Reader Response to Orfe by Cynthia Voight
Back cover reads:
"She sings of our pain, our joy. Her music reassures us that we are not alone. That someone, somewhere, understands us. A talkent such as Orfe's is rare. Those who can control it, even rarer. The weight can be far too heavy to bear. And the music that makes us strong may destroy her."
My Rxn:
an odd little piece. switches all over the place. 120 pages. written in 4 parts. flashes from 8th grade or so to college and back to other things. i dunno. i have mixed feelings about it. it seems like it's just skimmed the surface of the main character, orfe...the story is narrated by her friend... and i think that voight could do much more with her. i really had a void where i thought the "jist" of the novel might be. not sure of concrete themes or anything. it did remind me a little of Stargirl by jerry spinelli. nevertheless, i found some awesome stuff:
"What is the same about them is their voices, the way they start speaking the cruelty and have no power to stop themselves. Cruelty urges or calls them onward, and they dive more deeply into it, as if they could get drunk on cruelty, addicted to violence, swallowed up and besotted, as if they heard their own voices speaking the words and fell in love with the sounds of violence in their own voices" (4-5).
"The next day I got a good clip in, across his cheek and nose, a wide broadhand with the lunch box, before he could block it. Blood poured out of his nose, and I spent the afternoon sitting on a chair out in the hallway. I sat alone, with nothing to do, no books or papers, feeling glad. Feeling as if I had been shut up in a little closet, but now I had broken down the walls and broken myself free" (19).
"He was about to start getting to know her, and his brain almost supernovaed with it"(76).
i don't know who would win a recommendation for this novel... probably unconventional girls. i think it might be about an eating disorder... but i'm not sure. there is also some drug usage in here. it is considered a YA novel, but i'm not sure who the target is. it's a really fast read. unfortunately, it doesn't win the Word Nerd Seal of Approval.
Back cover reads:
"She sings of our pain, our joy. Her music reassures us that we are not alone. That someone, somewhere, understands us. A talkent such as Orfe's is rare. Those who can control it, even rarer. The weight can be far too heavy to bear. And the music that makes us strong may destroy her."
My Rxn:
an odd little piece. switches all over the place. 120 pages. written in 4 parts. flashes from 8th grade or so to college and back to other things. i dunno. i have mixed feelings about it. it seems like it's just skimmed the surface of the main character, orfe...the story is narrated by her friend... and i think that voight could do much more with her. i really had a void where i thought the "jist" of the novel might be. not sure of concrete themes or anything. it did remind me a little of Stargirl by jerry spinelli. nevertheless, i found some awesome stuff:
"What is the same about them is their voices, the way they start speaking the cruelty and have no power to stop themselves. Cruelty urges or calls them onward, and they dive more deeply into it, as if they could get drunk on cruelty, addicted to violence, swallowed up and besotted, as if they heard their own voices speaking the words and fell in love with the sounds of violence in their own voices" (4-5).
"The next day I got a good clip in, across his cheek and nose, a wide broadhand with the lunch box, before he could block it. Blood poured out of his nose, and I spent the afternoon sitting on a chair out in the hallway. I sat alone, with nothing to do, no books or papers, feeling glad. Feeling as if I had been shut up in a little closet, but now I had broken down the walls and broken myself free" (19).
"He was about to start getting to know her, and his brain almost supernovaed with it"(76).
i don't know who would win a recommendation for this novel... probably unconventional girls. i think it might be about an eating disorder... but i'm not sure. there is also some drug usage in here. it is considered a YA novel, but i'm not sure who the target is. it's a really fast read. unfortunately, it doesn't win the Word Nerd Seal of Approval.
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