the little VOICE

The author sent me a copy of his novel to review:

I’m not really sure why Joss Sheldon wrote this rather depressing novel. Was he trying to outdo J.D.Salinger in cheerless writing? There are similarities between Sheldon’s novel and Salinger’s 1951 novel, The Catcher in the Rye (see my review of 12/23/2012), although I don’t want Mr. Sheldon going narcissistic on me because Mr. Salinger’s novel is considered an American classic (I’m not sure why). Salinger’s seventeen year old Holden Caulfield seems to feel less depressed when he hears the lines, If a body catch a body coming through the rye, sung by a child (from a Robert Burns 1796 poem). Mr. Sheldon’s Yew Shodkin seems to feel better when he quotes the sixth century BC Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu. Neither character ever seems to reach a state of enlightenment. In my review of Mr. Salinger’s novel, I said that while in school, Holden Caulfield seemed to be drowning in boredom. In Mr. Sheldon’s novel, Yew Shodkin never gets a handle on school. At first, Yew lets a devil-like demon in his brain make him become rebellious in class, but after seeing that punishment is no fun, he becomes a rule-follower... but he is never happy with either strategy. Holden Caulfield likes to drink, smoke and make an ass of himself. When Yew grows up, he likes to take drugs (the modern variant) and make an ass of himself. In any case, neither character reach a position of nirvana.

Yew Shodkin is six years old when the novel opens and is in his mid-twenties when the book ends (the author never confirms). In Yew’s early years, a devil-like demon in his brain called the egot is causing him to be rebellious in school. Although he is feeling energetic and frisky, repeat punishment from the school’s headmaster, Mr. Grunt, and daily meetings with the school’s psychologist, Dr. Saeed become mind-numbing for Yew. “The egot had got me into deep trouble.” Besides school punishment, parental sanctions were even worse. Yew makes an epic decision...he will ignore the egot and start following the rules. Hallelujah! Yew becomes a rule-follower and is back in the good graces of his teachers and parents, although he losses his popularity with his classmates. Every time Yew accepts punishment, the egot becomes frailer, his teeth start falling out, his skin turns white, and he shrinks to half his size. “The egot died. And then it decomposed...I was finally free.” That’s the last the reader sees of the egot. Yew thinks, “Our society encourages us to obey authority. It’s a matter of Operational Conditioning; we’re rewarded when we follow authority’s rules and punished when we break those rules. Slowly but surely, we’re gently coerced into a state of total obedience.”

As Yew grows older, the rest of the novel challenges the previous statement. What will Yew do? Will he snap back to his natural form, rebel against the capitalistic state, join protest groups, turn to drugs, find happiness, or will he consider suicide? That’s a lot of questions! So, if you feel like pulling your hair out...get your own copy of this somber novel and find the answers to my questions. Although this novel was depressing, it can’t supersede the all-time depressing novel, Jay Asher’s 2007 novel, Thirteen Reasons Why (#1 on Goodreads depressing novel list). Okay, I do recommend Joss Sheldon’s novel, because it did make me ponder the societal decisions that are made in one's lifetime and whether they were good choices or bad choices.

RATING: 3 out of 5 stars

Comment: Okay, what are the most depressing novels ever written? Well, Goodreads has a list of 131 novels that are the most depressing. I was surprised to see that I only read three of them. All three were read many years ago when I was probably still a teenager. What are these three books? I’ll list them in the order they came on Goodreads list:

#39- Fahrenheit 451 (1953) written by Ray Bradbury. A dystopian nightmare. The book title reveals the temperature at which book paper catches fire and burns.

#53- 1984 (1949) written by George Orwell. Was this the first modern classic of “negative Utopia?”

#114- A Tale of Two Cities (1859) by Charles Dickens. “Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death; the last, much the easiest to bestow, O Guillotine!”

Well, I only read three, but they are all classics!