A review by jdglasgow
Bloomability by Sharon Creech
3.0
I thought CHASING REDBIRD was excellent and WALK TWO MOONS was extraordinary, so I had high hopes going into BLOOMABILITY, my third Sharon Creech book. Unfortunately, this is definitely the weakest of the three. Though it has some of the hallmarks of her work, it never hit any of the emotional or literary highs, for me, that the others did.
The book follows a young girl, Domenica “Dinnie” Doone, who is sent to Switzerland to attend an international school run by her uncle and aunt after her older siblings each make a mess of their lives (her brother by getting involved in crime, her sister by getting involved in birthing a baby). Dinnie is, at the start, somewhat at a loss for who exactly she is or where she belongs. Over the course of the book she develops a better sense of her identity and comes to live in the moment—Víva! Libera! She also, as is a continuing theme with Creech, comes to realize that other people around her have full lives of their own with struggles and backstory which informs their behavior and personality in ways that are not always apparent. Lila, for instance, feels like almost the same character as Phoebe in WALK TWO MOONS: she’s tough to be around and self-centered, but underneath it is… well, if not trauma then at least some difficulty. I suppose it is a little hard to feel sorry for a bunch of rich kids because they have absent parents but people are people.
There isn’t as much of the almost poetic language I’m used to seeing from Creech. I don’t know how to describe it exactly—just sort of blunt, oddly profound or lovely statements. There are a couple of things that stuck out to me here, though I wouldn’t call either of them profound. First is a dream Dinnie has (the book is filled with little asides about “the dreams of Domenica Santolina Doone”, though most don’t seem necessary or all that revealing). In the dream, she imagines herself as an anchovy. She wants to call out for help, but she says, “I wasn’t a talking anchovy.” I can’t explain it but I really liked that sentence. The other thing is that when Dinnie first comes to Switzerland she feels she’s been kidnapped and tries to write notes to put in the window reading “KIDNAPPED!” or “HELP!”, using the aid of an English to Italian dictionary (even though they are in Switzerland the predominant language is Italian—don’t ask me why). Her aunt and uncle read her signs and say things like, “I think what you wrote means ‘Help yourself’, as though you are inviting burglars into the house. Is that what you meant?” Their nonjudgmental, soft “Is that what you meant?” is nice and it really comes together later on when Dinnie writes a card that reads “LOTTANTE”. Her aunt reads it and asks, “Doesn’t that mean ‘struggling’? Is that what you meant?” To which Dinnie replies, “Yep.” Her aunt pats her head and tries to console her. It’s a nice moment made better by the lead-up to it.
The rest of the book is fine and good. I didn’t really feel drawn to many of the other characters. There is a memorable scene where Dinnie and a boy Guthrie run a public obstacle course. And there is of course a dramatic climactic moment on a mountain. I’ll not say too much about this to avoid spoiling it except that I guess it’s supposed to be the moment where Dinnie comes into her own but, I dunno, it didn’t really read that way to me. Much of the book, though, is just kind of her day-to-day at the school. Very slice of life, just observational stuff about the way people behave, along with her worries about her parents and siblings back home: have they forgotten me? Am I betraying them by being happy here? It is nice. From the Goodreads reviews I read before rating the book, I saw numerous people who read it as a child and who said that it really stuck with them. I can see that. I don’t think it was bad, not at all, it just didn’t have the same immediacy for me as the others I’ve read from this author. When I read WALK TWO MOONS I kind of knew pretty immediately that it was going to be 5-stars. I didn’t feel that way about BLOOMABILITY. And I don’t think it’s just a personal preference thing, I believe it really is weaker. Take, for instance, the meaning of the title: bloomability is a non-English speaking character’s way of saying “possibility”; again, it’s a sweet sentiment but doesn’t really feel rooted in the story, not really. Despite being a bit let down by this one, I’ve got ABSOLUTELY NORMAL CHAOS at home and I am still excited about reading it next.
The book follows a young girl, Domenica “Dinnie” Doone, who is sent to Switzerland to attend an international school run by her uncle and aunt after her older siblings each make a mess of their lives (her brother by getting involved in crime, her sister by getting involved in birthing a baby). Dinnie is, at the start, somewhat at a loss for who exactly she is or where she belongs. Over the course of the book she develops a better sense of her identity and comes to live in the moment—Víva! Libera! She also, as is a continuing theme with Creech, comes to realize that other people around her have full lives of their own with struggles and backstory which informs their behavior and personality in ways that are not always apparent. Lila, for instance, feels like almost the same character as Phoebe in WALK TWO MOONS: she’s tough to be around and self-centered, but underneath it is… well, if not trauma then at least some difficulty. I suppose it is a little hard to feel sorry for a bunch of rich kids because they have absent parents but people are people.
There isn’t as much of the almost poetic language I’m used to seeing from Creech. I don’t know how to describe it exactly—just sort of blunt, oddly profound or lovely statements. There are a couple of things that stuck out to me here, though I wouldn’t call either of them profound. First is a dream Dinnie has (the book is filled with little asides about “the dreams of Domenica Santolina Doone”, though most don’t seem necessary or all that revealing). In the dream, she imagines herself as an anchovy. She wants to call out for help, but she says, “I wasn’t a talking anchovy.” I can’t explain it but I really liked that sentence. The other thing is that when Dinnie first comes to Switzerland she feels she’s been kidnapped and tries to write notes to put in the window reading “KIDNAPPED!” or “HELP!”, using the aid of an English to Italian dictionary (even though they are in Switzerland the predominant language is Italian—don’t ask me why). Her aunt and uncle read her signs and say things like, “I think what you wrote means ‘Help yourself’, as though you are inviting burglars into the house. Is that what you meant?” Their nonjudgmental, soft “Is that what you meant?” is nice and it really comes together later on when Dinnie writes a card that reads “LOTTANTE”. Her aunt reads it and asks, “Doesn’t that mean ‘struggling’? Is that what you meant?” To which Dinnie replies, “Yep.” Her aunt pats her head and tries to console her. It’s a nice moment made better by the lead-up to it.
The rest of the book is fine and good. I didn’t really feel drawn to many of the other characters. There is a memorable scene where Dinnie and a boy Guthrie run a public obstacle course. And there is of course a dramatic climactic moment on a mountain. I’ll not say too much about this to avoid spoiling it except that I guess it’s supposed to be the moment where Dinnie comes into her own but, I dunno, it didn’t really read that way to me. Much of the book, though, is just kind of her day-to-day at the school. Very slice of life, just observational stuff about the way people behave, along with her worries about her parents and siblings back home: have they forgotten me? Am I betraying them by being happy here? It is nice. From the Goodreads reviews I read before rating the book, I saw numerous people who read it as a child and who said that it really stuck with them. I can see that. I don’t think it was bad, not at all, it just didn’t have the same immediacy for me as the others I’ve read from this author. When I read WALK TWO MOONS I kind of knew pretty immediately that it was going to be 5-stars. I didn’t feel that way about BLOOMABILITY. And I don’t think it’s just a personal preference thing, I believe it really is weaker. Take, for instance, the meaning of the title: bloomability is a non-English speaking character’s way of saying “possibility”; again, it’s a sweet sentiment but doesn’t really feel rooted in the story, not really. Despite being a bit let down by this one, I’ve got ABSOLUTELY NORMAL CHAOS at home and I am still excited about reading it next.