Not to boast, but for almost the past 15 years I've read more than a hundred books a year. I only mention that fact to show the relatively late start that I got on serious reading. Sure I read quite a bit when I was younger, but I kind of went from reading Encyclopedia Brown and The Hardy Boys straight to reading god-awful books about commandos and then to a steady diet of Horror. I wanted to read better books, but I had no guidance in the matter and from my experiences with Literature in High School most every classic I encountered got mangled and ruined by incompetent teachers. So for a really long time I read crap, sprinkled every now and then with something good like Salinger or Orwell. The point of this statement is that I felt deficient in the breadth of my reading for quite awhile. I made it up for it with a huge gusto of reading anything I could get my hands on when I was about 21, but I still felt like so much precious time had been missed when I could have gotten so much more reading done. Nowadays I don't feel so lacking in what I have or have not read but there is one area that I do no nothing about and that is Young Adult literature. I never read Young Adult literature as a young adult, or I should say teenager, since I don't think I've reached adulthood yet, nevermind ever being a young adult. When I was the age for reading these books I was slogging through a Bourne novel, or reading semi-homoerotic vampire tales all centering around someone named Lestat. I did briefly dip my toe in the YA world with The Outsiders and those awful lies Jay's Journal and Go Ask Alice, but that was it.I wish I had read this novel when I was about twelve or thirteen years old. I would have loved it. It's got the cool stuff that I liked about Lord of the Flies (before the teachers got their hands on it), but with more of a point that I could have related to. I know my teenage self would have loved this book, that is why I gave it five stars. My nearing middle-aged self is as blown away by it as I would have been, but I have to admit to thinking it's still a pretty great book. There is a 'dirtiness' to the book that I think might be gratuitous, but maybe mentioned jacking off on the first page is a way to capture the reluctant teen readers attention. I can see why uptight parents and school boards would try to ban the book, not that I agree, but yeah there is some stuff that I was surprised at finding in a book that is being aimed to teenagers. Then again I might just be living in a fantasy world of what makes a novel a teen novel. I might be confusing them too much with children books. At the novels best moments it reminds me a lot of the late 1960's movie starring Malcolm McDowell If..., an amazing movie that I recommend everyone see as soon as possible. Both being excellent depictions of the cruelty of adolescence. My only real complaint is that a couple of themes are brought into the novel early on and then just kind of left hanging there. As a mature reader I picked up on where the author was heading with the themes, and didn't need for them to be returned to later on in the novel, but would a teen need to have them more explicitly brought out? I don't know, I appreciated that the author didn't really hit the reader hard with the Nazi stuff he mentions early on, but did he treat the theme too much in passing? I don't know, maybe I will learn this in the class this summer, or maybe I will just be contrarian to any discussion about the book and argue the side that seems most unpopular (will we even discuss themes? what do library classes talk about when they read novels?). My other complaint is about how the big reversal comes about in the book. I don't want to say much more, but it seems like the author didn't know how to make the school body change their outlook, so just kind of said that they did. It's ok that he did this, because he handled so many other things in the book with quite a bit of sophistication for a book that reads really simply.
Here's the deal people, yesterday I was heating up my lunch in the kitchenette at work and had this book with me (because I was planning to read during lunch) and another woman asks me what the book is about. I tell her it's the story of this kid who refuses to sell chocolates at his high school, and then I realize that this sounds like the stupidest book in the world--why would anyone care about reading about fund-raising? I'll tell you why ladies and gentleman--because this book isn't about a chocolate sale, it's about peer pressure, conformity, and the difference that one individual can make in any given situation.Cormier's novel is brilliant--the dialogue and writing regarding perceptions of others' motivations is sharp and incisive. Cormier writes in third person and allows us to glimpse into the minds and hearts of characters with a myriad of motivations. Most remarkable is how nearly everyone who is an antagonist in this story (Archie and the school bully Emile Janza) use their manipulation and intimidation as a facade to hide their true personalities. The only antagonist we don't get to look inside is Brother Leon, but we're given some backstory on his motivations that is interesting.What I appreciate about the antagonists in this story is that Cormier is unflinching in their evil--he doesn't "clean them up" in the end, they don't learn their lesson, they actually come out completely unscathed. That's a hard pill for someone like me, an eternal optimist who believes there must be something redeeming in everyone, to swallow. It makes me think about what Cormier's psychology of society must have been like, and how that affected his life. Which leads me to realize that there are people out there who have a different definition of the total depravity of man, and to consider how that influences them and their dealings with me. (I love a story that makes me think about life and interactions, which is why The Chocolate War is so much more than a story about a chocolate sale.)There is one primary protagonist (Jerry Renault) in this story, but there are other characters who try to defy the corruption on their own level--two of the Vigils (Obie and Carter) try to impact the Universe as does Jerry's friend, the Goober, in his own way. Again, we're learning about psychology here, folks--you may not be leading the revolution, but we can all do our part to fight corruption and evil in the world. At the least, we can refuse to participate in mistreatment. I'm not talking high-and-lofty stuff like the situation in Darfur here (although that's necessary), I'm talking about the way you view others, how you judge the people you work/live/learn with and how your pre-conceived notions of their motivations and backstory influence the way you treat them. If anything, Cormier wants us to learn that we don't know why people do the things they do, what has happened in their past, and we need to develop connections with people before making unfounded assumptions about their value or worth as an individual. Pretty cool stuff for a story about candy, eh?This story was deep and rich (kind of like the best-tasting chocolates coincidentally), and the characters were so well constructed. I wonder at the end what happens to Emile, Obie and Carter, but I don't get my answers and, surprisingly, that's okay with me.I had to give an A rating, rather than A+, because I can't be a hypocrite... if you don't know what that's in reference to, check out my review of Looking for Alaska, and read paragraphs 4 and 5 about the language in this book. I hate to do it, but I have to for the sake of consistency.
What do You think about The Chocolate War (2004)?
Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/ “My name is Jerry Renault and I’m not going to sell the chocolates.”The Chocolate War is probably one of those books that ends up getting a low rating since it gets crammed down the throats of high school kids in their literature classes. As the mother of a child who is currently being forced to read “a book about girls who do nothing but talk about cute guys” (Spoiler Alert: Marie Antoinette Serial Killer), I WISH his required reading was something this good. That’s probably why it’s on the Top Banned Books list, right? Can’t have those tiny minds actually used for thinking . . . The Chocolate War is a story about life at an all boys high school. It deals with conforming and not conforming and hazing and trying to fit in and attempting to stand out and sticking it to the man and most of all teaches the lesson . . . . The cast of characters runs the spectrum from the bully to the bullied, from nerds to the jocks, Freshmen to Seniors, and most importantly, the one who decided to ask himself . . . . “Do I dare disturb the universe? Yes, I do. I do. I think.”Highly recommend to middle-grade and up.
—Kelly (and the Book Boar)
The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier, takes place in a Catholic prep school for boys. The main character is Jerry Renault, a freshman who is dealing with the recent death of his mother. Not only has Jerry’s mother died, but his father has become very depressed and is unable to help Jerry through this difficult time. When school starts Jerry puts everything he has into making it on the football team, and things seem to be going well until the lead member of the school’s secret society, The Vigils, singles him out for a difficult assignment. Archie, the ring leader of The Vigils, decides that Jerry must refuse to sell chocolates for the big school fundraiser, in order to stay out of trouble with the dangerous secret society. When Jerry refuses to sell the chocolates Brother Leon, a cruel and frightening teacher at the school, makes things very uncomfortable for Jerry. The theme of this novel is depicted plainly by the quote on the poster in Jerry’s locker; do I dare disturb the universe? Jerry is dealing with the depression at home, and with the realization that most of the teachers and the students at his school are bad people. When The Vigils tell Jerry that his assignment is over and that he can now sell the chocolates, Jerry performs an act of rebellion in the school and still refuses to sell the chocolates. It is at this point that things really begin to fall a part for Jerry, and he is subjected to fierce bullying by classmates and teachers because of his rebellion. The most difficult thing about this novel is that it ends on such a desperate note. Jerry has been broken by The Vigil, and the members get by with no punishment. Robert Cormier writes a follow up to this story called Beyond the Chocolate War, but I have not read it. I am interested to see if justice is served in the sequel. I think this is the kind of story that speaks to high school students during a trying time in their life. Unfortunately, many students would find the fact that the bullies go unpunished quite realistic. This story could be used in a high school English class for a novel study, and would also be a great book to recommend to individual readers. Even though I think girls could be interested in the characters, this book seems like it is really meant for male readers. Boys and men dominate this story; women serve only as sexual objects of desire, not real people. This book was published in 1974 and from the beginning it has faced opposition. The Chocolate War has been challenged because of sexual content, inappropriate language, and violence. I though the language and violence was fairly mild, but throughout the story masturbation is alluded to several times. I think this novel is appropriate for high school aged students. The Chocolate War was written such a long time ago that I had a difficult time finding comprehensive book reviews, but I did find some quotes from book reviews on the Random House Web site. The reviewer from School Library Journal thought that The Chocolate War was “an uncompromising portrait of human cruelty and conformity” and the reviewer from The New York Times Book Review wrote that “The Chocolate War is masterfully structured and rich in theme”.
—Nova
The bleak viciousness that is this novel made me really really anxious and depressed. I couldn’t wait until it was over. I skimmed the whole final chapter and I've been doing my breathing exercises for the past couple of hours to rid myself of the bad chemicals that are pumping through my body.Ultimately this book is about:How evil pervadesHow pacifism is ultimately a violent actMartyrdom gets you nowhereHow vicious children really areWriting a vicious book about viciousness that assaults the reader doesnt make the world a better placeA neat little construct of macrocosm within the microcosm of a high school. Definitely a book that all teenagers should read, however this worn out, paranoid and depressed Gen-yer found it to reiterate stuff that she no longer wants to think about. That and high school was an entirely traumatising experience for me that I'll never be keen to relive.I cant disentangle my own feelings that were elicited from this book to give it a proper 'review'. Did I like reading it? No. Couldn't wait for it to be over? Yes. Would I read it again? Absolutely not. I guess a book that delivers such strong feelings can be seen as 'powerful' but for what end I don’t know.On a technical level its very well written, nice tight scripted language. I couldn’t help but see Dick Cheney's face whenever the lead bully "Archie" spoke though. I brings up the age old "all power corrupts" thing and plays it well. Most of the people were evil before they even had any power.A sickening read. I think "Lord of the Flies" conveys the same message but in an immensely less suicidal way.
—Carla
