The last 4 chapters of Black Swan Green: "Knife Grinder", "Goose Fair", "Disco" and "January Man," has left me utterly frustrated, to the point where I don't want anything to do with this book. It seriously pains me to even write this blog post. I've come to the conclusion that I will not be assigning this book to my future classes. I may recommend it to students because there are some lovely, well put together chapters in the beginning half of the book, but as far as assigning this as required reading - definitely not.
Just like every chapter, the book ends with somewhat of a cliff hanger. And I'm so disappointed by it's anti-climactic nature! Also, I still don't truly know if I like Jason as the protagonist of this book or if I believe him as a reliable narrator. I want to know for sure if he's a mental case or not and the book doesn't explicitly say if he is or isn't. Grrr! Sure, I'm glad things, for the most part, went well for him. He was able to overcome the bullying situation with the help of fate, even though it's really dark and cruel to think fate wanted Wilcox to lose his leg, and self-confidence or sheer stupidity depending on how you want to view the way Jason dealt with Neal Brose & friends. Plus, he got to make out for the first time with Holly Deblin.
However, not everything turned out positively for Jason because his parents get a divorce and each of the Taylor family go their separate ways: Taylor with his mom to Cheltenham, his dad & Cynthia (the mistress) go off to live in Oxford and Julia moves to Edinburgh. Although, his parents' split may be a good thing since they didn't have the best relationship AND Jason gets to move out of Black Swan Green and start a new adventure. Again whether this is a positive or negative thing for Jason is unclear to me.
I want to end this post by bringing up a quote in the final chapter that both intrigued and vexed me at the same time. "The world won't leave things be. It's always injecting endings into beginnings. Leaves tweezer themselves from these weeping willows. Leaves fall into the lake and dissolves into slime. Where's the sense in that? Mum and dad fell in love, had Julia, had me. They fall out of love... The world never stops unmaking what the world never stops making. But who says the world has to make sense?" (285). I love this passage because it's so beautifully written. I like the imagery that the leaves bring to my mind. But I also absolutely hate this passage! I think it's put in place to justify the anti-climactic ending of the book. And the message behind it (life is full of ups and downs and you just have to deal with it) just seems so cliche to me.
Good riddance, Black Swan Green...
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