Book Review: "The Gifted School" by Bruce Holsinger
“The Gifted School” by Bruce Holsinger
Synopsis: Good schools, stately houses, safe neighborhoods, all set against a beautiful landscape. What else could a family want? It was with high hopes for the future that four young couples separately chose Crystal, Colorado as the place to raise their children over a decade ago. Finding each other as friends further buoyed them over the ensuing years, as they juggled the stresses of parenthood, careers, and marriage. Even now, as the kids head for middle school, their individual interests and abilities becoming more and more distinct, the group of families has remained tight. But when an exclusive new school is introduced into the mix - an elite new standard to meet - it represents, at long last, one pressure too many.
Gradually, throughout the community, cracks begin to form, and spread. As children are pitted against each other for coveted spots in the school, their parents shock themselves with the lengths they are secretly willing to go in the pursuit of prestige and recognition. Soon, long-buried resentments arise between friends and spouses alike, as ever more toxic instincts keep emerging. And the most shattering secret of all still lies waiting to be exposed.
The Gifted School is a smart, knowing, wickedly entertaining novel that at once provokes, skewers, and forgives, loves and understands its keenly observed characters. A riveting tale of parenting and privilege, custom-made for our culture. - Riverhead Books
Rating: 4.5
Review: You may have realized it already, but I love the story of a scandal. “The Gifted School” was a vivid reminder of what parents will do to see their children succeed (often to impress their own peers), and in that regard, it is easy to see how the parents of Crystal, Colorado, would eventually pull a Lori Laughlin, for example. Bruce Holsinger’s day job is as a college professor, so one feels that he may be drawing on a few things that he have observed in that role.
This book tells the story of four families in a bougie enclave, and how they react to a school for gifted children opening in their community. The women - Azra, Rose, Samantha, and Lauren — met at a baby swim test when their children were babies, and their friendship comes to be a defining force in their families’ lives. When the five kids (twins Aidan and Charlie, Xavier, Emma Q, and Emma Z) start applying to the school for gifted children, from the first moment, you can tell that it’s going to be a train wreck.
Each of the parents is terrible in their own way, to be honest, but you can also see the motivation behind their actions — yes, they definitely wanted the best for their kids, but they also really wanted to have the best kid out of their group of friends. What was most interesting, to me, was how creatively desperate they all became, as it became closer to admission time. They all believe they are good people, but they decidedly aren’t — this inherent tension drives the story, and it’s so recognizable.
Fair warning, there were a fair number of narrators, both adults and children, and I quickly found my favorites. The focus is split between Rose, Azra’s ex-husband Beck, Lauren’s two children, Sam’s daughter Emma Z, and Rose’s housekeeper’s mother — honestly that makes it sound more complicated that in it is. I do wish that we had been able to get more in Azra and Sam’s heads, but they remained mostly opaque. I did like hearing the various motivations of parents and the spiraling they all went through as the admissions process continued. It takes a talented writer to make the taking and scoring of an intelligence test (the CogPro) not only interesting but also compelling.
The “meltdown” is one of the best scenes that I can remember reading in a long time, and it was both cringingly-uncomfortable and laugh-out-loud funny — everything that had been building came to a head in the most unfortunate place. While the book was full of chirpy toxicity (and a somewhat hilarious takedown of the mental gymnastics liberals will go through to justify their actions), it ended on a somewhat hopeful note. For all of the drama of the year covered in the book, you do feel that all of the characters end up in the right place.
There is obviously a fair amount of social commentary about helicopter moms and soccer dads throughout the book, but Holsinger doesn’t really delve into any of the political issues. It focuses more on the politics of perceived privilege, rather than any particularly ideology, and in that regard, it definitely succeeds. This is a great read, and one that’s especially timely as school gets started again.
Also! In the midst of my reading this book, I ended up googling to see if Crystal, Colorado is a real place (it’s a ghost town!), and I did learn that “The Gifted School” has been optioned for TV, and I can definitely see this being like a new Big Little Lies. I’ll be watching, for sure.
Trigger warnings: helicopter parents, mentions of v. mild drug use,
TL;DR: A biting social commentary on privileged parents, how they see themselves and their children as “exceptionally gifted”, and what they will do to make sure that everyone else knows their “status.”
If you liked this, try these:
“The Other’s Gold” by Elizabeth Ames (review coming next week!)
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