Wednesday 24 April 2013

Wonder



In an age where a quiet night in involves pointing and laughing at Embarrassing Bodies or The Boy who had testicles for arm pits and didn’t have a head and looked a bit like an odd but sort of more attractive Anthony Costa, you could be forgiven (even though you shouldn’t) for forgetting that people like Wonder’s August Pullman exist in the real world.

Though being a book for children, Wonder will still inevitably attract an adult audience hungry for their next fix of freak. It is impossible to produce a documentary about a boy with a facial abnormality and truly move your audience. Some will tune in to have a good ol’ laugh and tweet about “mongs”, some will watch only to improve their own self-esteem (“thank god I don’t look like that”), and some will sympathise right up until 2 Broke Girls comes on. Thankfully, R.J. Palacio’s Wonder does not have that problem...sort of.

Wonder may be about a boy with a facial abnormality, but it is more About a Boy than About a Boy with a vagina for a face and like really big kankles where his nipples should be and he’s got like this really weird smell that’s a bit like a farm but he’s not actually a farm, he’s a boy. While a perpetual obstacle, August’s face is not the sole source of his misery. Starting at a new school and making friends is difficult, being a Star Wars nerd certainly doesn’t help either, and any child and adult can relate to this. Wonder is not so much a novel about a boy with a facial abnormality but a boy who is bullied, and the cruel nature of not only school children, but also adults.

More shocking than August’s face is the behaviour of other characters. Julian, who is the popular kid despite being called JULIAN, is a pre-pubescent Gossip Girl character, the sort of horrible shit Roald Dahl would have brutally murdered by Oompa Loompas or a suave fox. Julian is that Dahlian brand of nastiness, scheming against August and his friend Jack Will (product placement?) presumably because he just loves to be a douchebag. August experiences cruelty from a host of characters but it is his beef with Julian (akin to that of Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy) that keeps the narrative flowing. It may fizzle out and end in an anti-climax and not the car chase and sword fight I had hoped for, but this is a relatively realistic novel, and more often than not, bullies stay bullies.

Wonder is narrated by several characters and as a result gives perhaps a more balanced view on the novel’s subject matter. Not only are we given August’s perspective, but also the perspective of his sister, friends, and one slightly grating hipster. Their lives may gravitate towards August and we are shown how they feel about him, but Palacio grants them the freedom to have their own problems and issues. As the novel progresses it becomes less about August and more a story of growing up.

As sad, moving and inspirational as the novel is, it can at times suffer from its extreme sentimentality. Quoting Christina Aguilera’s Beautiful is as cringey as a book can get, and even though the song might encapsulate Wonder’s sentiment...well let’s just not do it eh? For such an honest novel, it comes as surprise to read such a contrived ending. First and foremost Wonder is a children’s book teaching the importance of kindness, but this lesson is so explicit in the final pages that it becomes more like a morality tale than the moving and heart warming story that it is. You have to be a pretty cold hearted bastard not to empathise with August or even one of the characters, so to have the novel’s message told to you so explicitly - be kind - is patronising even for a child.

Despite its flaws (and there aren’t many), Wonder provides a refreshing perspective on an issue that is often treated with insensitivity, as well as accurately conveying the troubles and emotions of being bullied and growing up. The world is full of cruel and mean people, and Wonder demands that it changes for the better. No matter how explicit the lesson may be, it is a lesson that most people need to learn. Maybe those adults hoping for The Undateables: The Novel can learn a thing or two. 

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