Country: USA
Genre: Young Adult/Drama
Pages: 199
One sitting. That's all it took me to read Speak. Three and a half hours, comfortably seated in a Greyhound bus. It was the first time in over twelve years that I bothered reading a YA novel and it's certainly a first time that I read YA with a female lead. My verdict? I'm only sure of one thing. Speak surprised me many times over its few pages and left my certitudes about reading a bit more unstable than they used to be. Before I could turn over and understand the magnitude of what I have read, I realized that Laurie Halse Anderson's novel got under my skin and into my mind. That's the goal many writers only dream to achieve.
I guess you have to categorize Speak into Young Adult because of the teenage lead Melinda Sordino and the pressing issue its trying to tackle: rape, at the age of puberty. It's not as simple as it looks. I don't think her age is ever mentioned, but Melinda is not older than thirteen or fourteen and there is a lot of ignorance and misinformation that goes on at that age. Sure, there is institutional measures that are being taken in high schools, but it's never taking into account that the student corps in an institution in itself, that functions with its own code of conduct. It's clear from the first sentence that Melinda is alienated from any form of institutional treatment to her individuality and her problem to speak about the aggression she was a victim of keeps her away from any kind of psycho-social measure she could take to help herself. In order to speak, she needs information. In order to go and get that information, she needs to feel responsible for herself, which is impossible in an institution like high school, that highly encourages formatted thinking. Melinda is caught with a problem she can't resolve by herself.
Laurie Halse Anderson's writing style is spare and beautiful, not completely unlike Raymond Carver's. She doesn't always have the vibrant images, but she has an accuracy that I've seen only in a few writers, a quality that I research over everything else when I read. Her characters are vivid, no matter how long they stay on the page. David Petrakis, Mr. Neck, Heather, Rachel and Nicole and people that are in every high school and yet they have a personality of their own, a uniqueness that make them representative of their own kind.
I didn't find any weak part in Speak, except maybe that it feels a little short. Without spoiling anything, it's a novel that wears its name awfully well. I feel it couldn't have lost anything, even a hundred pages longer. It's a whiplash, when it had the potential to be a AK47 salvo. Nonetheless, it feels extremely refreshing to see somebody tackling such a complex, institutionalized issue, such as children and teenager ignorance in front of life altering drama. Laurie Halse Anderson lives up to the challenge and shakes up a lot of minds. I'm not surprised Speak gathered so much hatred from narrow minded people, because it's pointing out at the flaws of a system nobody wants to question. Speak isn't masterful like The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles or doesn't have the visceral appeal of Mystic River,but it's a bead under your mattress, a mosquito around your head that keeps you awake at night, whenever you feel too comfortable. It has its place in literary history and should never be forgotten.
