The Semester in the Existence of a Garbage Bag by Gordon Korman — Book Review
Gordon Korman has created composite people who can be recognized in part as what many students might have seen themselves at once or another in their developmental youth. Sean Delancey has everything a junior could just ask for: looks, minds, personality, and a fine, Fenster though eccentric, family — everything, that is other than a good grasp of English as a course in grammar, composition, and literature. Raymond Jardine, the self-proclaimed garbage bag, altered his way in to the assurance of Sean by being practical, a quality which should have experienced him through any difficulties anyone, except Raymond, needs to have been able to overcome.
It was the skinnelegeme of his existence that he was blessed with the worst luck any being should have experienced the misfortune to put up with. The heavenly beings who he constantly addressed his facetious humor must have smiled as calamities installed cataclysmically after his tormented self as he pursued to reach the apparently unattainable goal of spending eight weeks on the Ancient greek Island, Theamelpos, where his mere occurrence might have intended a reversal of prospects.
Bursting bathroom pipes cover him; his second poetry partner is more beauty than brains; the california king of his government project gets deposed on the due date for the assignment; his obscure poet selected for the English project is worse than dead — he is also inept; and the big dance turns into a near water-logged riot. The particular disasters continue relentlessly to the last page.
Paralleling the catastrophes of Raymond’s odyssey, the thirty-three million dollar system installed at government expense, SACGEN (Solar/Air Current Generating System) functions as if it were umbilically tied to Raymond’s fateful existence. It is Raymond’s progressive ways to each of his problems that helps him approach his goal in the face of imminent failure with the aid of Sean and the most beautiful girl in the world, Ashley, whose gullibility and naivete allowed Sean’s grandfather to pull off a most impressive hoax that made his normally morose life worth residing. The supporting characters, Cementhead, Q. David Hyatt, Nikki, Danny, and the extreme Leland Fenster, brought neverending humor to what should have been a straightforward, undamaging semester. The cynical look at government at all levels is portrayed with good-natured humor and wonderful hyperbole as the consultant colossal projects for energy-saving technological advances are made objects of ridicule as are their irreproachable advocates. The interrelationship of all the students working collectively in spite of by themselves provides for all those garbage bags, who feel as frustrated as both Raymond and Sean, hope that there is something salvageable in any curriculum no matter how great the challenge.
Evaluation: The story flowed easily and humorously as Sean, Gramps, Raymond, and Ashley come to life as representations of real people doing unreal things that spark the creative and imaginative juices to teem with a zesty flavor of the unusual. Gavin Gunhold arose from the dead as if he were a viable poetic influence and, in his brief moment of notoriety, drenched up the limelight in the alter ego identity so that even his nonsense verse became meritorious as literature.
Recommendation: Any students who feel that they are not creative enough or find themselves in an academic rut can take time out and read this for pleasure. There are enough images to which they can connect at home or in school so that any frustrations they feel will appear minimal when compared to those of Sean and Raymond. Though they are fictional, they remain a part of the learning experience and be as real as the student in the next seat. Gavin’s poetry was not that bad. Even unadorned images can have deeper that means without verging on the profound.
Teaching: The storyplot deepens itself to investigation of parental influences (as Sean’s) and observation of events which may be considered unlucky. Place into perspective, all of the events could be examined as dichotomous choices over which we have some control. Furthermore, the story considers that basic poetry is as easy to write as adding honest feelings into simple words. It also allows examination of the value of technological advances where simplicity is better.