Holes by Louis Sachar

I know what you're thinking, "Angela, I read this book in fourth grade. Are you real right now?" Why yes, yes I am. This book is awesome. This is the Everything is Illuminated of my childhood. It is utterly perfect. I was debating on rereading it and putting it up here, actually, but at my friend's graduation party we were eating sunflower seeds, I made an offhand Mr Sir joke ("This seaside cottage ain't no girl scout camp") and everyone cracked up... and before that at my college orientation in the bookstore I happened to notice Holes in the shelf and I was all excited. So here we go.



This book is about Stanley Yelnats, a boy who has been accused of stealing shoes--really expensive important shoes--and is sent to a 'correctional facility' (essentially a work camp) known as Camp Green Lake. Once upon a time there was an actual lake, but now it has all dried up and the boys in the camp go out onto the lake every day and dig a five by five hole. The book is also about Sam and Kate Barlow, who later becomes the notorious outlaw Kissin' Kate Barlow and also about Stanley's no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing great-great grandfather. Is this seriously necessary? Come on, everyone has read this book--I hope. Maybe you've only seen the movie... OH WAIT THEN YOU'D STILL NEED THIS SUMMARY LOL. Okay, maybe that's unfair, I haven't seen in a while. Maybe it really was good. Yeah, the way the film adaption of Maniac Magee was good. BAHAHAHAHA I tried to rewatch that, I think I lasted like 45 seconds. The second the dad was like "I'll teach you the stopball" I was done. Anyway.



I guess there's really not a whole to point out other than the book's perfectness. Everything travels in a full circle; there are no superfluous details. Even minute details like the fact that Trout Walker has a foot fungi that smells like fish (Trout is just a nickname) comes into play, one character's red hair and one character's turquoise-studded boots*... And of course big important details exist as well.

Oh, and might I mention I wrote about this book in my college essay?--to further attest to its awesomeness, of course. Stanley's great-grandfather was left stranded in the desert after being robbed by Kissin' Kate Barlow. He survived for seventeen days and when asked how he survived he said he "'found refuge on God's thumb'" (93). This thumb in question happens to be overlooking the Camp and a portion of the book is spent running away from the camp and to God's thumb. I don't know, that bit always had a certain poignancy for me.

The most upsetting part of the book is certainly that regarding Sam and Kate Barlow. Sam was an onion seller--an African American onion seller. Kate was a school teacher. The school was falling apart and Sam offered to fix it up and fixed it up well. When the school is finally complete Kate breaks down crying and Sam asks what's wrong--she says her heart is breaking, and they kiss. But, because this is the eighteen-hundreds--probably even before the Civil War--when they are spotted Sam is to be hung and the schoolhouse is burnt. The lady who sees them whispers under her breath "'God will punish you!'" (111). Sam is killed, his donkey is killed, Kate leaves and becomes Kissin' Kate Barlow. Louis Sachar concludes the story of Sam's death with this: "That all happened one hundred and ten years ago. Since then, not one drop of rain has fallen on Green Lake. You make the decision: Whom did God punish?" (115).

*Kissin' Kate Barlow had turquoise-studded black boots. The Warden of the camp also wears the same boots. The Warden has red hair--like Trout's wife.

Sam owned a donkey named Mary Lou and his boat was named Mary Lou. Zero and Stanley hide in the boat for a day or two after escaping camp. They of course do not know she was a donkey and imagine how good looking a woman she was--"'I bet she looked great in a bathing suit, sitting on a boat while her boyfriend rowed'" (161). Hehe.

Spoiler alerts come on now: Camp Green Lake is exposed as a work camp and fraught with abuse. The land is sold and it's set to ironically enough become a girl scouts' camp. One thing that bothered me about the movie is that Zero hires a team of investigators to find his mother--I remember thinking that that didn't happen, it's just implied at the very end with the woman who ruffles his hair. Well guess what, it did happen. Actually, thinking on it, it's kind of ridiculous to assume that this woman could just show up unquestioned at their house and instantly recognize her son whom she hasn't seen in five years and him not being disturbed at her sudden physical affection--okay, actually it's kind of ridiculous to assume that she's even still alive. Maybe? But I like the less... uh... 'loud' ending the book had. The movie was like OH MY GOD LOOK IT'S HIS MOM!!!! DRAMATICS!

Oh, and apparently a sequel was made to this book? I bet it's about Squid (one of the boys at camp; they all have nicknames) because when Stanley and Zero leave he asks Squid to call his mother and tell her that he's sorry... Well, it's touching. Will I read the sequel...? Well, we'll see.



Well, I guess there wasn't much for me to say. But rest assured, this is a fantastic book. Seriously, I remember Ms Falcigno reading it to us--I try to imagine how the Warden sounded, and it's her voice. I try to imagine what Hattie Parker sounded like, how she said "God will punish you"--it's the same tone my teacher took on. I can hear her reading the other parts too. Either it's because the book was so amazing from that very first time hearing it or it's signs of developing schizophrenia. No, but seriously, this book is amazing and I can still recall that feeling of shock--good shock--down in my soul, to my spine. After we finished it in school I remember begging and pleading for my dad to get it for me, and I actually remember dragging my dad to the bookshelf it was on at Barnes & Noble. This is seriously a good book.



(This post is not 7,163 words.)



Answer to last post's cryptic song lyrics for Emma: Ulysses by Franz Ferdinand (Told you! Utter facepalm.)
This post's cryptic song lyrics for Emma: Hold on to what you need, we've got a knack for messed up history