Dead End in Norvelt

Ever have a book recommended to you but you couldn't quite finish it? Have you found yourself reading a book that you feel like you should like because of the author, but just couldn't get into? How about a book that you didn't really have no affinity for, but no real reason to put it down? That sums up Dead End in Norvelt to me.

I enjoyed the previous works of Jack Gantos. Joey Pigza was an interesting character lacking the typical qualities of a hero/protagonist. You could fall in love with his faults, and see things from a different perspective. When Dead End... came out, I was hoping for a similar story. Instead it was closer to Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars, only that it lacked the storyline for 3/4 of the book.

Jack lives in Norvelt. It is a town built by Eleanor Roosevelt, and was built to help people be self-sufficient (small houses, plots of land to farm, etc). The only problem is that the old way died, giving way to industrialization and modernization. One woman is charged with chronically how the original Norvelters live and die: Miss Volker. After getting grounded, Jack is enlisted to help Miss Volker write obituaries for the original Norvelters. Along the way you see Jack grow up, and you learn lessons from the old. But the story doesn't really pick up until halfway, or two-thirds the way through when a Hells Angel dies and people begin to wonder why these original Norvelters are dying.

This wasn't my favorite Gantos book. I felt like the story lacked a real clear plot. It was a biography of sorts, which is not really my genre. I like the payoff that comes through seeing a protagonist struggle and attempt to solve a problem. I also wonder whether a majority of my kids will enjoy it, feeling similar to me in wanting a payoff in the end.

Rating: 3 out of 5. The ending helps make the story, but it seems to take forever to get there.