Holes 3/8

Chapters 12-26

By the way, if you are interested in reading this book in a live book club, email olivia.mardwig@gmail.com to enroll.

Welcome back readers! Whoa, these chapters have a lot of twists and turns. Characters are starting to reveal themselves in different ways and the past and the present are slowly merging together. This is very exciting because we get to piece together how events and people are connected.

First we have circle time with Mr. Pendanski. In a sad attempt at group therapy he tries to ask the boys what goals they have for their lives. We learn in Zero’s case that some of them never had a proper education. No one seems to get letters from home. Stanley who we know is poor at least is intelligent with loving and supportive parents, and is in fact more fortunate than many others. What future do these guys realistically have without anyone to support or teach them?

Then we meet the Warden who turns out to be an absolute lady boss. There are still some unanswered questions here, but we lean a lot about her from her authority over the other adults, her knowledge of all the other campers, and also her behavior. There seems to be something frantic in her manner, like she’s stressed. I’m thinking about Page 70 where the author describes her movements. Remember that? She couldn’t keep still and was at one point also sifting through the dirt to see if something was not missed. What could be so important to her? And more importantly, is this REALLY a juvenile camp to “build character”, or are the grown ups in charge ACTUALLY using these kids for their own purpose? What is your prediction?

There are also some shining moments where the book is low key funny. Like when the Warden says we need X-Ray’s sharp eyes. On the one hand, we know he didn’t find the gold tube, so we have a little inside joke, but on top of that X-Ray wears glasses. He has literally the worst eyesight out of everyone! There is even a pun or two that can pass by undetected like when Stanley is trying to memorize the hole where he found the tube and the narrator says he “dug that hole into his mind”. All these little moments create the style and vibe of this book, which make is such a pleasure to read.

We also see some moments of major character development. I’m thinking especially of Zero and Stanley. The stoic Zero shows some vulnerability when he admits he doesn’t know how to read and the pushover Stanley stops being worried if X-Ray would be mad at him. But probably most exciting is we have two plot points come together. In this case the story of Stanley’s great grandfather being robbed by the outlaw Kissing Kate Barlow (KB) and Stanley finding the tube of lipstick with the initials KB and realizing they might be the same. The past and the backstories have finally come together!

This plot is like puzzle and as we learn more pieces we are start to see a bigger picture form.