#wonderstruck

Written by Brian Selznik, who also wrote The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Wonderstruck is done in what seems to be his signature style. To be fair, I haven't read Hugo or any of his other books (and after having read Wonderstruck, I don't expect to be reading them any time soon), but they all appear to be about 600 pages, heavily laden with illustrations.

Wonderstruck specifically has a unique concept, which I'll admit drew me immediately: it is two stories, side-by-side, one told entirely in words and one told entirely in pictures. Thus you will read anywhere between 2 and 10 pages about Ben, in 1977 to cut to a rather cinematic series of illustrations about Rose, in 1927. The book is broken into three parts. Part I is sort of introductory, Part II sees them both venture out alone to NYC, and Part III is how their stories eventually intertwine. 

Part II is without a doubt my favorite, as the stories are laid out in such a way that you often see the characters encountering the same things at the same time. It opens with Ben getting off a bus or a train and his excitement at the sign he sees. You turn the page, to see a sign for New York City. The pictures flow so seamlessly in some places that at times, I had to remind myself that the pictures were all from Rose's point of view. In fact, while I was in the middle of Part II, I was sure that I would have to follow Wonderstruck with the rest of the Selznik canon. Which tells you how much I enjoyed Part II. And how disappointed I was by the book's ending. Which also means that if you seek more detail about what I didn't like...

Here there be spoilers:

First off, I'll admit that part of my disappointment is probably not Selznik's fault because it comes from the blurb on the dust jacket which says something about Ben and Rose's stories intertwining in a completely unpredictable way. Now, even before I picked up the novel, I assumed that she was going to turn out to be his grandmother or something because I've read enough of these kind of stories to know how they end. But the dust jacket told me it wouldn't be what I expected, so I put that out my mind, until... Oh, nope. Rose is totally his grandmother.

Dust Jacket: You'll never see the twist coming

Me: I literally saw it coming before I even had the book in my hands.

With that out of the way, let's get to things that Selznik did have control over.

The big draw to me about Wonderstuck, once I got deep enough, was that both Ben and Rose are deaf, and if you followed my year of animation, you'll know I've got a thing for deaf representation in stories. I particularly liked that he included the history of how deaf kids in Rose's day were expected to learn to lip read and speak, rather than use ASL because it was shitty and people should know it happened. In fact, the comparison of Rose and Ben's experiences is a great way to show how things have changed (Rose is always kept inside because "it's too dangerous for a deaf girl to walk around in the city," but Ben is not), and how they haven't (both experience communication barriers, misunderstandings, and ridicule due to being deaf.) 

In his author's note, Selznik talks about how he wanted to write about how the invention of the talkie affected the deaf community, which I'll admit is something I never thought of. But the book only dedicates 2-3 pictures to this change, and it's before Rose is explicitly stated to be deaf (when we see her textbook), so I didn't even make the connection until I read said author's note. He also talks about deaf culture in the author's note, but ultimately, I didn't feel like we got to see a lot of that either because Ben and Rose are the only deaf characters in the story, so until they meet at the end, we never have two deaf characters interacting with each other. This, combined with the blackout (which I will get to) gives me the impression that Selznik does his research, but never shares it with his audience.

Then there's the linguistics of it, and bear with me because I'm about to nitpick the hell out of this book. The lesser thing, is that when Rose meets Ben, she talks about how she and her deaf husband had a hearing child, Danny, and nobody thought they would be able to care for him. All this tracks, given the time period. But then she says Danny learned to speak with the help of friends and the radio. But learning a language is interactive. You don't really pick it up from radio or TV. You pick it up from talking to people. So it just bothered me. Like I said, nitpicky as Hell. 

Also, since most of the interpersonal communication happens through writing (adult Rose and her brother, Walter, are the only two characters who can sign), I think Selznik missed a golden opportunity to highlight the difficulties people who are deaf or hard of hearing can have with reading. Because reading is partially an auditory process. For example, Selznik could have mentioned that Ben was slow to learn to read, but his mother, a librarian, was patient and diligent, and thus not only did he learn, but this was one of the things that made them so close. It was there for the taking, and he didn't take it.