{"id":192,"date":"2017-08-31T20:18:13","date_gmt":"2017-08-31T20:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/?p=192"},"modified":"2021-03-15T19:54:46","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T19:54:46","slug":"all-the-major-constellations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/2017\/08\/31\/all-the-major-constellations\/","title":{"rendered":"All the Major Constellations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daisy Rush<\/h2>\n

\"\"Andrew\u2019s world is very small. He\u2019s always lived in the same place, he has two best friends, and he\u2019s been infatuated with same girl for all four years of high school. Now he is graduating and his small world is blown apart with one horrible accident. His best friend, Sara, is left in a coma after a car crash of her own doing, and his other closest friend, Marcia, spends every waking second by her side in the hospital. Andrew is left at home to pick up the pieces of his world which has now become two friend-sized spaces smaller.<\/p>\n

Pushing past the waves of grief and guilt, Andrew finds that his situation \u2013 while extremely unfortunate \u2013 is bringing Laura closer to him. Although he is unsure of her intentions, Andrew pushes his self-consciousness aside and thrusts himself into her world, leaving as much as he can of his own behind. He begins to hang out with her and her very religious friends, learning that her religion, which he has always been wary of, is more a part of her life than he is ready for. Andrew has a few out-of-body experiences, leaving him to think that maybe Sara\u2019s accident was God\u2019s way of trying to show himself to Andrew.<\/p>\n

But what is Laura\u2019s motive for getting closer to Andrew? Is she using the situation to try to convert Andrew, or is she finally interested in him? No matter what Andrew says or does, Laura just seems to get farther away from him. When Sara finally is declared brain dead and taken off of life support, Andrew finds his way to Marcia and the two of them laugh \u2013 and cry \u2013 over what Andrew\u2019s small world has become.<\/p>\n

This is the first novel written by Vermont-native, Pratima Cranse. The reason I picked this book out of the many newly published options was because I was drawn to the modern-day search for spirituality. As someone who began her journey of faith in high school, I connected with Andrew\u2019s questions and doubts. Since his newfound spiritually was mixed up in his friend\u2019s Sara\u2019s accident, there was a lot of anger involved in his questions.<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t allowed to ask about Sara, but he could ask for Marcia, and she would give him an update. An update. Nothing\u2019s changed. Sara\u2019s in a coma. If she wakes up at all, she might never walk again, talk again, eat real food again, have sex, fall in love. [Screw] God,\u201d <\/em>he thought, and slammed the phone down. (88)<\/p>\n

These feelings were extremely warranted, but did not help him feel like there was a loving God watching over him, no matter how much Laura tried to convince him. She and her friends resembled a small cult and Andrew seemed to be the target of their affections, perhaps because he came across as a challenge. This aspect of the book was most believable, especially from the point of view of a reader who lives in an environment with many small, Christian groups.<\/p>\n

Andrew as a character was entirely well-developed, due to his violently unhappy home life and his transference of love onto people and animals that can\u2019t love him back. He took a lot of the brunt of the unhappiness in his home, and eventually was forced to live in a work shed on the property of the maintenance crew he worked for. \u201cHe used to be interested in his older brother, and then he wasn\u2019t\u2026They were like two would-be strangers peering at each other in the dark. Who is that? Oh, it\u2019s you. <\/em>\u201cIt\u2019s me,\u201d Andrew said to the stars.\u201d (260).<\/p>\n

Sara\u2019s death in the end of novel was entirely crucial to the development \u2013 or non-development \u2013 of Andrew\u2019s spirituality. While perhaps not everyone would agree, Andrew would have been inclined to find his faith a lot sooner and it wouldn\u2019t have been as realistic of a life development. Sara\u2019s coma was an extended metaphor for Andrew\u2019s journey, and when she died, so did his drive and interest in Christianity:<\/p>\n

The only light came from the stars and moon. It grew dim and bright, dim and bright, as the clouds shifted in the night sky. They were still and silent, lost in their separate thoughts. Marcia shivered. Then she giggled; she actually giggled. It was the first time he\u2019d heard her laugh since Sara had died. \u201cWhat?\u201d he said, smiling at her. She looked at him slyly, a little like Sara. \u201cI was just thinking about you and those Christian kids. I mean, at least you got some action this summer.\u201d (316)<\/p>\n

When I first read this book, I found the ending extremely anticlimactic. Andrew made no decisions about himself, his sexuality, or his spirituality. Upon further reading though, I found the final few pages of the book to be highly representative of not only the rest of the novel, but about finding spirituality itself. Coming to terms with death and faith isn\u2019t always climatic. There isn\u2019t always a big moment of clarity that changes the world completely. Sometimes it is longer, more complicated, and more uneventful than that. Perhaps this is what Cranse intended when she wrote this novel. Perhaps it was just a happy coincidence that stemmed from an unimpressive first novel.<\/p>\n

Although this book was extremely interesting, the concept was better than the execution. Cranse writes better dialogue than storyline, which detracts from the overall readability of the novel. Andrew was likeable but it was difficult to connect with someone who was borderline creepy.<\/p>\n

\u201cLaura, I feel like I can smell your hair around the school, around our neighborhood. It\u2019s like I\u2019m always just missing you. I never know where you are, but I know where you\u2019ve been. I love you, but you haunt me like a nightmare. When I\u2019m an old man, I know that I\u2019ll still dream about you.\u201d (15)<\/p>\n

Although this passage may have been sweet if Andrew and Laura had been dating, it was much less charming knowing that they had barely even spoken, let alone spent any time together. It was the combination of Andrew\u2019s unhealthy obsession with Laura and Cranse\u2019s undeveloped writing style that made this book one I wouldn\u2019t need to read again.<\/p>\n

After reading this review, you may ask why I kept reading a book that I didn\u2019t fall in love with. Every so often, there were these illustrious passages that reeled me in just as I was about to walk away.<\/p>\n

It was as though they were inside a ray of the sun. Everything was pale yellow. Everyone looked beautiful, desirable. Laura especially. A pale golden Laura lit from within. She sat next to Andrew with her hands gently clasped around one of his wrists. Like a human handcuff, or as though she were offering his hand to the sun. (210)<\/p>\n

Cranse as an author is intriguing. This novel was a quick read that left me pondering my own spirituality and connecting with a complicated boy in a small world.<\/p>\n

Cranse, Pratima. All The Major Constellations. New York: Penguin Random House, 2015. Print.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daisy Rush Andrew\u2019s world is very small. He\u2019s always lived in the same place, he has two best friends, and he\u2019s been infatuated with same girl for all four years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[340],"tags":[74],"class_list":["post-192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-literary-studies","tag-book-reviews","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":193,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192\/revisions\/193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}