Book Corner 2020.18

The Gifted School by Bruce Holsinger

Well this was a juicy yarn! The story of what happens to a four-way collection of friendships and marriages when a new school for “gifted” children prepares to open in a small Colorado city.

Semi-spoilers ahead!

“Semi” because you can surely see it coming. But I didn’t much mind that the big reveal was my least favorite plot hinge – secret parentage!! OMG!! Who you thought was your daddy ain’t your daddy! Because it wasn’t really the point of anything. The point was how the competition and blind ambition to have each character’s children acknowledged as “gifted” tore apart friendships and marriages.

I thought Rose’s blow-up at the book’s climax was almost cartoonish, unfortunately. Her character was something of a cipher. She never really felt like a neuroscientist to me. And I thought she was unduly mean to her husband, mainly at the end; but infidelity is another plot device, like unknown parentage, that kind of leaves me uninterested. But I shouldn’t quibble about how realistic a portray of a scientist Rose was; I’m always bitching that I want more STEM characters in novels; SO tired of protagonists who, suprirse!, are novelists… actually, more often they are thinly disguised as some other kind of artist. I’m glad Holsinger went out and did a bit of research as to what a neurological doctor’s day might be like.

I was definitely nailed to this book; thumbs up. ( )