Vue champions the Mitochondrial Curiosities of Marcels 1 - 19
Teen novel explores the curious world of growing up
Do you know an awesome teenager who loves crafts and possesses an insatiable curiosity about the world, who also rejects sparkly pre-packaged adolescence and those Gossip Girl and Clique book abominations? Then this is the book you give them for their birthday or Christmas or Bastille Day or just because they are a great kid who needs to know that not everyone sucks.
To set the stage for The Mitochondrial Curiosities of Marcels 1 - 19, Dree is the quirky protagonist who has just lost her semi-estranged father and attends his pancake memorial service on her 15th birthday. Yeah, and you think you've had bad days. From there, the novel chronicles Dree's attempts to cope with this completely unfair loss through some decidedly non-rational and often histrionic means.
Among the many subjects expounded in this novel are the untimely deaths of fathers, the crushing weight of watching dreams slip away, long-buried secrets, murderous family legacies uncovered and new friends belatedly recognized as old enemies. Normally, young adult novels are told from the point of view of a more academically inclined character, the youth with a more adult-like interior monologue, in an effort to appeal to kids who read books as opposed to their siblings who tease them for their nerdiness. But here we have the semi-delinquent telling the story in her own inarticulate, disjointed way, providing much of the authenticity that the book contains.
Dree is immensely appealing as a narrator, bursting with contradictions and socially flailing due to her inability to properly express herself. She understands on an intuitive level much more than her family gives her credit for, not needing to read exposés about sweatshops and the pernicious business practices of megabox stores to understand that Western society is deeply fucked up. The authenticity of the story and Dree's character is partly explained by Brown's consultations with students at Victoria School for the Arts. What could be more genuine than teens themselves telling you what they think is the correct way to portray a teen character?
Because the book is set in Edmonton, there is a pleasing familiarity in being able to think to yourself, 'Churchill Square, I've been there, I can picture it clearly right now.' Edmonton is also the perfect setting for a protagonist searching for a genuine connection in an increasingly homogenized and sterile world. The impulse to create something physical and real that one can reach out and touch is an impetus that compels Dree to literally construct her own world. Her craftiness is a desperate search for meaning in a plastic and conformist culture as well as a way for her to communicate her fractured self.
Sprinkled throughout the book are Dree's instructions for producing crafts that reflect her emotional outlook, her disdain for the unthinking brutality of ordinariness, and her sardonic comments on consumer society. 'The Sockra,' two socks sewn together that fit over one's eyes like a mask, is created in response to a terrible New Age book presented to Dree that mirrors every self-help book ever written in its inanity and utter uselessness.
Sometimes irritating, often illuminating, always entertaining, brimming with a vibrant sense of vitality, this book is sure to please the teenager you know who doesn't want to see trite summer blockbusters or buy clothes that depend on the exploitation of children even younger than themselves.
