Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes
Kathleen West, 2020
Penguin Publishing
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780593098400
Summary
A wry and cleverly observed debut novel about the privileged bubble that is Liston Heights High—the micro-managing parents, the overworked teachers, and the students caught in the middle—and the fallout for each of them when the bubble finally bursts.
When a devoted teacher comes under pressure for her progressive curriculum and a helicopter mom goes viral on social media, two women at odds with each other find themselves in similar predicaments, having to battle back from certain social ruin.
Isobel Johnson has spent her career in Liston Heights sidestepping the community’s high-powered families.
But when she receives a threatening voicemail accusing her of Anti-Americanism and a liberal agenda, she’s in the spotlight.
Meanwhile, Julia Abbott, obsessed with the casting of the school’s winter musical, makes an error in judgment that has far-reaching consequences for her entire family.
Brought together by the sting of public humiliation, Isobel and Julia learn firsthand how entitlement and competition can go too far, thanks to a secret Facebook page created as an outlet for parent grievances.
The Liston Heights High student body will need more than a strong sense of school spirit to move past these campus dramas in an engrossing debut novel that addresses parents behaving badly and teenagers speaking up, even against their own families. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Kathleen West is a veteran middle and high-school teacher. She graduated with a degree in English from Macalester College and holds a Master's degree in literacy education from the University of Minnesota. She lives in Minneapolis with her hilarious husband, two sporty sons, and very bad goldendoodle. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
West’s humorous debut channels… competitive parenting and overblown school drama.… West successfully unpacks the problems of shaming and cancel culture with tight plotting and clean prose. [She] demonstrates a worthy talent for tragicomedy.
Publishers Weekly
The politics of high school…. Though the characterizations sometimes come a little too close to caricature, West has expertly captured the high school culture of today in a novel that is at times cringe-worthy and eventually hopeful. —Jane Jorgenson, Madison P.L., WI
Library Journal
A cutting and witty examination of modern parenting that excels in suburban relatability, West's debut novel will pique the curiosity of fans of Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette.
Booklist
[S]harp, unflinching…. [H]igh school students… have to learn about kindness and mentoring, bullying and inappropriate behavior by judging their parents' and teachers' actions rather than those of their peers. An excellent, nuanced exploration of the world of high school.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
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