I first saw a strong review to read Skippy Dies in my Entertainment Weekly, but fate sealed the deal not two weeks later when I was browsing the shelves of my local independent bookstore (Northtown Books, Arcata, CA) and saw a copy on the New and Recommended shelf. Lucky for me, I had a credit for a free book too!
I am a sucker for boarding school plots. I was hoping Skippy Dies would be a bit like Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep, which I read years ago but remember liking. When I was in high school, I used to fantasize about being shipped off to boarding school where I envisioned I could get a REAL education. It was my dream. Like a utopian society where all you did was read books and write papers and maybe play a bit of field hockey or something. Once I even snagged a flyer in the guidance counselor’s office for some off-label boarding school in Oregon that I’ve still never heard of. I sent in for information and requested diagnostic testing. That worked well until the phone rang (my mother answered). It was the off-label boarding school calling to schedule my diagnostic testing. My mother was not very pleased with me.
Skippy Dies is an Irish novel…an Irish author, an Irish plot, and an Irish setting. But also very human and relateable. There’s the awkward gaggle of pubescent boys, all uncomfortable in their own skin in one way or another. There’s the plotting school principle…the various politics of the Catholic order that I still don’t understand…and the history teacher that is perhaps more awkward than the gaggle of pubescent boys.
Even though Skippy dies on page one, the first 350-400 pages are fairly lighthearted, as life traipses back in time to life before Skippy died. Even though the book was long and took me weeks and weeks to read, I stuck with it. I wanted to finish. I wouldn’t qualify it as a page turner, but I would say it was good literary writing. But somewhere toward the last third, things got very dark. While I appreciate the lighter ending, the darkness did make me think. So at least I got something out of it that way. I would also recommend Skippy Dies as a book that works for both genders of readers. You can read it with your Husband and swap notes. That can be fun.
Given the past two books I have read were unexpectedly dark, I’ve decided there should be a new system where dark books or books that become dark at the end have a black dot placed somewhere on the cover or spine. Whereas happy books should get a little yellow dot…or maybe some other cheerful color. And bad books should get a red dot, as in: don’t bother reading.
Now I am in the mood for a nice, happy page turner where everyone gets married and lives happily ever after.
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