Kate Walbert’s recent book, His Favorites, is a compact 149 page novella that seems to be a
direct outgrowth of the #MeToo movement, a work consciously addressed to women who
have experienced sexual abuse from those in power over
them. But linking the book to current events does an injustice to the artistry
of this exquisitely constructed work. Ms. Walbert embeds her story of sexual
exploitation in adolescence and focuses on a teenager who is abused by her popular
English teacher in a prestigious boarding school.
Jo Hadley’s story begins
abruptly. To outward appearances, she is a typical adolescent more concerned
with how she looks, having a good time, and hanging out with friends than
reading the Great Books. Suddenly, while driving a golf cart around the course
on a lazy summer night, a close friend is violently thrown over side, strikes a
tree head first, and dies instantaneously.Only later do we learn about the profound
impact this accident has had on Joy and her family.Joy is forced to transfer out of her neighborhood public school and
enroll in the Hawthorne School. But Joy is clearly talented, adapts quickly to
her new circumstances, and is placed in a special writing program for gifted
students. There she falls under the tutelage of a charismatic 34-year old
teacher, called Master. He has a reputation for running an irreverent, highly
charged classroom and is always trailed by a legion of admiring young women
from his advanced writing class.
Jo’s horrific s encounter with Master in his
residential suite is followed by a failed effort to report Master’s behavior to
the school leadership. We learn about Jo’s parents and the disintegration of
her family after the accident. We meet her schoolmates. One is an attractive
member of Master’s retinue who resurfaces several years after graduation in New
York and who still seethes with resentment at her treatment by Master. A second
classmate is musically gifted but far less stylish than the students in
Master’s English seminar. She becomes the target of a cruel hazing prank that
reverberates in Joy’s mind with the passage of time. As the book reaches its
conclusion, the context in which Joy is relating her story is unexpectedly revealed,
which casts all of her recollections in an entirely new light. The storyline is disjointed and the vantage point shifts
frequently. But the narrative is gripping and novella’s structure is
exquisitely built on apt description and poignant allusions to other works in
the literary canon including the novel A
Separate Peace by John Knowles and The
Loneliness of the Long-distance Runner by Alan Sillitoe.
