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The Saskiad
Twelve years old and steeped in story, the ferociously bright Saskia is growing up in, and largely holding together, a rundown commune in rural New York. The guru is long gone, the psychedelic paint job on the battered pickup has been covered over, her mother's current boyfriend is an embarrassment, and the only news Saskia gets from the father she can't remember is an occasional postcard from far away.
A voracious reader, Saskia injects fantasy into real life with a transforming energy. She feasts at Odysseus's side and helps steer his ship homeward under the brilliant stars. Marco Polo shares trading tips with her as they travel together across desert wastes to the rich, strange towns of Cathay. In school, she is making a sextant as a birthday present for Captain Horatio Hornblower, who loves her but is too shy and awkward to admit it. Saskia tries to draw the younger children of the commune into her imaginary world, but she needs a partner, a comrade-in-arms, and she finds one in a newcomer to her school, the beautiful thirteen-year-old Jane Singh.
The girls’ friendship is flourishing when Saskia suddenly gets an invitation to join her father on a holiday expedition, the destination and ultimate purpose of which are as mysterious as he is.
A voracious reader, Saskia injects fantasy into real life with a transforming energy. She feasts at Odysseus's side and helps steer his ship homeward under the brilliant stars. Marco Polo shares trading tips with her as they travel together across desert wastes to the rich, strange towns of Cathay. In school, she is making a sextant as a birthday present for Captain Horatio Hornblower, who loves her but is too shy and awkward to admit it. Saskia tries to draw the younger children of the commune into her imaginary world, but she needs a partner, a comrade-in-arms, and she finds one in a newcomer to her school, the beautiful thirteen-year-old Jane Singh.
The girls’ friendship is flourishing when Saskia suddenly gets an invitation to join her father on a holiday expedition, the destination and ultimate purpose of which are as mysterious as he is.
380 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1996
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844 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews
January 1, 2010
This is a novel that's all about story, which is as you might expect for a tale that bears so many subtle homages (most of which I through ignorance missed) to The Iliad. In the early chapters of the novel our 12-year-old heroine, Saskia -- growing up in what remains of a Long Island commune, presided over by her self-absorbed New Ager mother Lauren -- is so completely absorbed in her favourite books that her experience of life is at least half the time fantasticated almost beyond recognition. Hall manages to convey this through a narrative that could at any moment have flown off the rails into incomprehensibility but somehow remains not just clear but vivid; it's an extraordinarily impressive trick, and I am very jealous.
(This is not a book that I can imagine loses a shred of its impact if you know the bones of the plot in advance, so I'm happily going to divulge them. If you're one of those people who refuse to read Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade" because you already know how it turns out, skip ahead, please, to my notes on book #84.)
The intensity of the prose drops off after this as we get into the tale's main plot. Saskia, whose intelligence and oddballery make her always the outcast at school, befriends newcomer Jane Singh, an Anglo-Indian who's a year older but in Saskia's class. The two revel in each other's fantasy worlds. One day a card arrives from Saskia's father, Thomas, who abandoned the commune when Saskia was a toddler, inviting her and Lauren on a trip to Scandinavia to take part in a Greenpeace-like project protecting a threatened river. Lauren declines to go, so everyone agrees that Jane can go in her place.
The main part of the book takes place on that Scandinavian excursion, while it becomes ever clearer to us that Thomas is a fount of deception; the increasingly improbable, always self-aggrandizing tales he tells about himself and his exploits are in their way as fantasticated as Saskia's mental adventures in the worlds of Captain Hornblower, Tycho Brahe, Odysseus and the rest, but are very significantly more dangerous -- especially to the two impressionable adolescents, who take what he says at face value. Saskia of course sees nothing of this: he is the wondrous father who was for so long lost to her, now returned to her life. His frequent spoilt-brat behaviour seems to her to be a perfectly reasonable reaction to the actions of the fools and scoundrels who surround him. Because Thomas and Jane are the most precious people in Saskia's life, she essentially throws the two of them at each other . . . and we discover that paedophilia is another of Thomas's enchanting traits.
The affair between Thomas and Jane continues even after Thomas "reluctantly" comes back to live on the commune, and even after he has regained Lauren's bed. At one stage he comes within a whisker of bedding Saskia herself, but what must be his solitary surviving scruple dissuades him at the last moment. And slowly, as Thomas's fits of temper become ever more frequent and ever more infantile, Saskia begins to realize that this supposed angel is truly a monster.
In the final major section of the book she escapes the commune to New York, where (and again this is a neat trick for Hall to pull off), in order to survive, she somehow manages to exploit her sexuality and the gullibility of young males without ever quite losing that feisty, imaginative, intelligent spark that makes her such an appealing character -- without losing her integrity, if you will. Eventually home calls her, and she returns to the commune, where, while still in essence the same Saskia as she was before she left for the Scandinavian trip, she very swiftly re-evaluates the people there, discovering that her mother's boyfriend Bill (back on the scene after Thomas's latest departure) is far from the oaf she thought he was; that her younger quasi-siblings are people in their own right, with character-strengths of their own, rather than just the "crew" to be bossed around; and so forth.
A fair number of comments I've seen about The Saskiad describe it as a coming-of-age tale, but my own feeling is that this is an inaccurate description -- or at least a misleading one. Saskia's adventures haven't filled her with a new confidence-of-self or made her into a somber, grounded young adult: her tale has, rather, been a sort of voyage back to the beginning. Of course she's older and more knowledgeable, and better able to understand the world, but in the most important sense -- the shipmate-of-Hornblower-on-moment-and-assistant-to-Tycho-the-next sense, she hasn't changed at all. It's as if she's discovered that she doesn't need to come of age.
All in all, a very disturbing book -- at least for this reader -- but one that I value having read and will, I'm sure, remember for a long while.
Incidentally, the PW review of The Saskiad, as cited on the book's Amazon page, must be one of the least accurate even PW has ever published. It's as if the reviewer read a brief outline of the book and then winged it from there, filling in the details with suppositions based on what the plots of template coming-of-age novels are supposed to be. One of the great strengths of this novel is that it breaks quite a lot of the rules, so the reviewer's description ends up looking pretty goddam silly.
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May 26, 2014[What follows is my original review of this book, which I posted to Amazon.com (which was pretty new back then!) on July 22, 1997. I haven't re-read the book since then, but I remember writing this, and stand by the comments.]
I teach English to secondary school students, and started The Saskiad with high hopes, overjoyed at the prospect of being able to recommend it to students. However, as I read it, I became convinced that it is NOT an appropriate book for any but the most mature teenagers.
While Hall writes beautifully, the characters (especially Saskia) are captivating, and the structure is imaginatively conceived, I can recommend it only to adult readers, and even then with reservations. It is intriguing, and the first two segments are wonderful, but the dark underbelly of this story--although it is a valid match for the literary theme of lost innocence--is not something I would want a teenager to read without support from another reader. There certainly are some teens who can handle it without difficulty, though; if you are considering selecting this book for your teenager, think about that reader's maturity and open-mindedness.
Topics include pedophilia (Jane is only 13-14), drugs, and promiscuity, and the text even makes a liminal examination of incest. Selecting interesting and challenging new literature for intellectually adventurous teenagers is extremely difficult, and I am always wary of those who would censor works that stretch the bubble of acceptibility. In good conscience, though, I must state my caveat to any parent or person who thinks that this is a thoroughly harmless and gentle coming-of-age novel. It is harsh in a way that is literarily challenging but also (potentially) emotionally challenging.
Caveats aside, Hall's overall effort makes for an interesting read. Saskia's fantasy incursions into her literary world might be confusing at first (narrative shifts tend to be), but it is worth the effort to get into this novel.
I teach English to secondary school students, and started The Saskiad with high hopes, overjoyed at the prospect of being able to recommend it to students. However, as I read it, I became convinced that it is NOT an appropriate book for any but the most mature teenagers.
While Hall writes beautifully, the characters (especially Saskia) are captivating, and the structure is imaginatively conceived, I can recommend it only to adult readers, and even then with reservations. It is intriguing, and the first two segments are wonderful, but the dark underbelly of this story--although it is a valid match for the literary theme of lost innocence--is not something I would want a teenager to read without support from another reader. There certainly are some teens who can handle it without difficulty, though; if you are considering selecting this book for your teenager, think about that reader's maturity and open-mindedness.
Topics include pedophilia (Jane is only 13-14), drugs, and promiscuity, and the text even makes a liminal examination of incest. Selecting interesting and challenging new literature for intellectually adventurous teenagers is extremely difficult, and I am always wary of those who would censor works that stretch the bubble of acceptibility. In good conscience, though, I must state my caveat to any parent or person who thinks that this is a thoroughly harmless and gentle coming-of-age novel. It is harsh in a way that is literarily challenging but also (potentially) emotionally challenging.
Caveats aside, Hall's overall effort makes for an interesting read. Saskia's fantasy incursions into her literary world might be confusing at first (narrative shifts tend to be), but it is worth the effort to get into this novel.
April 1, 2008
I think what I liked best about this book is the feeling of awkwardness that the protagonist feels about everything - her parents and best friend, especially - and this sense that she's so completely out of it. It's not funny, it's touching and real, something I could identify with. ("Everybody else 'gets it' while I'm totally clueless and what I do get, I'd rather not know about.")
August 25, 2009
This is one strange book. Absurd at times, pretentious throughout, great in theory and horrifying in reality. I couldn't stop envisioning Brian Hall (the author) writing the prose of 12-, 13-, and 14-year-old sexual awakenings (ever-present, might I add), particularly the parts wherein they intersect with older, mostly paternal figures. It gave me the heebie-jeebies, and it's not just because I'm a prude reader. There were moments when I thought: "Aha! If only the whole book could be like this" because they were rich and beautiful, but those moments were unfortunately few. Mostly I found obscure allusions, rambling and fragmented realities, and pictures half-illuminated ... and not in charming, engaging, or brilliant ways. This reaction is not for lack of knowing what Hall was talking about -- it just seemed like so, so, so much posturing I couldn't take it. And it did not, to me, weave together the multiple realities of a precocious 12-year-old, it left them floundering in the prose of a 40-year-old man. Things just didn't jive here for me.
I wish I could have liked it better, because I love the idea of a coming-of-age story about a girl living on a defunct commune in upstate New York, whose imagination produces multiple literary realities in which she lives. I love that she has a South-Asian best friend who gets her and enters into her realities. But the execution of the story I do not love. And ultimately, I don't love Saskia or any of the other characters -- not a single one.
So clearly, not the book for me. I did give it two stars, however, because I don't regret having read it. Like the star says, it was OK....
if only just so.
I wish I could have liked it better, because I love the idea of a coming-of-age story about a girl living on a defunct commune in upstate New York, whose imagination produces multiple literary realities in which she lives. I love that she has a South-Asian best friend who gets her and enters into her realities. But the execution of the story I do not love. And ultimately, I don't love Saskia or any of the other characters -- not a single one.
So clearly, not the book for me. I did give it two stars, however, because I don't regret having read it. Like the star says, it was OK....
if only just so.
May 7, 2020
“If there’s one thing Saskia knows, it’s that you absolutely do not blow the chance to buy a Mysterious Book That Comes From Who Knows Where.”-Page 127
How ironic. I found this book through an insightful blog, Winnowing Oar, which I found, in turn, through someone’s Facebook page.
I think it’s important that we read books we normally wouldn’t. For example, this novel largely centers around a precocious thirteen-year-old girl who daydreams about Homer’s Odyssey while living in what could be described as the remnants of a hippie commune that’s undergone a few cultural makeovers. On second thought, bildungsromans, The Odyssey, and being childishly oblivious are all things I enjoy, so maybe this was a book for me after all, just strawberry instead of my usual vanilla.
On third thought – this was definitely a book for me.
Brian Hall has a gift for animating his characters. It’s a limited third-person narrative; we experience Hall’s world through a not-quite-bird’s-eye that hovers just a few feet above our eponymous heroine (…) Saskia. Saskia’s thought patterns feel genuine, even to the degree that she models others’ beliefs on the state of her world given what limited information she has. More and more I’m beginning to feel that this is the mark of a great author.
See: Saskia’s habit of disguising everything behind a veil of fairytale euphemisms, demonstrating her intelligence, yet her reality distortion field isn’t quite strong enough to loop others in (she is no black hole), and we readers are privy to the show in which it is broken apart, piece by piece, by the hard evidence of her reality. Does that make you want to read this? You might be like me.
Clever: The Saskiad possesses a distinct, mathematical narrative structure. One can read the book in reverse and receive a very different story – just like Christopher Nolan’s film Memento. Unfortunately I don’t have the time for that, but I can tell you without any doubt this is a good book. It can transport you to a different time, place, and make you feel things. Just read it in 4 solid sit-down sessions, not 10 like I did.
P.S. That one allusion to Allen Ginsberg's Howl won some brownie points with this one.
How ironic. I found this book through an insightful blog, Winnowing Oar, which I found, in turn, through someone’s Facebook page.
I think it’s important that we read books we normally wouldn’t. For example, this novel largely centers around a precocious thirteen-year-old girl who daydreams about Homer’s Odyssey while living in what could be described as the remnants of a hippie commune that’s undergone a few cultural makeovers. On second thought, bildungsromans, The Odyssey, and being childishly oblivious are all things I enjoy, so maybe this was a book for me after all, just strawberry instead of my usual vanilla.
On third thought – this was definitely a book for me.
Brian Hall has a gift for animating his characters. It’s a limited third-person narrative; we experience Hall’s world through a not-quite-bird’s-eye that hovers just a few feet above our eponymous heroine (…) Saskia. Saskia’s thought patterns feel genuine, even to the degree that she models others’ beliefs on the state of her world given what limited information she has. More and more I’m beginning to feel that this is the mark of a great author.
See: Saskia’s habit of disguising everything behind a veil of fairytale euphemisms, demonstrating her intelligence, yet her reality distortion field isn’t quite strong enough to loop others in (she is no black hole), and we readers are privy to the show in which it is broken apart, piece by piece, by the hard evidence of her reality. Does that make you want to read this? You might be like me.
Clever: The Saskiad possesses a distinct, mathematical narrative structure. One can read the book in reverse and receive a very different story – just like Christopher Nolan’s film Memento. Unfortunately I don’t have the time for that, but I can tell you without any doubt this is a good book. It can transport you to a different time, place, and make you feel things. Just read it in 4 solid sit-down sessions, not 10 like I did.
P.S. That one allusion to Allen Ginsberg's Howl won some brownie points with this one.
November 12, 2009
I had to force myself to finish this because Hall created in Thomas one of the most loathsome characters in anything I've read recently (part of why I finished it was also that I hoped something terrible would happen to Thomas), but my extreme hatred of T. is a testament to Hall's writing. I was disappointed by how easily the other characters were deluded by Thomas and pitted against each other, but liked how Hall created the most likable characters pretty much only through Saskia's contempt for them. I'm still not sure how I feel about middle aged dudes writing about the psychosexual development of girls (see also: Davita's Harp), and so far haven't been able to find something where Hall discusses this book and his motivations that would help me make a more decisive opinion about that here. But my discomfort whenever Saskia made bad decisions was in part because of identification with her so Hall was pretty successful. Also, I'm glad I didn't read beyond like 10 pages when I tried to read this when I was 11 or 12, though I also might have liked the book better at that age.
June 26, 2013
Abandoning this halfway through. I went camping for a whole week and only brought one book and I COULD NOT GET INTO THIS >< Grr. I managed to read about half of this, but it was just an odd, awkward book and I didn't like it. I found it strange how the author would go in and out of Saskia's fantasy world and back into the present moment, I never got used to that. I also felt so sad for Saskia and the younger children in the story for the manner in which they were being raised in the commune. The only redeeming scene in this book was the cow worship (Marilyn, we worship thee!), which was very funny and did more to characterize Saskia than any other part of the book.
August 28, 2008
The synopsis of this book alludes to it being a young adult novel. I totally disagree. There are some themes in this book that are very complex and I don't think would be appropriate for anyone under the age of 18.
It was an okay story. The prose mixed with traditional writing, as well as the main characters fantasy worlds, can make it a little difficult to decipher what's going on. A large portion of the book can be summarized as "Running With Scissors" mixed with an Electra complex.
It was an okay story. The prose mixed with traditional writing, as well as the main characters fantasy worlds, can make it a little difficult to decipher what's going on. A large portion of the book can be summarized as "Running With Scissors" mixed with an Electra complex.
October 1, 2015
I hated this book and struggled to finish it. Yes, it's well written and a lovely-ish mix of mythology and coming of age in a counter-culture where you don't understand anything. But, I did not enjoy reading it, and I really can't think of many young adults who would relate to it or even care about this story if they could, in any way, relate.
June 11, 2007
I love books that create their own language and don't try too hard to explain it to you, but just let you learn by immersion.
July 21, 2025
This book had the potential to be so good. The writing style was on the cusp of being amazing and the present-tense narrative was just shy of being utterly captivating. However, I have several big qualms with this book. One is the fact that it was written by a man. Many of my favourite authors are men but this book is about a tween/teenage girl (Saskia) and her friendship with another teenage girl, as well as the relationships between Saskia and her parents. There is so much intimacy in these relationships and it made me feel like Brian Hall was stepping into a zone that he didn't have the right to be in. The subject matter is so female-centred (which also includes descriptions of female puberty, female anatomy, and just general experiences of girlhood) and a lot of it felt really weird to read knowing that a man wrote it.
Apart from that, there were a lot of choices made and issues dealt with by Saskia that didn't seem quite real, and I think this also pertains to the authorship. I'm not saying that there are elements of the story that would never happen in real life, but again, it felt weird and almost creepy that a man was in charge of this. These elements include pedophilia AND incestuous pedophilia, and it seemed like they weren't portrayed as actual problems for the most part. Fortunately we do see at the end that the main perpetrator (there are more than one) is actually revealed to be a terrible person and all the characters acknowledge this. The incestuous pedophilic bit was brushed off though, and I think it was totally unnecessary to begin with. Again, I don't think Brian Hall knows what it's like to be a teenage girl, and the choices he made on behalf of Saskia sometimes aren't very believable and are mostly just really bothersome. There's also a scene near the beginning featuring borderline sexual assualt and I think the author was trying to make it look like an innocent educational experience but it was so messed up.
Another problem I have is with aspects of the writing. As I said before, it was on the verge of being so good, but things were quite vague a lot of the time, and sometimes it was hard to tell what was actually happening and what was just part of Saskia's imagination. (This also pertains to the pedophilia because I couldn't tell as first if it was just a weird fantasy or if it was reality.) There was also some confusion with some of the characters and who was who. This could have been a me problem but I do think some of them were not properly introduced.
Furthermore, I had some issues with the ending and resolutions. It felt kind of rushed and it was hard to tell how exactly Saskia was processing everything. My biggest issue with the ending though was how the main friendship was treated. Again, there was some confusion and vagueness around what was actually happening along the way, but in the end it felt like this specific character was just tossed away. We are given a brief explanation of what happened but it was very unsatisfying to me because of how much effort was put into this character and friendship earlier on in the book.
Anyway, there were several charming elements to this book and its characters, especially in the first half. But it ended up being just way too weird in a negative way for me that even two stars feels generous. I wish I could ask Brian Hall what exactly was going through his mind when he was writing this and what his intentions were, because they sure as heck did not feel very wholesome. Why on earth is a man focusing so much on the sexual experiences of a girl who's barely even 13? Kind of horrifying if you think about it too much.
Oh yeah, and one more thing: I found this in the middle grade section of a bookstore and it is NOT a middle grade book. There is a fair amount of language, drug usage, and sexual content aside from the pedophilia (nothing crazy graphic but there was a lot of innuendo and multiple references to/descriptions of sex, masturbation, etc.).
Apart from that, there were a lot of choices made and issues dealt with by Saskia that didn't seem quite real, and I think this also pertains to the authorship. I'm not saying that there are elements of the story that would never happen in real life, but again, it felt weird and almost creepy that a man was in charge of this. These elements include pedophilia AND incestuous pedophilia, and it seemed like they weren't portrayed as actual problems for the most part. Fortunately we do see at the end that the main perpetrator (there are more than one) is actually revealed to be a terrible person and all the characters acknowledge this. The incestuous pedophilic bit was brushed off though, and I think it was totally unnecessary to begin with. Again, I don't think Brian Hall knows what it's like to be a teenage girl, and the choices he made on behalf of Saskia sometimes aren't very believable and are mostly just really bothersome. There's also a scene near the beginning featuring borderline sexual assualt and I think the author was trying to make it look like an innocent educational experience but it was so messed up.
Another problem I have is with aspects of the writing. As I said before, it was on the verge of being so good, but things were quite vague a lot of the time, and sometimes it was hard to tell what was actually happening and what was just part of Saskia's imagination. (This also pertains to the pedophilia because I couldn't tell as first if it was just a weird fantasy or if it was reality.) There was also some confusion with some of the characters and who was who. This could have been a me problem but I do think some of them were not properly introduced.
Furthermore, I had some issues with the ending and resolutions. It felt kind of rushed and it was hard to tell how exactly Saskia was processing everything. My biggest issue with the ending though was how the main friendship was treated. Again, there was some confusion and vagueness around what was actually happening along the way, but in the end it felt like this specific character was just tossed away. We are given a brief explanation of what happened but it was very unsatisfying to me because of how much effort was put into this character and friendship earlier on in the book.
Anyway, there were several charming elements to this book and its characters, especially in the first half. But it ended up being just way too weird in a negative way for me that even two stars feels generous. I wish I could ask Brian Hall what exactly was going through his mind when he was writing this and what his intentions were, because they sure as heck did not feel very wholesome. Why on earth is a man focusing so much on the sexual experiences of a girl who's barely even 13? Kind of horrifying if you think about it too much.
Oh yeah, and one more thing: I found this in the middle grade section of a bookstore and it is NOT a middle grade book. There is a fair amount of language, drug usage, and sexual content aside from the pedophilia (nothing crazy graphic but there was a lot of innuendo and multiple references to/descriptions of sex, masturbation, etc.).
August 13, 2020
I'm not so much a fan. I don't know if I would like it more if I had been in tune with the characters and books I hadn't resd, but even the mythology I know is too intertwined with the other storytelling that it became a confusing mess.
I understand what she's going through, and the history of her life, but I had no sympathy for any of the characters. And some of them were just gross and worshipping an unstable man and his rape just isn't, you know, for me.
I understand what she's going through, and the history of her life, but I had no sympathy for any of the characters. And some of them were just gross and worshipping an unstable man and his rape just isn't, you know, for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 7, 2011
I like the idea of the book: a twelve-year old girl coming of age in the real world (the real world of the novel, that is), while slipping into and out of her imaginary world of adventure, fantasy, heroes and heroines (with herself at the glorious center). It took me some time to get used to these different worlds and the way they interact. More importantly, the language of the 'real world', especially in the early chapters, is at times very difficult. Lots of rare words, lots of implicit language (implicit references within the story as well as references to literature and American life that I sense, but do not fully grasp), which make the reading hard going at times.
The story is told in separate parts, which could be read separately. In fact, I feel that a clear connection between the different parts is missing. There is a chronology and there are more or less the same characters, but you do not always have the feeling that you are reading one story. For instance, it seems strange that in the first part Saskia and Jane are inseparable and that later on Saskia deliberately disassociates herself from Jane without either of the girls seeming to regret it. The character of Thomas, Saskia's father, is also strange and somewhat incoherent. At first he seems a benevolent relic of the hippy age, but when you take off the glasses through which Saskia views him he turns out to be an environmental terrorist with a tyrannic streak - a caricature really, but not a funny one.
Strangely, there is not a single likeable male character in this book.
The story is told in separate parts, which could be read separately. In fact, I feel that a clear connection between the different parts is missing. There is a chronology and there are more or less the same characters, but you do not always have the feeling that you are reading one story. For instance, it seems strange that in the first part Saskia and Jane are inseparable and that later on Saskia deliberately disassociates herself from Jane without either of the girls seeming to regret it. The character of Thomas, Saskia's father, is also strange and somewhat incoherent. At first he seems a benevolent relic of the hippy age, but when you take off the glasses through which Saskia views him he turns out to be an environmental terrorist with a tyrannic streak - a caricature really, but not a funny one.
Strangely, there is not a single likeable male character in this book.
March 2, 2009
This book was recommended to me by a close friend of mine. It was really the only reason I finished the novel. The first half was very lovely; I loved gaining an entrance into Saskia's mind and her world with her friends, Marco and such. It took me a while to understand all that Saskia was saying, especially with the mentions of "Tylerian weather". That one took me a while to get.
The character of Jane was a nice addition because she helped Saskia discover who she was a person. Also, through Jane, I was able to understand more of Saskia' world. However, once Thomas entered the picture, I got very confused. The relationship between Thomas and Jane seemed too far-fetched and wrong. And trying to straighten out Lauren's side of the story versus Thomas' side of the story was another matter!
In short, I really enjoyed the first half of the novel for the imaginative prose, but once Thomas came back to "Wonderland", I thought the novel went downhill. I especially disliked the ending; it seemed Brian Hall added on the part with Russel without much thought; I really didn't see any development in Saskia's character. Also, the readers and Saskia never learned what her name meant, which was a running bit the entire novel, and that made the novel incomplete.
The character of Jane was a nice addition because she helped Saskia discover who she was a person. Also, through Jane, I was able to understand more of Saskia' world. However, once Thomas entered the picture, I got very confused. The relationship between Thomas and Jane seemed too far-fetched and wrong. And trying to straighten out Lauren's side of the story versus Thomas' side of the story was another matter!
In short, I really enjoyed the first half of the novel for the imaginative prose, but once Thomas came back to "Wonderland", I thought the novel went downhill. I especially disliked the ending; it seemed Brian Hall added on the part with Russel without much thought; I really didn't see any development in Saskia's character. Also, the readers and Saskia never learned what her name meant, which was a running bit the entire novel, and that made the novel incomplete.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 24, 2024
Brian Hall should be some sort of list. And by list, I mean the FBI watch list. What was he on when he wrote this to think it was ok? First of all, no man should be thinking that often about children’s breasts. There’s a romanticized sexual assault scene towards the beginning, but it’s ok because the main character DID the assaulting. NO. That’s not how it works! I’m not going to even BEGIN to delve into the pedophelia, and how prevalent it is, and how it’s praised. Not will I delve into the fact that sex was mentioned on every. Single. Page. In a book about a barely 13 year old girl. And of course, the icing on the cake: this book, about a young girls “sexual journey” was written by none other than a man.
October 28, 2016
I will never forget writing Brian Hall a letter my freshman year of high school about the main male lead in this book, and him writing me back giving me a very kind schooling on what is appropriate male adult behavior and what isn't, via this character. I was like, oh. Thanks for that. I can't believe this dude I don't know just taught me that.
March 15, 2024
Weird book. Some parts are unnecessarily gross, to the point where I wonder if the author should maybe talk to someone. Prolonged references to classical works are forced, clunky, and a chore to read. Not sure if this author has ever met a 12-13yo girl, but it’s probably best he doesn’t.
January 4, 2009
I found this book to be very disturbing. I had no idea this was marketed as a young adult book when I read it but I would be very uncomfortable with a young person reading this.
May 4, 2011
I found this book exceptionally hard to read. the fancy words kept getting in the way of the story and finally i gave up. :(
December 9, 2021
I loved the main character so much that I adopted her name
October 8, 2022
This is a story about a girl with a super-charismatic father.
It was really something. For me, the beginning was kind of slow--quirky, brilliant child is dissatisfied with her life but makes the best of it with books and imagination, and ordering the other children around. When things started to happen, it became a gripping tale, then creepy, and then I was looking on in horror.
The writing was very good; I have only minor quibbles about how slow the beginning was, and how Saskia and Lauren's biological relationship took so long to become clear. That may have been deliberate, but it could have been resolved in half the time, still made the point, and not been such a weird distraction. The story will definitely stay with me. I wouldn't recommend it indiscriminately.
Below is a combination content warning and spoiler:
In this story, a 13yo girl and a man who is probably in his 30s have a sexual relationship lasting months. They both believe it is consensual.
It was really something. For me, the beginning was kind of slow--quirky, brilliant child is dissatisfied with her life but makes the best of it with books and imagination, and ordering the other children around. When things started to happen, it became a gripping tale, then creepy, and then I was looking on in horror.
The writing was very good; I have only minor quibbles about how slow the beginning was, and how Saskia and Lauren's biological relationship took so long to become clear. That may have been deliberate, but it could have been resolved in half the time, still made the point, and not been such a weird distraction. The story will definitely stay with me. I wouldn't recommend it indiscriminately.
Below is a combination content warning and spoiler:
In this story, a 13yo girl and a man who is probably in his 30s have a sexual relationship lasting months. They both believe it is consensual.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 12, 2023
The Saskiad features a character I initially loved; years later, I read it again and was horrified by many of her choices, namely her conscious decision not to protect her friend. Not suitable for younger teens, the content is very problematic. Nevertheless, reading this book proved quite helpful in my youth. Having come from a sheltered background, this was my first exposure to a literary depiction of predatory grooming, and the little tricks and lies that go with it. It was an eye-opener— and knowledge that proved valuable in a latter chapter of my life. Still not recommended for younger teens.
August 29, 2018
2.5 Stars. I’m sure there’s a lot more happening here than I picked up on. It’s about growing up and realizing that adults are imperfect and they lie and they make mistakes. Unfortunately, I just didn’t quite connect with it.
May 28, 2021
4 ⭐️ Amazingly imaginative with an authentic combination of reality and fantasy, but the open and overt sexuality throughout the book to this reader seems more accurate to slightly older teens. But see “I Know Some Things,” edited by Lorrie Moore, for other portrayals of young adolescent sexuality.
September 6, 2019
No jaa. Tää ei taas ollut mun juttuni. Kyllähän tää osittain oli jopa hyvä mutta turhan mielikuvitusmaailmaan pohjautuva. Tulipa kuitenkin luettua.
April 18, 2021
Beautifully written but made me feel SO uncomfortable at times - includes incestuous moments, sexual abuse, betrayals with every character.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 11, 2010
The Saskiad is an extraordinary tale of fantasy and reality melded by a young girl’s awakening into adulthood. Saskia - said young girl - is a lonely outcast at her school, as she lives on a commune and uses any free time that is not spent rearing the wild bunch of children that live there with her, idolising and reading about epic adventurers. In fact, after I’ve read Homer and Melville I will have to reread the novel just so that I can understand the countless references made to such classic writers and their genius works. I won’t deny that I felt very poorly-read as compared to this girl of fourteen who had such illustrious novels under her belt. At any rate, Saskia’s reality gets turned upside down as she befriends the new girl, Jane, and suddenly experiences every young girl’s dream... to have a best friend.
The book is a delicious exploration of their obsessive friendship, and how they relate with others around their unwavering love. They laugh, cry and grow together, and it is with this growth that eventually their relationship takes new forms, and veers off in countless directions. I often had to remind myself that the novel was written by a male, as Brian Hall’s depictions of teenage girls and the intricacies of their relationships was often eerily accurate and familiar. I’m left wondering if he had any help with character development through either his wife or a sister or something.
The Saskiad is also a story about the relationships (or a lack there of) between children and their parents. Thomas, Saskia’s father is deplorable, as are his inappropriate relationships with the ladies in his life, and you may have to restrain yourself from throwing the book at the wall when faced with some of his antics throughout.
I have heard some other readers complain that the last quarter of the novel is not as beautifully written as the first three parts, that there is a shift, in that Saskia’s fantasies are no longer intertwined in her realities. For me this merely showcases that she has matured into adulthood, lost her innocence and sees the world through newly jaded eyes; often a sad but true consequence of growing up.
This glorious story seems to go on forever, until it finally ends and you are left wondering what to do with yourself now that the eccentric and lovable Saskia is no longer there to watch over. Sadly, I was tortured with melancholy over the last lines of this great book.
May 28, 2021
The Saskiad is an extraordinary tale of fantasy and reality melded by a young girl’s awakening into adulthood. Saskia is a lonely outcast at her school. She lives on a commune and uses any free time that is not spent rearing the wild bunch of children that live there with her, idolising and reading about epic adventurers. In fact, after I’ve read Homer and Melville I will have to reread the novel just so that I can understand the countless references made to such classic writers and their genius works. I won’t deny that I felt very poorly read as compared to this girl of fourteen who had such illustrious novels under her belt. At any rate, Saskia’s reality gets turned upside down as she befriends the new girl, Jane, and suddenly experiences every young girl’s dream... to have a best friend.
The book is a delicious exploration of their obsessive friendship, and how they relate with others around their unwavering love. They laugh, cry, and grow together, and it is with this growth that eventually their relationship takes new forms, and veers off in countless directions. I often had to remind myself that the novel was written by a male, as Brian Hall’s depictions of teenage girls and the intricacies of their relationships were often eerily accurate and familiar. I’m left wondering if he had any help with character development through either his wife or a sister or something.
The Saskiad is also a story about the relationships (or a lack there of) between children and their parents. Thomas, Saskia’s father is deplorable, as are his inappropriate relationships with the ladies in his life, and you may have to restrain yourself from throwing the book at the wall when faced with some of his antics throughout.
I have heard some other readers complain that the last quarter of the novel is not as beautifully written as the first three parts, that there is a shift, in that Saskia’s fantasies are no longer intertwined in her realities. For me this merely showcases that she has matured into adulthood, lost her innocence, and sees the world through newly jaded eyes; often a sad but true consequence of growing up.
This glorious story seems to go on forever, until it finally ends and you are left wondering what to do with yourself now that the eccentric and lovable Saskia is no longer there to watch over. Sadly, I was tortured with melancholy over the last lines of this great book.
The book is a delicious exploration of their obsessive friendship, and how they relate with others around their unwavering love. They laugh, cry, and grow together, and it is with this growth that eventually their relationship takes new forms, and veers off in countless directions. I often had to remind myself that the novel was written by a male, as Brian Hall’s depictions of teenage girls and the intricacies of their relationships were often eerily accurate and familiar. I’m left wondering if he had any help with character development through either his wife or a sister or something.
The Saskiad is also a story about the relationships (or a lack there of) between children and their parents. Thomas, Saskia’s father is deplorable, as are his inappropriate relationships with the ladies in his life, and you may have to restrain yourself from throwing the book at the wall when faced with some of his antics throughout.
I have heard some other readers complain that the last quarter of the novel is not as beautifully written as the first three parts, that there is a shift, in that Saskia’s fantasies are no longer intertwined in her realities. For me this merely showcases that she has matured into adulthood, lost her innocence, and sees the world through newly jaded eyes; often a sad but true consequence of growing up.
This glorious story seems to go on forever, until it finally ends and you are left wondering what to do with yourself now that the eccentric and lovable Saskia is no longer there to watch over. Sadly, I was tortured with melancholy over the last lines of this great book.
June 8, 2014
Saskia grows up in a failed hippy commune in Ithaca, New York, creating her own vocabulary and an internal world governed by male characters: The Captain, Marco, and the Great Khan. When she meets Jane Sing at school, a Sikh girl with a British accent, Saskia develops a crush, and then a lasting friendship. Both children are allowed to run wild together, and soon Saskia has betrayed her inner compass by following Jane into a world of sex and drugs.
It seems to be put right by the appearance of Thomas, Saskia’s estranged father, who offers to take Saskia and Jane on an adventure to save the environment of a Nordic country. But Thomas is not the glamorous explorer of Saskia’s imaginings. He’s a Dad who doesn’t know the hiking limits of two adolescent girls, and he develops his own liking of Jane. Free of societal limits, Thomas and Jane hook up in a tent, and Saskia begins to fall apart.
Their return to Ithaca sees Thomas re-united with Saskia’s mother, Lauren, and his lies begin to unravel. With that, Saskia’s internal world – which has been severely challenged by puberty – unravels as well, and she runs away, falling in with abusive boys who are also drug addicts. Her return home is her return to clarity, and a determination to see the truth of Thomas and herself, instead of family lies.
Hall said in an interview that the inspiration for The Saskiad was his wife’s memories of growing up, and the secret language she developed with her friends. He immersed himself in the materials that Saskia would have been reading – the Odessey, Horatio Hornblower, the voyages of Marco Polo – to develop her voice: archaic, literate, and arch.
Hall paints with a very subtle brush, filling in details obliquely, making the reader work to understand Saskia’s internal world, and how it functions parallel to her physical reality. Scenes where Saskia plays imagination games with Jane, are entirely written from the interior of the imagination. The reader must work to understand where the imagination game left off, and daily life taken back up.
This book faithfully confronts the challenges a brainy girl with little supervision has in a hum-drum school, her exposure to drugs and sex, and what she makes of it. I love Saskia, and her use of language. Hall’s construction of this book has been a real inspiration to me.
It seems to be put right by the appearance of Thomas, Saskia’s estranged father, who offers to take Saskia and Jane on an adventure to save the environment of a Nordic country. But Thomas is not the glamorous explorer of Saskia’s imaginings. He’s a Dad who doesn’t know the hiking limits of two adolescent girls, and he develops his own liking of Jane. Free of societal limits, Thomas and Jane hook up in a tent, and Saskia begins to fall apart.
Their return to Ithaca sees Thomas re-united with Saskia’s mother, Lauren, and his lies begin to unravel. With that, Saskia’s internal world – which has been severely challenged by puberty – unravels as well, and she runs away, falling in with abusive boys who are also drug addicts. Her return home is her return to clarity, and a determination to see the truth of Thomas and herself, instead of family lies.
Hall said in an interview that the inspiration for The Saskiad was his wife’s memories of growing up, and the secret language she developed with her friends. He immersed himself in the materials that Saskia would have been reading – the Odessey, Horatio Hornblower, the voyages of Marco Polo – to develop her voice: archaic, literate, and arch.
Hall paints with a very subtle brush, filling in details obliquely, making the reader work to understand Saskia’s internal world, and how it functions parallel to her physical reality. Scenes where Saskia plays imagination games with Jane, are entirely written from the interior of the imagination. The reader must work to understand where the imagination game left off, and daily life taken back up.
This book faithfully confronts the challenges a brainy girl with little supervision has in a hum-drum school, her exposure to drugs and sex, and what she makes of it. I love Saskia, and her use of language. Hall’s construction of this book has been a real inspiration to me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 23, 2009
Brian Hall does a superb job of writing the mind of an intellectual teen and the slow, painful transformation from a childlike understanding of the world to an adult perspective. I think most children weave the stories they hear or read into their own lives in order to understand themselves, which is what Saskia does, letting go more and more as she grows up.
Do you remember when you stopped being able to play "let's pretend" as a fluid extension of real life? This is what it means to cross from childhood to adolescence and adolescence to adulthood. Hall explores that transition as Saskia learns the truths about her father and mother and what it means to love somebody as a friend or a lover.
I thought for sure I'd read this before when I found it in the library, but I think it was a friend who read it back in high school. Like some of the other reviewers, I would shy away from handing it to a teenager, even though it might be marketed at teens. I think you need to be a bit older not to understand so much as to have distance between yourself and those raw, innocent-no-longer memories of one's own childhood and early adolescence. Then again, there are some teenagers who might be wise enough to use it to inform their own journey into adulthood.
Do you remember when you stopped being able to play "let's pretend" as a fluid extension of real life? This is what it means to cross from childhood to adolescence and adolescence to adulthood. Hall explores that transition as Saskia learns the truths about her father and mother and what it means to love somebody as a friend or a lover.
I thought for sure I'd read this before when I found it in the library, but I think it was a friend who read it back in high school. Like some of the other reviewers, I would shy away from handing it to a teenager, even though it might be marketed at teens. I think you need to be a bit older not to understand so much as to have distance between yourself and those raw, innocent-no-longer memories of one's own childhood and early adolescence. Then again, there are some teenagers who might be wise enough to use it to inform their own journey into adulthood.
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