THE STARBOARD SEA [Scribner] - Book Review

Ideas of youth are always relegated to notions of consequence. The vitality of what is truly importance versus fleeting ideas of love and fear within a controlled space always offer an interesting perception in hindsight. “The Starboard Sea” [Amber Demont/St. Martin's Press/320pgs] uses this idea as a motif of acceptance within a type of fortune reversal setting. Jason, the lead character, is regulated to a a school for misplaced youth who have lost their way or absolved themselves of their deference for authority. However, because of rich parents and expectations, this school allows them to dwell into nothingness with the possibility of still making it to the Ivy League to continue on their family name whether it be at Princeton, Yale or Harvard.The problem is here for Jason is the burying of his heart. Having been responsible for the literal decimation of his first love by suicide because of the forbidden nature of his relationship, he loses all perception of wanting to live as he only sees the world through how his ex-love Cal would see it. This includes the one thing that truly makes him happy: sailing which literally becomes a motif of abandonment. What motivates the novel, in a distinctly bourgias way at times, is when he falls in love with another Aidan who understands the necessity of getting close but not too close. Jason operates almost in a perpetual state of nihilism which in good perspective allows for an adequate connection to youth readers who will almost certainly admonish to his trevails. When horror befalls him again, the response of course is self loathing but learning to live through his life which will be completely forgotten in the corridors of youth. The passages of youth whether it be awakening, self doubt or simply utter amorality for the sake of unfettered retribution play heavily in the texture while the resolution is simply mired in lessons learned and people remembered.C