Well, for us, it is. In my opinion, Dave Mitchell wrapped up the story nicely. We get the story of the divorce told by the gossiping women in the candy store, Jason goes around and says some goodbyes, and we see the relationship between Julia and Jason grow. I wish we had been able to see Jason and Dean's goodbye, as that may have helped see how their relationship is going, but David Mitchell may have purposely left that part out to allow readers to decide how their story ends.
This book tells the story of how Jason Taylor grows into himself, and deals with bullies along the way. We were promised a story about:
a world of the cruel, luscious Dawn Madden and her power-hungry boyfriend; of a certain Madame Eve van Outrye de Crommelnck, an elderly bohemian emigre; of first cigarettes, first kisses, and first deaths; of Gypsies camping in the woods and hysteria they inspire; and, even close to home, of a slow motion divorce in four seasons.
Boy, did we get get that. We got to see Jason at his best, and often, at his worst. Readers get the full and unfiltered emotions of Jason. Being able to understand what he feels, we sympathize with him, and understand his actions more fully.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and would highly recommend this book to anyone. The development of Jason was nice to see, and I really liked the first person point of view that allowed us to get up close and personal with Jason. Although this book could be seen as coming full circle by starting and ending with "January Man," Jason has changed so much, and learned so much about life, and himself that make this book fabulous to read, and left me with a great sense of happiness and hope for Jason, even though the ending was a little sad.
I loved the ending because it wrapped up most of the conflicts Jason had while opening his eyes to the nature of the "steps" of life; that what seemed so daunting to you when you started isn't the only thing you'll have to deal with. Things keep changing. I agree with your idea of Jason coming full circle, and I also think that coming of age is expressed well through this book as a kind of knowledge of the world through experience; having control over your experiences is an important element of the story and I think of the coa process in general.
ReplyDeleteAs a side note, the only part of the back I read was "first deaths" so the ending was much brighter than I'd anticipated. Thoughtful post, Beth!
I really liked the last lines of the book. Julia's wit is always intriguing, and these few lines end the novel with a good attitude. Sometimes Jason could get down or upset about his parents, but Julia played the role of consoling him here, which in itself is nice to see. I see this ending as now that Jason has learned how to live life as himself, the future holds so much for him
ReplyDeleteThat last line was great. It's something I've found really inspiring and definitely reassuring for Jason. But saying "it's not the end" also implies that this is not the end of Jason's coming of age process. He's grown a lot in the year we read, but as we've discovered, it's never really the end of coming of age for anyone, and certainly not in this case, but Jason has a new outlook and is ready to really become himself which is the important part.
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