Trust Exercise
Book - 2019
"In an American suburb in the early 1980s, students at a highly competitive performing arts high school struggle and thrive in a rarified bubble, ambitiously pursuing music, movement, Shakespeare, and, particularly, their acting classes. When within this striving 'Brotherhood of the Arts,' two freshmen, David and Sarah, fall headlong into love, their passion does not go unnoticed--or untoyed with--by anyone, especially not by their charismatic acting teacher, Mr. Kingsley. The outside world of family life and economic status, of academic pressure and of their future adult lives, fails to penetrate this school's walls--until it does, in a... spiral of events that catapults the action forward in time and flips the premise upside-down."-- Publisher.
Publisher:
New York : Henry Holt and Company, 2019
Edition:
First edition
ISBN:
9781250309884
Branch Call Number:
CHO
Characteristics:
257 pages ; 24 cm


Opinion
From the critics

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Add a CommentWell written, but juvenile, and lacks affect.
I feel compelled to leave a review after reading some of these others - I believe the problem is the other readers may have given up too quickly on the novel. The story is brilliant, and has you go further through these "acts" - the story begins to unfold, leaving you with your own doubts and forcing you to piece together the true narrative. Pure genius - the story begins with this circling around a teen in an arts group, however it's the way the novel is written that is truly captivating. It holds this dramatic arts tone the entire time - and feels like you are listening to the story through the words of a theater teacher - over the top at times, but cannibalizing.
I wanted to like this book so bad, but the narrative didn't cohere for me, and the ending left me meh.
How did this book win the national book award? I got halfway through and finally gave up. The characters aren’t very interesting end it all seem kind of boring. Yes I know adolescence is a difficult time but let’s not dwell on it and we certainly don’t need to continue it into adulthood.
Incredible experimental fiction, as sharp as the crack of a whip. A knockout.
Horrible book. i read this book to fulfill the goal read a book that read in award in 2019. It was awful. absolutely awful. I repeat this is probably one of the worst books i have ever read. Obviously since it did win an award there will be people who disagree with me, but this is my opinion.
Barack Obama recommendation
This is not a comfortable read. It's salacious. For me, I struggled with nostalgia throughout. The author pinpoints the exact feelings and experiences of high school theatre (down to the RE). It's a challenging read; you will have to put pieces together. It's worth reading if you're still interested after reading reviews.
I actually really disliked this book, I was excited to read it because I saw it on a lot of year end lists, but was put off by the vulgar language especially to describe the actions of teenagers. I am by no means a prude, but just thought it was a bit inappropriate and it put me off to the point where I didn't even want to finish the book.
With the lavish reviews, the National Book Award and the hints at twists and suprises, I REALLY wanted to like this book...but I couldn't get past the first 20 pages. I didn't like the characters, there was no plot to speak of, and, most of all, the writing style struck me as overblown and pretentious - laudable in a 1-page poem, but exhausting in a novel. It's only got 3 stars on Amazon, and a lot of the reviewers there said it was definitely a "love it or hate it" book. After i hit 60 years old, I embraced Nancy Pearl's principle of not spending time on a book that doesn't grab me within the first chapter or so. Too many books, too little time!