| Louis Sachar’s Holes was a phenomenon – the novel was loved by both adults and children alike (referred to by some as a Catch-22 for kids), garnering the author both the Newberry Award and the National Book Award. It also spawned a film, for which Sachar wrote the screenplay, which was critically well received.
Now he’s returned with Small Steps. There was an expected demand for a sequel to Holes, and while Steps features two of the characters from it, Sachar points out that he hasn’t written a sequel. "It was really annoying, the initial reviews saying it wasn’t like Holes," he says. "I started it while working on the movie. I felt this huge expectation, but felt that a sequel would diminish the first one. Here, I was intrigued by the characters."
Small Steps finds Armpit back home in Texas, free from the rigours of Camp Green Lake, where he and his cohorts dug huge holes every day, because, well, it was supposed to be good for them. Leaving that adventure behind, he’s back in school, working for a landscaping company and keeping himself out of trouble. That is, until X-Ray comes to him with a scheme to make some quick cash scalping tickets.
The tickets happen to be for a show by new tween pop-sensation Kaira DeLeon, who, through a nasty altercation, he happens to meet. The two fall for each other, but be warned – Small Steps isn’t a rote love story, but is by turns both dark and uplifting.
"I take my work very seriously," says Sachar. "It wasn’t surprising that adults loved the books – I guess, if anything, I was surprised that they read it on their own. I write for myself, but gear it towards kids."
Sachar’s best creation in the novel is Ginny, Armpit’s 10-year-old neighbour. She has cerebral palsy, but Sachar treats her honestly, paying direct attention to her speech, her surroundings. She isn’t depressed or incapable, but learning to take "small steps" to get by, just as Armpit does. "She’s actually based on someone I know (Laura, to whom the book is dedicated)," says Sachar. "I’ve always been impressed by her directness. Kids encounter handicapped people all the time."
The most strking passage in the book involves Armpit’s encounter with a security officer, where his being a young African-American male plays a part in the assault. Sachar writes with a deliberate, brutal honesty, evoking a gut-churning emotion of injustice. "It was difficult writing the book about an African-American teenager," he says. "I had to be really careful along the way. The racism in the book isn’t of the old, but more about the fear nowadays – crossing to the other side of the street. I’m surprised that I haven’t heard any comments that speak directly to it. But I feel it’s a realistic portrayal."
It isn’t the only violent encounter in the novel, although Sachar doesn’t write to entertain with gratuitous details. "I was a little bit concerned with the violence," he says. "I don’t condescend to readers – they get much more out of it that way."
The same perceptive quality and honesty he gave to young adult readers with Holes appears in Small Steps. "I like writing about kids – there’s so many paths to take. Adults are more limiting. "I think the media portrays teenagers as over-sexed, into drugs," says Sachar. "I believe that’s untrue. That’s what one would expect of Kaira, but she’s unsure of herself – hugs a pillow instead."
Will Sachar ever return to his beloved characters again? "I think I’m done with them – but you never know."
Onto events of note this week: McNally Robinson hosts author Anar Ali on Thursday, April 6 at 7 p.m., with her debut, Baby Khaki’s Wings, a collection of magic-realism oriented tales, set in Canada and east Africa. The next evening, Friday, April 7 at 8 p.m., Jason Anderson returns to Calgary to present his darkly comic tale, Showbiz. Also, tickets are now on sale at McNally Robinson for an evening with author Rohinton Mistry (A Fine Balance) at the Knox United Church, on Wednesday, May 3 at 7 p.m., on behalf on McClelland & Stewart’s 100th anniversary.
On Tuesday, April 11 at 7 p.m., Pages hosts Karsten Heuer, who’ll be reading from his new book, Being Caribou, detailing his five-month journey with the porcupine caribou herd through Alaska. Note that the event will take place in the John Dutton Theatre at the W.R. Castell Central Library.
And a final, sad note: Polish novelist Stanislaw Lem died last week at the age of 84. One of the giants of literate, cerebral science fiction (like Philip K. Dick and Fritz Leiber), Lem’s novels defied genre expectations with terse, philosophical prose. Check out his novels Hospital of the Transfiguration, The Futurological Congress and the classic Solaris. |
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