated by a younger character.