Stand Before Your God: A Boarding-School Memoir

Paul Watkins is a terrific writer. None of his books show off his talent as this one does. It is the story of his life as an American schoolboy in England's swankiest schools. More than that it is about a boy growing up adhering to rules and recognizing that that adherence is endemic to his English life but not his American life.Best of all about this book, though, is the writing. It is clear, melodic, rhapsodic yet forceful. It is a book to sit and savor. One can only wonder and admire the construction of sentences and thoughts. A purely enjoyable experience to read.

I first read this book my senior year of high school when it was recommended to me by my English teacher. At the time, Watkins was the writer in residence at another boarding school in the area. I was captivated from the moment I opened the cover until I put the book down. Watkins' shameless honesty about the awkward moments of childhood makes it easy to laugh not at him, but at similar events in your own embarassing past. From his mischevious antics at the Dragon School to his studies at Eton, Watkins helps us all to remember the silly things we once did and of which we are now ridiculously ashamed. His utter familiarity with the reader allows the reader to open up and re-expose her memories to herself! While hilariously funny at times, this book also takes on the task of embracing nostalgia as memories seem to slip away. As the young Watkins ages and changes schools and confronts more "serious" issues, any reader can see how growing up happens to us. There is no avoiding it. As much as we might like to live as Peter Pan and daydream about pleasant memories, we are changed by the people we encounter and the places we go, and we just can't help it. And why should we?Watkins allows the reader to confront the bittersweet loss of childish innocence while smiling and embracing what has gone and what will come. This is not a sentimental journey, but one that is pleasantly real in a non-sappy or melodramatic way. Watkins shows the reader how to laugh at life and love all that it can throw at you.On a side note, check out Roald Dahl's "Boy". It may be a children's book, but it is well worth the read.

If you're not convinced yet after reading the above comments, check for your pulse. They hit it on the nose why this book is so great. I gobbled it up in two days when I was fourteen, and will never forget it. His journey had echoes of my own, even though I'm a home schooled girl from the Midwest. In the course of reading it, I became conscious of my own inborn writer-nature as he became aware of his own. Most people don't know what to make of this book when I try to recommend it, but it is definitely a masterpiece. (Afterwards, I read a novel of his, "The Promise of Light," which was also good.) Rest assured, our grandchildren will be reading Paul Watkins for English class - he is a master in the making.

Paul Watkins's Stand Before Your God tells the story of his 10 or so years in two of Britain's top boarding schools - Dragon and Eton. This memoir tells of his coming of age in the all male environment of the British boarding school. By his own admission, Watkins's coming of age did not occur gradually, but the growth came in "jolts, from one suddenly realized thing to another ... It seems that in some years I would stay the same and at other times, I would be jolted four times in a week." (pg. 144) Since his memoir chronicles these jolts that occurred during his boarding school years, there is a lack of smooth flow in the book. That is not to say it is bad in anyway, but it isn't a biography of his boarding school years. It isn't a book about what it's like to attend Dragon or Eton. On many occasions, the reader hardly knows what year Paul is in school. Traditions and idiosyncracies of the schools are mentioned in passing, but rarely explained. It is a book about what it was like for Paul Watkins to grow up at Dragon and Eton. It is a truly moving coming-of-age story. Watkins demonstrates an amazing memory, and the first chapters (his early years) seem to be spoken by a scared and lonely six-year-old boy. He eloquently describes the events that shaped his life including his father's death from cancer during his first year at Eton. The one thing I found to be lacking was a conclusion saying where his friends are now. Perhaps that is because Watkins doesn't know himself. Since the memoir is about his coming-of-age, friends and family only appear on the peripheral. I was also left with the impression that Watkins had few close friends. Three, in particular though, were important enough in his life to make an impression on me as a reader. I was left wondering where they might be now. That is a very minor point though and may not have served the book well after all. That aside, this is a very good book. I couldn't put in down and suffered for that lack of will power the next day. It was not so much that I was engrossed in what was happening, but I needed to find out what was going to happen to Paul. I couldn't wait to find out how he made it through school. I recommend this book.

I have read few books in my eleven years as a bookseller that have moved me as much as Paul Watkins' coming-of-age memoir. There are only three that I have read more than once: THE SECRET HISTORY, A SEPARATE PEACE (which I have read twice a year ever since high school), AND STAND BEFORE YOUR GOD.Watkins' ability to take everyday events and anxieties and turn them into the stuff of revelation is a rare gift. His writing is clear, incisive, and, in spite of the unusual circumstance of an American attending the most exclusive of British prep schools, universally telling. I read the book thinking of my numerous perusals of A SEPARATE PEACE and my own cherished memories of attending a small private college in the rural midwest. I read the book with a pen in hand, underlining his most illuminating thoughts about Eton, and writing "Yes! YES!!!!!" in the margins when his own epiphanies bespoke my own. I read the book wide-eyed, knowing that, alone in my living room, I was in the company of genius.I have recommended the book to many of my customers over the years, employing both of my most heartfelt evaluations: "Oh, but you MUST!" and "Trust me on this one!" They have, all, thanked me profusely for the recommendation. In this extraordinary collection of tales that make up a short time in a still remarkably short life, we find images of ourselves, and marvel that a stranger can know so much about us.Seek it out. Read it. Cherish it. Oh, but you must! Trust me on this one!