Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J. K. Rowling)

The next installment of the Harry Potter series, which I am reading through again. I am constantly in awe of Rowling's imagination: the spells she thinks of, the names she gives things, the complex ways her plots unfold. She also seems to get the reality of adolescents, including their tendency to obsess with one thing (Quidditch!) and block out other things (Marked for death!) that might seem more important. I also love the things she emphasizes again and again, not through words but through the very essence of the stories. Things like bravery, honesty, loyalty, and love. This is what the series is really all about, as Harry grows into the kind of person we can all admire.

Skippy Dies (Paul Murray)

This is the story of a private Catholic boys' school in Ireland and various people connected with it: the boys, their teachers, their girl friends, and their neighbors. Skippy does indeed die in the first pages. Two-thirds of the book describe the events leading up to his death, and the remaining third describes the aftermath. This book is excruciatingly well-written; the dialogue, the settings, the events, the interactions--all are drawn with precision and clarity. This makes the book even harder to take, as the events described are painful in the extreme. The story is saturated with drugs, sexual abuse, lies, betrayal, cruelty both casual and sadistic, and the utter futility of trying to oppose any of this. Nothing in this story is uplifting or ennobling. I found it gloomy, depressing, and infuriating. Not recommended.