Calamity Topics in Special Physics

Where do we begin with Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. When I first opened the book I quickly became confused and discouraged it was a trainwreck of literary devices, overworked with quirky details, description and references to both Nabokov and pop-culture. It was slightly aggravating trying to get through the first two hundred pages limping along with a some what self-obsessed, intellectual main character and an almost dead plot-line.

Later on in the book I got used to Pessl's writing style. I eased along post-iting descriptions and meaningful sentences i liked. And from then on my reading was gentle and sloped.

Blue Van Meer our nomad narrator moves from town to town around the country after her mother dies, with her academic political-science genius father, finally settling at a prestigious private school. Blue is accepted into an exclusive group of friends, where everyone else is simply exoteric. A fixture of the group is Hannah, the beautiful, mysterious and bland film teacher who brings the group home on weekeneds.

She is very mysterious and would rather discuss pop culture and third world economies than her only life. I was incredibly intrigued, why were the kids so enchanted by Hannah if she couldn't even hold my attention. She averts questions and basic details about her own life and when she isn't teaching at the school she hides away in her patchwork home.

Her selective students slowly put together theories and ideas about Hannah's identity or if he has one at all. What else I can say about Hannah, Blue or our eccentric Marisha Pessl's writing; only time will tell