The Boys’ Swim Team
Doo Hyun Lee Ms. Chan Pd.2 / Late British Literature 4 / 26 / 09
Albert Chang: (Captain of the swim team, interested in martial arts, avid drummer)
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Q1. Is the novel as mysterious as the title makes it out to be?
A1. At first I thought the novel might be about a serial killer because the title is pretty ominous. And when I read it there actually was a murder although it was random and ended up going down a very philosophical road. However, the protagonist Meursault is very spooky.
Q2. What do you mean by “random and going down a very philosophical road”?
A2. Meursault leads a pretty happy life with a decent job and a nice relationship with his girlfriend. The death of his mother and the monotony of his life don’t really bother him. He has no motive to kill anyone. The philosophical part comes in the second part of the novel when people try to sentence Meursault for his crime. He’s not too sure of what he’s done while others try to punish him or save his soul.
Q3. Do you find the certain philosophies this novel deals with in other novels?
A3. I’m not sure but I did read a scene in a short story that was similar to a scene in The Stranger. In the short story, a boy who stresses over life finds a weird kind of relief when he gets angry and kills a guy. At the end of The Stranger, Meursault who stresses over his jail time finds an eerie relief when he goes absolutely ballistic on this religious guy.
Q4. How do you feel after having read it?
A4. This book is definitely not suspenseful or thrilling or anything like that, but you really start feeling deep because it introduces knew ways of thinking, although some of them are pretty negative like the irrationality of the universe.
Q5. Do the philosophical aspects overcomplicate things?
A5. Actually, they simplify the story because without the philosophies, you would have no idea why Meursault does the things he does.
Mikhail Goman: (Sports enthusiast who is a member of the football, lacrosse, and swim teams, currently taking Science Fiction and Fantasy)
A Simple Plan by Scott Smith
Q1. What’s the plan and why is it simple?
A1. A man (Hank), his brother (Jacob), and his friend (Lou) stumble upon a great deal of money, and they decide to keep it for themselves. They plan to keep everything under wraps for a couple of months. If any news about the money comes up, they’ll return it, but if things are quiet then the money will be theirs.
Q2. Do things go accordingly or awry?
A2. I mean it wouldn’t be much of a story if things were okay. The main problem the characters face is paranoia while a minor problem is greed. Lou wants to spend a little of his money, but Hank and Jacob are afraid others will find out. Hank winds up murdering Lou, not out of greed but to protect his wife and infant son. Hank even kills his own brother in an attempt to protect his family from getting caught up in the crime.
Q3. Is there a clear-cut hero and villain?
A3. Hank does all the murdering, but he seems to be the most caring character in the novel. Lou doesn’t have any blood on his hands, but he’s a real douche bag.
Q4. Don’t you think you just ruined the story?
A4. When you read the entire novel, you’ll find out that the actual murders were more for shock value then plot.
Q5. Is suspense what really drives the story?
A5. Yeah when a man kills his own brother, you really don’t know what’s going to happen next.
Christopher Kwok: (Captain of the swim team, member of the school orchestra, currently taking Shakespearean Literature)
Prep by Curtis Sittenfield
Q1. What’s so exciting about a prep school?
A1. Nothing. This whole book probably would be really bad if it weren’t for the first-person narrator Lee. She’s a middle-class girl attending a prestigious private high school with very wealthy people. The contrast makes the novel fun to read.
Q2. What kind of contrasts are you talking about?
A2. There are the obvious contrasts like Lee who is from Indiana can’t take her eyes off anything in Massachusetts. There are the less obvious contrasts like the few poor people who attend Ault are mean and easy to anger while the rich people are kind and collected.
Q3. So the narrator is a girl. Does she talk about topics that would be uncomfortable to boys?
A3. She talks about losing her virginity. It’s probably the same for boys, but hearing it from a girl’s point of view was very uncomfortable.
Q4. If the novel is about high school kids but the author is an adult, does the dialogue sound forced?
A4. Her dialogue is free of slang and pretty simple. It’s when Lee is thinking to herself when the language gets sophisticated. Even if the dialogue doesn’t sound real, the reader can understand because the novel is an adult Lee recounting her high school experience.
Q5. Did the novel make you reconsider high school life?
A5. The only thing it helped me realize is how childish teenagers could be.
Toshihiro Noguchi: (A junior on the swim team who enjoys puzzles and classical music, currently taking Late American Literature)
The Gold-Bug and Other Tales by Edgar Allen Poe
Q1. Was this your first Poe experience?
A1. Yes. I always wanted to read the writing of this legendary horror writer, and I think his short stories are the best way to start.
Q2. How was it?
A2. When I think of horror, I expect to feel chills down my back. His short stories only gave me goosebumps because they were so disturbing. “The Fall of the House of Usher” dealt with things like incest.
Q3. What was your favorite short story?
A3. “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” was the first detective story I ever read, and it actually encouraged me to read some Agatha Christie novels. Detective Dupin reminded me of Doctor House from the television show. The ending was actually funny in my opinion. I’ll just say that it has to do with monkeys.
Q4. Poe led a pretty depressing life. Can you tell from his stories?
A4. I think Poe was an alcoholic. In “The Black Cat” the narrator suffers from alcoholism. What happens because of the alcohol haunts him continuously.
Q5. So are you going to read more of his work?
A5. Yes. I heard his poetry is just as disturbing.
Daniel Slutsky: (Member of a swim team both in and out of school, member of the math team)
No Exit by Jean Paul Sartre
Q1. What does the “No Exit” refer to?
A1. The three characters find themselves in a hell with no exit.
Q2. It sounds bad. Is it?
A2. The hell refers to a room in which three complete strangers find themselves not enjoying each other’s company. In the beginning, I didn’t know how bad it could possibly be, but by the end I realized how scary other people could be.
Q3. Why, are the people jerks?
A3. One woman is a bitch, the other woman is narcissistic, and the man is a coward. I guess they make a very volatile combination. Also the one thing that makes the hell worse is that the characters have no eyelids so they can’t even fall asleep to escape each other.
Q4. What did you learn from the book?
A4. I learned how powerful another person’s opinion could be. In the end of the novel, the door to the room opens, and the people are free to leave, but they all want to change each others opinions of themselves, so they just stay in the room. Also in the room, there are no mirrors, so the people cannot judge themselves. Instead they rely on each other to judge.
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