Getting at the Truth

How’s it going, everyone?

Today is Thursday, but let the record show that I did write this Book Blurt on Wednesday. The internet was down at my house, which left me know way to get it up. I hope that the saying, “better late than never,” holds true for Book Blurts. lol

This week, I read a book by Chris Crutcher, called Angry Management. I had the pleasure of hearing Chris speak at a conference I went to last year. He talked quite a bit about his book called Deadline, and it’s been on my reading list for a while. It was going to be the next book I read when Angry Management came across my desk. I figured the time had come to read a Chris Crutcher novel.

Now I say the time has come as if reading the book was an ominous thing. In some ways it is. Chris’s novels have been banned, censored, and protested all over the place. Most of the time, I’m not a big fan of novels that have a lot of objectionable content in them. The only exception is if the content is in no way gratuitous and is realistic for the story. Chris’s novels definitely fit in that category.

When Chris spoke at the conference, he talked about intellectual freedom. His main point was that intellectual freedom is about hearing a story from a point of view, even if it is objectionable and controversial. He says his job as an author is to tell the truth in a story, and sometimes that means getting into some dicey subjects and situations. I really appreciated his take on the subject, and did enjoy Angry Management.

The book deals with three stories from some pretty messed up high schoolers. All the stories deal with anger in some way or another (as the title implies), and get tied together by each of the main students being in an Angry Management class together. There are three stories told in these pages. The first deals with parents, obesity, and child abuse. The second deals with the first amendment, journalism, adopted kids, and control. The third deals with racism, homosexuality, and forgiveness.

Each story is written from a different perspective, but all get at the truth behind these stories and keep you interested and questioning what you believe and think on the topics. As mentioned earlier, Chris’s novels do have objectionable content such as language, sexuality, and mature themes, but they are necessary to the story. Including this content lets Chris deal with some tough topics while getting to the truth of the matter and pulling no punches.