![]() ![]() ![]() Frequently laugh-out-loud funny, the novel captures the quirks and traditions of a small community, and what it’s like to enter such a community after its social dynamics are established. At her tiny new school, Caitlyn organizes a competition to see who can best fill the shoes of a. Being Remembered.” Sections narrated by Caitlyn are interspersed with interviews conducted with the competition contestants, emails, and text messages (including many unanswered ones to friends back home), which makes for a breezy read and allows readers to piece together impressions of Caitlyn and of the school, just as Caitlyn forms secondhand impressions of Paulie (who, as it turns out, is a “totally ordinary shaggy-haired kid”). Eventually, she finds a role to play as the judge for a reality show–like com¬petition to crown Paulie’s successor as “someone whose official job it is to make school… memorable.” Benjamin ( The Thing About Jellyfish) explores the unreliable nature of memory and personal mythology, with some ancient Greek philosophy thrown in via a teacher who tells the class about kleos: “Renown. ![]() Caitlyn struggles to find her place in a close-knit, offbeat rural school where she’s suddenly the odd one out. At the beginning of the new school year, before they learn that prankster Paulie is no longer enrolled at Mitchell, the 10 remaining seventh graders eagerly await their mischievous ringleader. Reluctant new-kid Caitlyn finds her classmates obsessed with the question of what happened to Paulie Fink, the charismatic class clown and “disruptor” who myste¬riously hasn’t returned at the beginning of seventh grade. An enigma: Paulie Fink, legendary student at the tiny rural Mitchell School, disappeared without a trace after sixth grade. ![]()
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