Crux

★★★★★★★★½☆ 8.5/10

416 pages

What’s it about?

This story centers around the friendship of Dan and Tamma, two high school seniors who have been close since birth. They could not be more different, yet their circumstances and love of climbing have bonded them. They both dream of a future different from their parents' lives. As their senior year progesses family dynamics change each of their trajectories.

What did it make me think about?

"In essence, the crux is the most important part of something, the issue on which things hinge. "

Should I read it?

This may be one of the hardest reviews I have ever written. Of all the coming-of-age stories I have ever read, My Absolute Darling is one of the most memorable. I think Gabriel Tallent is an incredibly gifted writer. But, for me, Crux goes off the rails in places. The first hundred pages contain many rambling paragraphs that drag on, and the dialogue between Tamma and Dan initially seems almost cartoon-like. But if you can stick it out, this story settles down, and it will take you places. I always mark passages that strike me in some way, and this book has a ton of bookmarks. So many insightful and interesting thoughts in this book. I love the premise that it is the thousands of small and hard decisions we make that determine who we will be. That in the small, everyday difficult moments, we are preparing ourselves to rise to the occasion when it really matters. "It's cruxes that matter. The top is only a symbol, and without the crux, it refers to nothing. The crux is the heart of the boulder." Gabriel Tallent uses climbing to illustrate so many truths. I am not sure how to rate this book because it is uneven- but still brilliant in SO many ways. I found it well worth the time, and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves to read

A passage I marked

"Courage is not like a dicey highstep; you get to practice courage every day of your life. Just doing the dishes when you're tired. Making the beds and folding laundry when you've got nothing left. These are situations where you think, I just can't, but then you do, anyway. Speaking gently to a baby when you've been awake for thirty-six hours and you're dying. Being nice to your sister when she's a bitch. All of those are difficult acts of kindness and taking care, they're on some continuum with taking a dying child's hand, when you don't want to face what's happened."