The Edification of Sonya Crane

I've just finished J. D. Guilford's book The Edification of Sonya Crane. It was quite a page turner. From the very beginning, with Sonya Crane's irreverent exchange w/ her mother Doris, I found myself enaged. By Part III, I was gasping for breath. I felt like I was riding a literary rollercoaster. I had that same combination of dread and glee. It was like a car accident. I didn't want to see the wreck of Sonya Crane's life, but I could stop turning the pages. I won't spoil the ending for you, but I'll just say this: there is hope for Sonya yet.

But J. D. Guilford seems to pack them in w/o stuffing the reader to nauseousness. In his debut novel, THE EDIFICATION OF SONYA CRANE, Guilford gives readers a healthy serving of identity politics, peppered with issues of race, class, and gender. All of this is wrapped in a a narrative rich in simile, metaphor, and imagery. I was pleasantly surprised by Guilford's novel. I'm anxiously awaiting a sequel.

Give Guilford's book 30 pages and you're hooked. Okay, so I picked this book up w/ the strong recommendation of a friend -- and couldn't put it down. I had to get past the cover, which was little too street lit/chic lit for my taste. But Guilford's novel is a winner. First, there is the storyline: a white teen passing as biracial (she gets into a lot of trouble). Then there is the writing. EXQUISITE! Guilford is the king of metaphor. Like this one on page 20, when the main character gets news about her school transfer: "It's almost too good to be true, like the ending of an after-school special where everyone, even the dumb bully jock, says nope to dope." Or this one, when she enters school and talks to Tandy, the "friend of her dreams:" "She feels excited and ambushed, like a one-millionth customer greeted with confetti and horns." Then there is Guilford's ingenious plot. Sonya Crane's story transcedes its high school setting to become a tale of identity, deceit, and reparations to which all readers will relate. This is one of my "surprise-great-books" of the year." Like my friend said to me, "Just give it 30 pages." Guilford's novel is a winner. (I hope Oprah's reading this.)

Great Novel, once I started with the introduction, I knew that the novel was going to be a success. Sonya reminds me of my childhood bestfriend dedicated,determine and dependable. JD give us more!

JD Guilford's first novel, "The Edification of Sonya Crane," delves into the life of Sonya Crane, a white middle class teenager, who finds herself dealing with an absent father, a present-yet-absent drug-addicted mother, and a new set of peers different from her former white schoolmates. When Sonya transfers to PLD high school, an all-black school in Atlanta, she finds an opportunity to start her teenage years anew. The only problem is that this new start comes with a twist: she is now a 'mixed' or biracial teen -- an assumption made about her, which she does not correct for fear of being excluded. Guilford's book brings into focus questions about identity. What is it to be a young black teenager? What is black culture? What does it mean to 'act black'? What does it mean to 'act white'? As Sonya Crane tries to find answers to these questions, she must also deal with the basic human question of what does it mean to belong? Sonya is constantly attempting, like all teens, to find a way to belong while also attempting to craft an identity that helps her belong. Guilford's novel shows us that our conception of ourselves is partly self-determined but it is also influenced by the assumptions of those around us. Guilford's brilliance lies in his ability to show how identities are not fixed, that they shift and change across contexts. Yet, he does this in a credible way. He is very in tune with the language of contemporary teens and the issues that they face. The narration of the story, the plot, and the dialogue, demonstrate that Guilford has the ability to capture the mindset of contemporary teens and the issues that they face. Consider the following passage: "There are unspoken but understood rules to being a part of a crew, to rolling together. First of all, you meet frequently -- between every class if possible and, at the very least, during locker breaks -- to catch up on the days happenings. ('Did you see what Kemah had on?' Celesta asked. Kemah was Celesta's, and therefore the entire crew's, sworn enemy. 'She looked like a Lil' Kim wannabe.') Second, you take lunch together, sitting in the same seats in the same order. ('Meeka get up,' Tandy said. 'You know that's Celesta's seat.') Third, you are brutally honest with one another ('Sonya, girl, you too pale to be wearing that beige,' Celesta said. You look like you about to throw up.')" With this description of high school life and what it means to 'roll with a crew,' you cannot help but feel that this is a story that any teenager, no matter what their background, will immediately identify with. This is a book that is clearly destined to be a classic.