The Tattered Box is a standalone novel about memories and
family, and falls into the general fiction category.
John is a typical teenager in that he has heard all of his
grandfather Bill’s stories before, and gets irritated when he brings them up
time and time again. One day Bill brings out a box of old objects, treasures to
him but a bore to John. A little later John goes to play in a baseball game and
gets clocked in the head by a ball. When he wakes up he is in 1941 and has
assumed the body of a youngster named John who is friends with Bill. As the war
approaches, John and Bill share many events and John learns why the objects
have become treasures.
So many people are guilty of brushing aside the older
generation’s tales with excuses of “it’s not relevant in modern life” or “we’ve
heard it all before” without realising that this was actually part of a person’s
life and that one day we will do the same. John learned what it was like to
have a father, to be faced with an uncertain future and to deal with death, as
well as enjoy the simpler things in life. I did find it strange that he was
only a little worried about going back in time and just assumed it would be ok
to take over this person’s life for an indeterminate amount of time. The
writing was a little too “articulate” for the time period too considering John
was only 18. His dialogue or emotions attributed to him were often too mature
like “She barely acknowledged me, yet her posture did not portray rudeness” or “Yet
she bore a noticeably fraught anxiety on her face.”
Overall I enjoyed how John was able to see his grandfather
as a person and participate in some of the experiences that made him who he
was. We have a lot to learn from others and while we are prone to try and bring
in our own experiences, sometimes we must just quieten down and absorb.
No comments:
Post a Comment