Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes - Chris Crutcher
There are few things on the face of the earth that are crueler than a teenager confronted by someone who is even the slightest bit "different." Saddled with a genetic code that left him on the husky side - heck, all the way on the other side of husky at F-A-T - it was inevitable that Eric Calhoune's life in Junior High and High School would be an endless string of wedgies, swirlies, and general mayhem at the hands of the "normal" guys in his class. Since misery loves company, "united we stand," and all that; it's no wonder that Eric eventually joined forces with the other misfit in his class, Sarah Byrnes. Sarah Byrnes - never just "Sarah" - didn't have bad genes, though, she had the kind of family on whom dysfunctional families look down their noses. At the age of three, her face had been severely burned and her father had categorically refused to allow any attempt to reconstruct her horribly scarred visage. Sarah "Burns," indeed.
But Eric has plenty of other things on his plate besides visiting Sarah Byrnes: the swim team's prepping for state meets, the erstwhile fatty may actually finally have a girlfriend, and the fur is about to start flying at debates in his very special "Contemporary American Thought" class. This young man is in for a wild ride over the next few days; a wild ride that has "Chris Crutcher" written all over it.
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes follows a pattern similar to that of other Crutcher books, books such as Running Loose. A teenaged boy finds his life changed by his interaction with a classic role model - an athletic coach - who also helps teach him some of life's most valuable lessons, even while a cadre of lemon-pussed adults tries to keep the young man "in his place." Crutcher's adolescent males seem to inhabit a world in which athletics and hard work are the crucibles in which "real men" are formed; a world in which there are two kinds of adults and the two camps seem to be pretty uneasy around each other.
From a literary standpoint, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes isn't quite as well-written as Running Loose or Crutcher's autobiography, King of the Mild Frontier. The characters are just as rich and the lessons just as profound, but it just seems sometimes as if Crutcher is trying too hard to thumb his nose at his detractors. Unlike other Crutcher books I've read, this one seems just a little contrived - of course, he sets a pretty darned high bar. But his writing isn't why a certain group of people foam at the mouth whenever his name's mentioned...
What can one say about Chris Crutcher? As one of the most frequently-challenged authors of the past two decades, Crutcher continually stays centered on the radar screens of the bluenose set for his ever-frank approach to the lifestyle of teenaged males. He's not one to tiptoe around the subject of self-gratification (so near at hand... errr... dear to the heart of teenaged males); not one to soft-pedal the cloud of hormones that follows every teenaged boy like the cloud of dirt around Pigpen in "Charlie Brown." Worse, Crutcher is never shy about portraying a subset of adults as undeserving of the respect of youngsters - and worst of all, these inglorious adults seem to often occupy positions such as preacher, teacher, and principal. Small wonder that many would-be censors aren't too fond of him.
| The distaste of challengers for Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes seems at times odd, since - just as Louie Banks in Running Loose - Eric Calhoune, hero of Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, leads a pretty tame life. He doesn't have sex (at least not with anyone else). He doesn't drink, smoke, swear (much) or do drugs. Instead, he's a quiet, well-mannered young man who's hard-working, a good friend to Sarah Byrnes and Ellerby, and a loving son. What's not to like? Be that as it may, in truth Crutcher does at times seem to delight in poking the hornet's nest of censorship. In Staying Fat..., he touches on a broad array of topics from which some people would much rather shield their kids. The "Contemporary American Thought" class discussion of abortion is a case in point; but Crutcher's plot also brims with topics such as child abuse, suicide, hypocrisy, the existence of a God, and even adult sexuality. While on the surface the book is about self-realization - the dedication is to "All those who finally stand up for themselves" - Crutcher clearly intends to remind his audience that not every Evangelical Christian is a saint (Falwell, Hagedorn, Bakker...) and not every teacher has the best interests of his students in mind. |
So why is Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes so often challenged? Darned if I can tell... OK, in truth it's pretty obvious: my guess (since I have a blood relative who is the kind of person who'd lobby to have this book banned) is that their objections include:
• a classroom dialogue on the topic of abortion - and not just a one-sided presentation, a dialogue
• an evangelical Christian who is a pure-D hypocrite
• a "mainstream" Christian minister who takes no guff from his evangelical brethren
• evil parents; parents who abandon children and/or physically and emotionally abuse them
• the occasional appearance of mild profanity
• a scattering of offhand (groan) references to masturbation
• an attempted suicide
• an adult who uses children as pawns
• a divorced mother who has boyfriends who... gasp! stay over!
In short, like my narrow-minded relative, the idea is to make certain that children are not exposed to other belief systems and other lifestyles. For that, bluenoses, I give you a big, fat raspberry: ppppppbbbbbbbbbbbttttttttttttt!
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