Life > November 29, 2007

By Kara Peruccio | Staff writer

Special Topics in Calamity Physics almost scared me away by its title alone. As a history major and humanities junkie, anything involving science (especially physics) normally makes me run far, far away. My sister, however, urged me to give it a try and promised that the only mention of physics came with narrator Blue van Meer’s high school class schedule.

Author Marisha Pessl’s debut novel begins with the narrator discussing adjustment issues during her first few months at Harvard University. Her fellow Crimson find her bleak and odd. A phone call from a high school friend forces Blue to come to terms with the tragic events that unfolded during her senior year: the mysterious death of her favorite high school teacher during a camping trip in the Smokey Mountains. Blue decides to write her story, complete with visual aids and required reading.

Special Topics continues with Blue explaining her unconventional background. Her mother is long dead after a freak car accident. Gareth van Meer, her father and best friend, is a womanizing political science professor who changes universities each semester. As a result, her world consists only of her father, endless travel and books. Blue is almost too well-read and at times her eruditeness is annoying. Throughout the novel she constantly refers readers to certain novels and other works of art to back up her thoughts. It is sometimes illogical that an 18-year-old girl has read as much as Blue van Meer, but it becomes an accepted character quirk. She convinces her dad to accept a full-year teaching job so she can attempt to have a normal senior year before heading off to college. The van Meer’s settle in Stockton, N.C. and Blue enrolls in the prestigious St. Gallway School.

In one of the book’s humorous moments, Gareth wrangles Blue into second in the senior class despite the school’s policy of not allowing transfer students to become valedictorian which she later accomplishes. She attempts to focus on her studies and manage a course schedule laden with six AP classes, including physics. This plan goes awry as Blue is adopted by the mysterious film studies teacher, Hannah Schneider, and her group of student devotees, the Bluebloods. Charles, Jade, Leulah, Milton and Nigel are St. Gallway’s elite: popular, wealthy, entitled and gorgeous. Everyone wants to be their friend, but they remove themselves from the rest of the student body. At Hannah’s urging, Blue joins their ranks and goes from being the strange new girl reading Mein Kampf on the first day of school to one of the most talked about people at St. Gallway. With her new friends, Blue navigates through high school intrigue: parties, romance and scandal. All the while, Blue hides her new life from her father by telling him she is part of a Ulysses study group; Gareth does not approve of the Bluebloods or Hannah Schneider and appears to be jealous that his daughter no longer relies on him from friendship.

The first part of the book is somewhat slow and seems similar to many teenage novels: private school, cliques, fashion, parties and the metamorphosis of the new girl. The second part of Special Topics shifts from a high school melodrama to mystery novel in the vein of Agatha Christie.

The Bluebloods sneak into a costume party held at Hannah’s house where a man named Smoke Harvey dies, falling into Hannah’s swimming pool. Blue is suspicious of the death and tries to dig deeper into her teacher’s mysterious past but finds only dead ends. As the school year winds down, Hannah takes the Bluebloods on a camping trip to the Smokey Mountains. Blue finds her dead body and is convinced her teacher was murdered. The original Blueblood, however, believe Blue had something to do with the death as she was the last one Hannah spoke to before she died. She falls from the top of St. Gallway society to the most hated person on campus. Blue becomes a sleuth and investigates Hannah’s death which she refuses to accept as suicide. She collects clues which implicated Hannah, her father and a revolutionary group, the Nightwatchmen, in a great conspiracy theory. Nothing is as it appears and as a result, Blue’s world turns upside down.

Special Topics ends with a final exam complete with multiple choice questions and an essay. The multiple choice portion helps clarify some loose ends and helps readers almost choose their own ending for the characters.

Despite a slow beginning, the novel blossoms into a witty and suspenseful page-turner. Named by The New York Times as one of the 10 best books of 2006, Special Topics in Calamity Physics cannot be missed and will keep you thinking long after you finish the novel.