# "Special Topics in Calamity Physics" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 17, 2007, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-topics-in-calamity-physics/408352 "2007-06-17T11:47:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2007, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-topics-in-calamity-physics/408352/1 "2007-06-17T11:47:01Z")
Has anyone else read Marisha Pessi’s much buzzed about first[novel](http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0143112120/ref=s9_asin_image_1-serq_g1/103-5632785-6107003?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=1EK8NVPAA8CT9TATTGDW&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=279438101&pf_rd_i=507846)? I just finished it and would love to discuss it with someone. ---
**Author:** ![DaphneBlack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daphneblack/32/5389_2.png) [@DaphneBlack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaphneBlack)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2007, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-topics-in-calamity-physics/408352/2 "2007-06-17T12:06:05Z")
I read it this past summer and enjoyed it. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2007, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-topics-in-calamity-physics/408352/3 "2007-06-17T15:08:19Z")
Okay, then … If you haven’t read it, and think you might, back out of the thread now – sometimes spoilers truly spoil a reading experience, and I think they would with this book. \*\*spoilers \*\* **spoilers** **spoilers** Yikes, I totally didn’t see the ending coming – esp. her father’s departure. The second I finished the book, I went back and reread the intro, just to see how that whole thing had been set up. Questions (and I realize any answers will be people’s opinions): Blue’s father had to have known Hannah was in Stockton – so why did they go there? How long had Hannah been in Stockton, and what was she doing there? Was she still active in the Nightwatchmen? What was her trip with the kids? (And had she slept with Charles or not?) Did anyone else keep confusing Milton and Nigel because their names should have been swapped? Why did Milton make out with her at Hannah’s house? Did Zach travel with her that summer? And this one is a nitpicky one … There were three or four errors that an editor should have caught (one was something like an “allusive/elusive/illusive” confusion). Did someone fall down on the job, or were those left in to make it clear that Blue, though brilliant, was just a kid and capable of writing slightly beyond her competence? (There were also a few mundane errors – I believe it’s Bettie Page, not Betty Page – that a fact-checker or copy-editor should have caught.) ---
**Author:** ![DaphneBlack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daphneblack/32/5389_2.png) [@DaphneBlack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaphneBlack)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2007, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-topics-in-calamity-physics/408352/4 "2007-06-17T15:57:15Z")
Your questions make me realise that I should do a re-read this summer, as you did. I read it a while back, so I’m not sure about any of the answers to your questions, though I thought that Hannah def. slept with Charles and that Milton simply made out with Blue to be cruel - but I might be forgettting something. I also assumed Hannah was still active, but I’m not sure why I thought that. Sadly, I think the copy-editing errors must have been unintentional - the last time I read a book with no such errors was a very long time ago. Fantastic book! ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2007, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-topics-in-calamity-physics/408352/5 "2007-06-17T17:19:42Z")
I didn’t reread the whole thing – just the intro, which she’s writing in her dorm room at Harvard. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-topics-in-calamity-physics/408352/6 "2007-06-18T15:26:06Z")
Bueller? Anyone? ---
**Author:** ![burundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@burundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burundi)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-topics-in-calamity-physics/408352/7 "2007-06-18T15:37:47Z")
I read it largely because Stockton is a fictionalized version of Asheville, where I live, and St. Gallway’s is supposed to be modeled on the [Asheville School](http://www.ashevilleschool.org/Default.asp?bhcp=1). I was disappointed. I enjoyed the writing, but the story didn’t hold up for me. It felt like a pastiche of Donna Tartt’s _The Secret History_ and Curtis Sittenfeld’s _Prep_. None of the major characters were remotely sympathetic and their flaws weren’t interesting enough to make up for their unpleasantness. I feel like it would have been a better book if Pessl had decided whether she wanted her book to be a mystery, a coming-of-age story, or a satire of academia. Overall, it just felt like a jumble. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-topics-in-calamity-physics/408352/8 "2007-06-18T18:20:15Z")
Interesting. Hadn’t really thought about the _Secret History_ comparison – I read that when it came out, which is what, 12 years ago or so? ---
**Author:** ![burundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@burundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burundi)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-topics-in-calamity-physics/408352/9 "2007-06-18T18:29:24Z")
Hmmm, I’m not sure when\* The Secret History \*came out. I read it about a year before I read _Special Topics_, so it was still fairly fresh in my memory. I \*wanted \*to like Special Topics, but I just couldn’t. I’d be interested in reading future works by Pessl, because I think she’s got potential. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-topics-in-calamity-physics/408352/10 "2007-06-18T18:36:29Z")
_Secret History_ looks like it came out in '92 or '93 ([link](http://www.amazon.com/Secret-History-Donna-Tartt/dp/1400031702/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-2350472-2067151?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182191620&sr=8-1)), so other than that I liked it, I don’t remember much about it. Haven’t read _Prep_ – is there a death in that as well? And interesting on the ID of the “actual” school – I’d’ve guessed the author had attended such an institution, but didn’t realize it was quite that thinly veiled. ---
**Author:** ![burundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@burundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burundi)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-topics-in-calamity-physics/408352/11 "2007-06-18T18:50:50Z")
_Prep_ is less plot-driven than _Special Topics_. It’s the story of a girl from a lower middle class family who receives a scholarship to an elite East Coast prep school. It was well-written, but an uncomfortable read for me, since the protagonist reminded me too much of myself as a teenager. The characters seemed quite similar to the characters in _Special Topics_. I read all three books within a year of each other, so I may have been more impressed by _Special Topics_ if I hadn’t read the other two so recently.