Leigh Bardugo attended Yale in the nineties; she felt out of place. She hadn’t come from money. Her resume did not include references to Dalton or to Collegiate.
Having wandered around, a bit, professionally, Bardugo discovered that she was meant to write fantasy novels. She wrote for teens. She wrote for adults, too, and so we have her “adult” debut, “Ninth House.”
Like Tom Perrotta, another slightly uncomfortable Yale alum, Bardugo writes about power and privilege with an “outsider” spin. She notices things you might not notice if you took the Brearley-to-Yale route. She comments on the ubiquitous pea coats and pony tails; why do the undergrads lack a sense of style; why is it possible to stroll around campus, seeing classmates, thinking constantly, Who ARE you? Bardugo comments on the lustrous locks and shiny skin of many of the undergrads; wealth is “better than a vitamin injection.” And Bardugo notes the sleepy grin of an undergrad rapist, and the rapist’s tendency to point a camera back at himself, as if admiring his own star power.
It’s clear Bardugo has a Yale obsession, and so many fascinating tidbits work their way into the book:
*Calhoun (Slavery is a positive good”) College became Hopper College in part because a cafeteria worker took a stained-glass image of a plantation and smashed it on the ground.
*Science Park was a 1990s bid to make New Haven wonderfully successful, and now Science Park has a slightly haunted feel.
*There were colonial-style buildings, and almost all were razed, and ultimately faux-Gothic buildings sprouted up (confusing, because the Gothic style actually came before the colonial style, in architectural history).
*The many gates and locks famously linked with Yale were, in part, a response to post-Civil War years, when the city of New Haven encountered some major safety issues.
*Someone at the Rare Books Library has the daily task of flipping one page of the Gutenberg Bible--one page per day--so that visitors can gawk.
“Ninth House” is a treat; it tells a gripping town-gown murder-mystery story. It has fun nostalgic details; you might find your love life is a mess, but you also have pages in “Nostromo” and “The Good Soldier” to race through. (How often do you see references to “The Good Soldier” in contemporary literature?) “Ninth House” raises questions about gender and about class, and yet there isn’t a sense of preachiness or heavy-handedness. The book has won major raves from Stephen King, Kelly Link, and Joe Hill, among many others.
Believe the hype.
*Correction. Looking into Bardugo more, I see that her financial status, in childhood, is unclear. She did not have a father in her life. She and her mom lived with “the ancients” (with Bardugo’s grandparents). I’m not sure which conclusions to draw from that. But I’d saying being a goth kid without a dad would make you aware of some “outsider” insights at Yale, regardless of your money situation; goth-and-fatherless would place you outside “the Yale norm,” whatever that might be.
Having wandered around, a bit, professionally, Bardugo discovered that she was meant to write fantasy novels. She wrote for teens. She wrote for adults, too, and so we have her “adult” debut, “Ninth House.”
Like Tom Perrotta, another slightly uncomfortable Yale alum, Bardugo writes about power and privilege with an “outsider” spin. She notices things you might not notice if you took the Brearley-to-Yale route. She comments on the ubiquitous pea coats and pony tails; why do the undergrads lack a sense of style; why is it possible to stroll around campus, seeing classmates, thinking constantly, Who ARE you? Bardugo comments on the lustrous locks and shiny skin of many of the undergrads; wealth is “better than a vitamin injection.” And Bardugo notes the sleepy grin of an undergrad rapist, and the rapist’s tendency to point a camera back at himself, as if admiring his own star power.
It’s clear Bardugo has a Yale obsession, and so many fascinating tidbits work their way into the book:
*Calhoun (Slavery is a positive good”) College became Hopper College in part because a cafeteria worker took a stained-glass image of a plantation and smashed it on the ground.
*Science Park was a 1990s bid to make New Haven wonderfully successful, and now Science Park has a slightly haunted feel.
*There were colonial-style buildings, and almost all were razed, and ultimately faux-Gothic buildings sprouted up (confusing, because the Gothic style actually came before the colonial style, in architectural history).
*The many gates and locks famously linked with Yale were, in part, a response to post-Civil War years, when the city of New Haven encountered some major safety issues.
*Someone at the Rare Books Library has the daily task of flipping one page of the Gutenberg Bible--one page per day--so that visitors can gawk.
“Ninth House” is a treat; it tells a gripping town-gown murder-mystery story. It has fun nostalgic details; you might find your love life is a mess, but you also have pages in “Nostromo” and “The Good Soldier” to race through. (How often do you see references to “The Good Soldier” in contemporary literature?) “Ninth House” raises questions about gender and about class, and yet there isn’t a sense of preachiness or heavy-handedness. The book has won major raves from Stephen King, Kelly Link, and Joe Hill, among many others.
Believe the hype.
*Correction. Looking into Bardugo more, I see that her financial status, in childhood, is unclear. She did not have a father in her life. She and her mom lived with “the ancients” (with Bardugo’s grandparents). I’m not sure which conclusions to draw from that. But I’d saying being a goth kid without a dad would make you aware of some “outsider” insights at Yale, regardless of your money situation; goth-and-fatherless would place you outside “the Yale norm,” whatever that might be.
Thanks for the recommendation, Daniel. Trans-class stories such as this one need telling!
ReplyDeleteHope you are well.
Thank you! The writing is so smart and skillful--and that became clearer to me as I was remembering parts this morning.
DeleteAnd yes- doing well and hanging out with a three month old! Still at a small school in Manhattan. I hear from Paul a bit now and then and think of you and the BFS group! Hope you’re well, too.
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