Special Topics in Calamity Physics

It took me about nine months, but I have read all ten of the books that the New York Times Book Review decreed were the best of 2006. I finished with Marisha Pessl's debut novel, Special Topics in Calamity Physics.

Pessl threw down a challenge to herself in her first sentence: "Dad always said a person must have a significant reason for writing out his or her Life Story and expecting anyone to read it." The character writing that statement is Blue Van Meer, a precocious freshman at Harvard, who then proceeds to tell us all about her senior year in high school, when she met a bewitching teacher who, as we are told in the first few pages, hung herself, with Blue finding the body.

The voice of Blue Van Meer dominates this novel like a hurricane force. She is an extremely well-read teen who has traveled the country with her father, an itinerant professor of political science. He teaches at third-rate colleges, and usually only for a semester, before pulling up stakes and moving to the next town. For her senior year, though, he has decided to stay in one place for the whole year--Stockton, North Carolina, where Blue attends a posh academy called St. Gallway's. Right away she is recruited into a small band of snobbish but brilliant students called the Bluebloods by their mentor, the film studies teacher Hannah Schneider. Since we know from the outset that sooner or later Blue will find Hannah swinging from an electrical cord around her neck, there is a sense of mystery and dread leading up to that point.

The early part of this book reminded me of The Secret History, by Donna Tartt, which is also about a group of super-smart teens who end up in a tragic situation. But while Tartt's book was much more serious in tone, Pessl's book is infused with a comic spirit. Blue is a beguiling narrator with an exhaustive knowledge of culture, both high and low. The references come at a shotgun pace, and when one would suffice she gives us three. The structure of the book is set up like a college course curriculum, fully annotated (though usually with completely fictional sources) and each chapter is titled after a work of literature. It becomes kind of a parlor game to see how the chapter will live up to its title.

While the book is engaging and breezy, Pessl occasionally writes as if paid by the word. She doesn't seem to have met a simile she didn't like, almost every sentence containing one. The book also has a few rookie mistakes, such as making declarations like, "This was the day when everything changed." I don't think it's necessary to announce something is about to happen, it should just happen. Perhaps she does this because her narrator is seventeen, but it's still annoying.

About four-fifths of the way through, the book takes a sudden turn, as Blue endeavors to solve the mystery of Hannah's death. It's like being on a merry-go-round that suddenly turns into a roller coaster with a steep drop and hairpin turns. It was quite a page-turner, but a bit over the top, and left some things unresolved (though Pessl includes a final exam at the end where some questions are answered).

On the whole, I recommend this book even with its flaws. I always enjoy reading about academics and advanced-placement students who can rattle off references to Nietzsche, Jane Eyre and L'Avventura. Just make your sure your seat-belt is tightly buckled when you step into the ride.