by Lily King
256 pages
I have been looking for a book for this category for awhile now. Nothing I came across really caught my eye. The only thing I actually thought would interest me was an Indiana Jones book, because technically he is a teacher. But those books are written for kids so I sort of told myself I'd have to read a couple to make it count. Anyway, I came across this one and thought I'd check it out.
I would like to argue that The English Teacher really has two protagonists -- Vida, the English teacher, and her 15 year old son, Peter. While they are both very active characters in every chapter of the book, the chapters sort of alternate between the points of view of the two. Either way, I still think it counts.
The English Teacher opens on Vida. A high school English teacher who is a single mother raising a 15 year old son in New England. It has always been just the two of them, living on the school compound. Vida is grading papers and thinking about her life. Her boyfriend, Tom, comes over and Vida's internal dialog tells us that she is sure he's about to end things with her. Instead, he surprises us all and asks her to marry him. Although Vida doesn't really want to, she says yes. We are led to believe that she says yes for her son, Peter, not for herself. She thinks that Peter would benefit from having a real family.
As we see Vida's personality develop, we see all about her life as a teacher. The school she teaches at is a small private school, but she is one of the best teachers they have. She genuinely cares about her students, but even more so about the literature. She knows the material by heart and almost believes the characters are her friends. As the time passes, we see that part of why she is this way is because she uses the literature to escape and to occupy her mind.
Vida and Tom get married. On the wedding night, Vida and Peter move into Tom's house. Tom is a widow. His wife has died of cancer. Peter now has two stepbrothers and one stepsister. Tom is loving and kind and completely understanding. He welcomes them into his home and although his children are still loyal to their mother, they try to accept Peter into their lives. Over the course of the book, Tom really grows on you. He is really sort of the perfect man. Haha. He works so hard and sacrifices to make things work with Vida.
It becomes very clear, very quickly that something is not right. Vida cannot sleep with her new husband unless she is drunk. She begins snapping at little things. She is closed off and reserved and seems to suck the life out of those around her. After a particularly bad day, Vida loses it. After Vida is out all night and doesn't return in the morning, Tom takes Peter to school. As he sits in class, staring out the window, Peter sees something on the far corner of one of the playing fields. Turns out, it's Vida. Passed out from the night before. He runs to her, carries her to the car, and drives away. For days and days Peter drives with his mom in the backseat in a perpetual daze.
Eventually the travelers end up in California and Vida's sister's house. It is Vida's sister who finally gets Vida to a psychologist and it works miracles. For the first time ever, Vida decides it's time to tell Peter the truth. She takes him to the beach and tells him about his father. While this is all very shocking news to Peter, the reader is able to figure it out looooong before. The book Vida is teaching in class, her aversion to touching, her closed-off behavior -- all of this make it very easy to figure out.
It was an alright story. I mean, it wasn't earth-shattering, I didn't cry. I think the story is tragic, and it's horrible that this mother had these horrible feelings toward her son for 15 years. Personally, I know she is the protagonist and has experienced a horrible thing, but I didn't like Vida. I think there are better, healthier ways to deal with tragedy and she didn't do it. (I suppose things were different when the book took place 1979.) Instead she chose to keep everything inside and ended up hurting the people who cared for her. She is lucky that her son, sister, husband, and stepchildren all forgive her and are understanding of her trauma.
I don't think I really recommend this book. I mean, it wasn't terrible and wasn't a waste of time. However, it wasn't really something I'd suggest going out of your way to read.
2 Stars