Finding Clarity: A Mom, A Dwarf And A Posh Private School In The People's Republic Of Berkeley (2000) - Plot & Excerpts
As someone who spent over a decade working in a school environment I can understand how the running of a school can encompass all areas of life and this was portrayed well in this story. However, I did struggle with some of the characters, some of whom did seem a little stereotypical and a contradictive at times: Clari seemed to search for a world where her son wouldn't be subject to prejudice and yet Clari's prejudice towards the rich parents and a teenage goth left me somewhat bewildered, but maybe Laura Novak is cleverer than I and has shown that not everyone is perfect and we all have prejudices that we need to deal with. I really enjoyed the explanation of certain characters behaviour toward the end (trying not to give any spoilers here) to the point that I really wanted to read more about the headteacher and what happened next for him. Putting my little criticisms aside, because they are little, the book is written with a great sense of humour and had me chuckling throughout. I would recommend it to others to read. I thought this was pretty bad. The characters were stereotyped and I couldn't work up any interest in any of them - and then, suddenly,the author would throw in some things that came out of nowhere, to try to make the "villains" less villainous. The plot was inherently unbelievable - no matter how hard I tried to "willingly suspend my disbelief," I couldn't get around the problem I had with believing that the whole central event of the plot could actually happen as described. I'll accept almost anything in a fantasy/sci fi novel, but not in one that's supposedly a "real world" mystery - it needs to have some plausibility. And, whenever things got impossibly lame, the author would toss in some other bizarre facts.I find it very hard to abandon a book once I've started, so I stuck with this one to the end, but am grateful that it was relatively short. I was delighted to come to "The End." I got this one free on kindle, and it was worth every penny I paid for it.
What do You think about Finding Clarity: A Mom, A Dwarf And A Posh Private School In The People's Republic Of Berkeley (2000)?
The title pretty much explains it. It's okay if you don't have anything else to read.
—phil
