{"id":14820,"date":"2013-11-11T09:23:51","date_gmt":"2013-11-11T14:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=14820"},"modified":"2013-11-11T12:44:04","modified_gmt":"2013-11-11T17:44:04","slug":"book-review-the-blue-jar-by-marta-pelrine-bacon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2013\/11\/book-review-the-blue-jar-by-marta-pelrine-bacon\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Blue Jar<\/em>, by Marta Pelrine-Bacon"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\"Cover:<\/a>[Note:<\/strong> please be sure to read the disclosure<\/a> at the foot of this review.]<\/em><\/p>\n

M<\/span>arta Pelrine-Bacon is a fan of the old Twin Peaks<\/em> TV series; she has actually named one of her several online abodes Searching for Agent Dale Cooper<\/em><\/a> (the FBI agent in the series, played by Kyle Maclachlan).\u00a0In the promotional copy for her debut novel, The Blue Jar<\/em>, her publisher says:<\/p>\n

Fans of the quirky and off-beat will love this atmospheric, psychological tale of revenge and obsession with its unexpected twists and turns. Lake Belle, reminiscent of Twin Peaks set in the deep American South, provides the atmospheric setting for this thrilling psycho-drama with its underlying theme of weird justice. \u00a0Is it magic? Or is something else at work?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All of which pretty much lays it out there for anyone else familiar with the program — or its reputation, for that matter: expect the off-center.<\/p>\n

So, how off-center is it? Let’s see…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

T<\/span>he book’s point-of-view, generally, follows the activities and thoughts of two fifteen-year-old girls, Chesnie and Fran. We might, in many ways, imagine Chesnie to be the “protagonist”; her storyline opens the narrative, and of the two friends she’s certainly the more flamboyant — the one who seems to attract the attentions of both men and women, sometimes when she least hopes for it.<\/p>\n

By the time I’d read to some midpoint in the book, though, I remembered that first impressions can be wrong. Fran is thoughtful, Chesnie impulsive; Fran is<\/em> a good friend, Chesnie\u00a0has<\/em> good friends; Fran radiates uncertainty, Chesnie charges confidently (almost bull-in-a-china-shop style) into even the most explosive situations. Despite the horror of their shared experiences which drive the plot, Chesnie survives almost entirely by luck. (She seems to believe she deserves survival, even triumph.) Fran<\/em>, on the other hand, rises above expectations — her own as well as others’ — by book’s end. While Chesnie may or may not be the protagonist, then, Fran is the obvious heroine<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In general shape, trying hard to avoid spoilers, here’s what happens in the course of the book:<\/p>\n