We are celebrating Banned Books Week and so I looked again at my library's display shelves with banned or challenged books. 1987's The Goats by first-time novelist Brock Cole sounded and looked intriguing from its cover and I took a closer look. At first I was reminded of the classic book The Lord of the Flies by William Golding for several reasons that I'll explain. Goats is a young adult novel about an American (rather than English) boy and girl entering adolescence who are the brunt of a malicious prank by older kids at a summer camp. The two are separately taken to a small island, stripped and marooned at night. Why? Because the older kids said the two were goats. In Golding's book a character is named Piggy while other characters begin hunting the wild pigs on the desert island they're marooned on. They become savages, just as wild, when cast out of civilization and left to fend for themselves in nature. When the young teens in Cole's book are left on Goat Island (no goats, but named for this traditional prank), they are stripped and expected to resort to their baser natures.
But the two 'goats' don't do so. Maybe because goats are intrinsically more stubborn than pigs, heh. Instead the boy, so careful to keep 'his front' covered from the girl, notices boats coming back to the island and assumes that their tormentors want to have more fun at their expense. He convinces the girl with thick glasses to elude their enemies and use a log in the water to escape, although not to the camp where they both vow never to return.
Their daring adventure has begun, which will involve breaking into a summer cottage, stealing money and clothes in sneaky, but clever ways, the girl calling her mother who won't come see her until the weekend, impersonating an adult over the phone to be able to stay overnight in a motel, and eluding authorities and a worried camp counselor, which entails going to another camp where they meet some interesting kids (one of whom the boy kicks like a pro to his shock). Have they become wild like beasts like Golding's boys or have they rather found inner strength and a sense of human dignity they never could access before? How you answer that will determine your appreciation for The Goats.
I believe that calling the boy and girl goats is ironic and Cole wants us to notice how his characters have responded to their abuse by rejecting the idea that they are worthless, stupid, ugly goats. While they do this by rebelling against society and hiding out in the woods, which may seem to some people like a stupid, beastly thing to do, they really are finding out who they are, becoming stronger and braver, and learning how to better relate to other kids because they were socially-retarded before in their words. Their relationship with each other also develops naturally from apathy to curiosity to respect to deep affection. There's only an interest in the differences between them and not raging hormones that lead to sex and I think early teen readers will easily relate to that.
This book has been banned by many parents and teachers undoubtedly because they don't understand why it was written. Heavens, it has two nude adolescents of different sex cavorting around a deserted island and at least he checks her out (sadly there's no reciprocation by the girl)! It seems to promote unruly behavior and the fun of being criminals like Bonnie and Clyde as they're dubbed by the kids at the other camp.
But these kids don't know who they are - a goat, bandit, fox, shadow, Laura or Howie. The Goats is a sensitive, thrilling story about how they try to find out in spite of being terrified and confused about what to do. Should we ban such a book and stifle the great need for our young people to stretch their wings and grow up into responsible people? They can only learn from their mistakes and this is the crucial message of the book. Parents and teachers who have banned it most likely do not want to hear this and I find it very sad. I know it's scary to let our kids make mistakes we wish to protect them from, but sometimes our idea of protecting them, such as the kids' workaholic parents sending them to camp, is not a good idea.
The author's technique of calling our hero and heroine simply the boy and girl can be distracting and distancing, especially if you've never read The Lord of the Flies from 1954 (reading it highly recommended). I reflected a bit and realized that it was because the two didn't know their identities and felt nameless until perhaps the end. The Goats can easily be misunderstood if read quickly without reflection and discussion, which I recommend for both young adults and the adults they trust. As a first novel I feel it is a very promising start for Cole, but not the best he has to offer and his book Celine sounds as delightful as Catcher in the Rye. His writing was descriptive enough and the dialogue genuine enough to keep me absorbed and concerned for the characters, including the mother in the occasional chapter that focused on her wondering where her daughter was and how could this have happened. I finished the story feeling that her relationship with her daughter would become closer after an initial awkwardness. Her daughter had developed more of a presence.
In summary this average-length young adult book is not light entertainment even if it appears to be. Its serious message detailed above may go over the heads of young adults, but some will definitely get it as seems to be the case in most amazon.com reviewers and especially with reflection and/or sensitive discussion.
******************
This is my second entry to the Third Banned Books Week write-off hosted by epinionator/Category Lead in Books pestyside. For more details and entries please see http://www.epinions.com/user-pestyside. Thanks for hosting this great write-off, Patsy!
For its 15th anniversary, The Goats is reissued in a new paperback edition featuring Cole s original hardcover jacket art and illustrations. The boy a...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.