Special Topics in Calamity Physics Issue #29

By Marisha Pess (528 pages, $25.95)

By Donna Blumenfeld
Published: September 1st, 2006 | 12:00am

"It's sort of a bookish coming-of-age mystery," I explained to the nurse at the county clinic when she asked what I was reading. "All the chapters are titled after great works of literature."

"Sounds a little cutesy," Nurse Gunn remarked, adjusting the speculum slightly. "I mean, everybody's writing coming-of-age stories these days, aren't they? My goodness."

Well, everyone's a critic, not least the young leading lady of Special Topics in Calamity Physics, the incredibly self-possessed Blue van Meer (picture Christina Ricci circa 2000). All ironic asides and self-deprecating wit, Blue never questions the unconventional nomadic lifestyle she shares with her overbearingly charismatic, hyper-erudite dad until, during her senior year in high school, they finally settle down in Stockton, North Carolina.

Blue’s tiny social life blooms as the film studies teacher at her new school with an inexplicable interest shoehorns her into social gatherings with the Bluebloods, an impossibly glamorous and highly feared clique. Subsequently, her regular teen activities (makeovers, crushes, risky behavior, clawing her way to valedictorian) become secondary to a terrible, transforming event, a murder “unreal and monstrous, something no textbook or encyclopedia could prepare you for,” which leads her to investigate everything she took for granted about her own history.

Blue's narration is peppered with literary and cinematic references, obscure quotations, and detailed endnotes. Many of these are real — Blue has a particular fondness for Marlon Brando and Shakespeare — and many are completely invented but plausible enough. (I'd be delighted to read, for example, Almanac of American Strange Habits, Tics, and Behaviors [1994 ed.)], if it existed.) Take out the self-referential knowingness, and you’ve got a — yes, Nurse Gunn — slightly cutesy but wonderfully precocious coming-of-ager about a girl whose illusions about grown-ups being able to protect her, or even themselves, are destroyed.

It’s probably apropos to mention the buzz around this debut novel. The author, who’s also an actress, dancer, and playwright, is such a dishy, multitalented piece of business, it’s no wonder the majority of her press consists of gossipy speculation on whether she’s the next Zadie Smith or Donna Tartt. (She’s frequently compared to Dave Eggers, too, but nobody seemed too concerned about his author photo.)

Regardless of hype, Special Topics, is ultimately appealing on its own merits. Brilliant 16-year-olds will adore it and wish they could attend St. Galway, Blue’s private school where even the dumb kids talk like 25-year-old New York hipsters. Mystery fans will enjoy Pessl’s up-to-the-minute twist on the genre. And those actual New York literary hipsters? They’ll all wish they’d written it themselves.

For an interview with the “dishy, multi-talented piece of business” Marisha Pessl, visit venuszine.com.

ABOUT THIS BOOK
Special Topics in Calamity Physics (Viking)
By Marisha Pessl
528 pages
$25.95