October 12, 2004
Hawke's Harbor by S.E. Hinton
Beware: there are spoilers in this review.
I wasn't sure what to make of this book. I had just finished reading 4 of S.E. Hinton's previous books (The Outsiders, Rumblefish, Tex, That Was Then, This Is Now) and wasn't sure how her new book would compare to those. After all, this was her first novel for adults and her first novel in over 20 years (because I don't count the 2 childrens books but if I did, it'd be her first novel in almost 10 years).
The story centers on Jamie, a young man in a mental institution in the late 1970s. He has amnesia and can remember parts of his life before he came to the mental institution but nothing from the point when he came to the town of Hawke's Harbor.
S.E. Hinton's writing style is the same as her other books. Very easy to read but not so easy to understand. She manages to undercut the dialogue and plot with so much more meaning that it takes a couple of moments to really grasp what's going on in the scene.
The problem with this book comes with the plot and the characters, which is pretty much what drives a book.
The plot is fine until you find out why it is that Jamie can't remember what happened after he came to the town. He was bitten by a Vampire. Yes, you read that correctly. Vampire. I mean, WTF? Where the hell did that come from? When did this story go from being a character driven drama to a schlocky sci-fi novel? And then all of a sudden, the Vampire is becoming more human. Wha? When, how and why did that happen? The book never tells you.
And the vampire part of the story isn't even the main focus. Nope, it's the characters and how they all react towards and with each other. So, you'd think that there'd be more character development for people, besides just Jamie. You get glipses of promise into each character and then the focus all goes back to Jamie.
Kellen, Jamie's mentor and friend, after having left Ireland a long time ago and sailing the seas for years, suddenly feels the need to run guns from Boston to Ireland to help in the war effort (which side he's on, I'm not sure. I think the IRA). Why?
Louisa is helping the Vampire become human. She's not a medical doctor. How could she help? How did she meet him? How did she find out he wasn't human?
How did the Vampire become a Vampire? He was human to begin with and was turned. By whom?
Not one of these questions is answered.
The way S.E. Hinton interweaves the present day with the past is what's keeping this review from getting 5 pitchforks. It's very disjointed, cutting back and forth between the far past, the present past and the present. It's very much the way Jamie thinks while he's in the mental hospital so you get the sense of what it's like inside his mind. Also, the ending is very reminiscent of the Grey Harbor scene in Lord of the Rings, what with the ships and sailing away into a white mist. I admt, that part made me cry.
Overall, I'd say skip this book unless you really don't have anything better to read or are on a bus for a couple of hours and want to ignore the crazy people around you. Posted by xinh at October 12, 2004 05:04 AM