Teacher

by Alec Clayton

Intense, funny and true to life, Teacher begins with a damaged and uncertain Eva McRoy, a bisexual high school English teacher who lost her child after a tumultuous divorce. Her self-identity is now under threat at work and in relationships. Yet Eva grows in identity and power as she starts an LGBT support group at school, protests a police shooting, and survives a school shooting herself. Through these struggles, she discovers a passion for justice and renews a sense of self that had waned.Set in Olympia, Washington with a strong sense of place, Teacher weaves actual events with the fictitious lives of Eva, her strong and no-nonsense wife, Helen, and her fellow teachers.

160 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 9, 2021

About the author

Born in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1943, I grew up in the Deep South and later moved to New York and later still to Olympia, Washington. I am a painter as well as a writer and continue to show in galleries in the Seattle and Tacoma areas. I write regular art and theater reviews for area newspapers. I am also a gay rights activist.
Although not autobiographical, the settings settings for my novels are the places where I have lived, and my personal involvement in the arts and glbt issues play a large role. My novels are self-published. My first two novels, "Until the Dawn" and "Imprudent Zeal," are about artists. "The Wives of Marty Winters," a work in progress, is about a newspaper editor and gay rights activist. All three are family sagas covering many decades.

Reviews

[Bev · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I got to the end of this 160 page book, I found I needed to go back and skim through the first few chapters, which confused me on first reading, but which now, having read to the end of the book, made sense. I found problems with this book. Things which were not fleshed out and stories that could have been more important but which were discarded. Eva is the teacher and we first meet her when she is a married woman, who is beginning to wonder if maybe she might be a lesbian because of her interest in a group of Lesbians at a club. We next see her part of the group, as a bisexual, with interest in Helen, but too shy to speak to her. Next thing they have been together several years and have a couple of kids and she misses Johnny, her own son, whom she has not seen in years, but who, in an earlier chapter was awarded joint custody when she divorced her husband. We have no idea how he got sole custody until the end of the book. I wanted to read how Eva and Helen got together and how their relationship grew, but that isn't the point of the story.

Her relationship with her students is important, but the one she is the most concerned about just kind of fades away and we never know what happens to him. Likewise, she attends a political rally, as does the school coach, but she is chastised for it and nothing happens to him and nobody seems to care.

Alec is a good writer, but this is not one of his best stories. With additional detail, it could be much better.

While there are no other errors that I could find in the book, I'm sure Alex knows that the teats of a goat are udders, not utters, though it is written "utters" twice in story.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having spent most of my adult life in Olympia, Wash. and personally knowing the author, Alec Clayton, I may be more than a little partial to Teacher than your average reader. That said, this little book (126 pages) has a lot to offer and had me at the first line: “It was, so far, the most shocking moment in Eva McRoy’s 41 years of living.”

Clayton is a master of small details and developing a sense of place. He immediately pulls the reader in to the personal story of Eva, a bisexual middle-aged high school teacher at a small private school in Olympia, the liberal state capital. There is some great LGBTQ history weaved into this novel of self-discovery, loss, and passion, as well as real-life events including the police shooting of two young black men, a school shooting, and local protests dating pre-George Floyd’s death. From the small farm where Eva lives with her gorgeous wife Helen and teenage children, to the local diner where “the girls” plan civil rights protests, Clayton pays great attention to details, such as “ sunshine streaming in from the east, only one tiny cloud to be seen in a cobalt sky, like a marshmallow drifting overhead.”

Clayton also has a gift for character development. I found myself especially attached to the secondary characters like the kids in Eva’s high school English class, and the gay couple who end up being sperm donors to Eva and Helen.

The plot development was complex and a bit choppy but it still worked for me. It’s almost like scenes in a play, but in a novel. As a mother I wanted more development of Eva’s love for her kids, especially given her own loss and the ending felt a bit rushed and tied with a bow. Still, this is a great quick read and in my opinion a most for teachers and anyone in Olympia….or beyond…who wants empathetic characters and complex layers of living your truth no matter the consequences.

[Marybeth Bland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good plot

Excellent. It was nice to read a book set in Olympia. WA. Alec did a good job highlighting the main character s struggle with being a lesbian in today's world.