Rats Saw God by Rob Thomas

Steve York, who two semesters ago was a straight-A honor student, is failing his senior English class, stoned most of the time, and isolated from his peers at his new San Diego school. A surprisingly sympathetic guidance counselor gives him two options – retake English during the summer and thus delay graduation, or write a 100 page paper on the subject of his choice, to be turned in a few pages at a time. Steve decides to write the paper and after a few corny attempts at fiction, goes with what he knows and thus begins the real story. Turn back to Steve’s sophomore year. He’s living in Houston with his father – the rigid and strict former astronaut whom Steve blames for his parents’ divorce and avoids at all costs. His countercultural tendencies lead him to befriend a group comprised of the school club G.O.D. – the Grace Order of Dadaists, formed to fulfill a bet. Through the club, Steve meets Dub, his first love, and we learn that their relationship is key to Steve’s move to San Diego and plummeting prospects. In the end, Steve confronts and conquers his demons and we’re left with hopes for his future.

I really enjoyed this book. Published in 1996 – the year I finished my freshman year, I identified with the characters, the pop culture references and general mid-90s atmosphere and attitude of the novel. The characters participated in a lot of the behaviors that I stayed away from in high school – the usual sex, drugs (weed), and alcohol – but they’re realistic depictions that I recognized in my peers and sometimes in friends. However, I was completely reliving my high school days with the characters activities and motivations: hanging out, staying up late, resisting the mainstream to the point of being pretentious in our need to prove our disdain for the popular crowd, the naïveté and bluster of those days, the joy of finding a class or a teacher that really understands and challenges you, discovering friends through mutual music tastes, and all of the heightened emotions and strong ideals. It didn’t make me want to be in high school again, but it did create a nostalgia and I enjoyed looking back at my experiences. I would only recommend the book to older high school students and young adults as far as content goes, but I really think that those a couple years away from high school would be at the ideal stage to really appreciate the deeper themes.

Issues include: divorce, sexuality, drug use, alcohol use, realistic profanity, dysfunctional families, conformity.