The winner of the PEN/Faulkner award was announced last week (Netherland, by Joseph O'Neill). The book that caught my eye, however, was one of the four finalists: Ms. Hempel Chronicles, by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum.
From The Christian Science Monitor:
Teachers, take note: You’ve got an articulate new advocate in novelist Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum. Bynum’s Ms. Hempel Chronicles is not only a warm-hearted novel-in-stories about a young 7th-grade teacher navigating the final passage to her own adulthood even as she ushers her students through the tricky narrows of adolescence; it is also a testament to how hard – and important – the work of teaching is. … Bynum’s take on teaching is instructive. But it’s her sensitive consideration of complex emotions and situations on the road to maturity that’s truly heartening.
And from Entertainment Weekly:
The heroine of Sarah ShunLlien Bynum's smart, fizzy novel, Ms. Hempel Chronicles is Ms. Beatrice Hempel, a middle school teacher who chaperones field trips, endures dull assemblies, and reads endless topic sentences. Tedious? Not at all. Though she has a sexually adventurous fiancé and a drunken flirtation with a fellow teacher, Ms. Hempel's most fascinating relationships are with her students, at that age ''when they were most purely themselves.'' And while the book skates on the charming surface of life, Bynum also manages to suggest the sobering depths below. A-
And here's a how a very favorable review from Book Forum ends: "[This] is not a saccharine novel, and heartache, sexual confusion, and resignation rear their heads. When Ms. Hempel observes that a colleague’s messy desk is 'both hopeful and doomed,' she is, in her succinct, winning way, describing both her outlook and the predicament of so-called adults everywhere."
Bookwormygirl didn't love this book, though, because of a meandering plot and being "too drawn out".
Would love to hear from others who have read this.