SATs, Small Towns, and a Book by Erin McCahan

There was only one place on the western side of Michigan giving the exam,  East Grand Rapids High School, a monstrous suburban prison for high schoolers that took my breath away when my friend Nick and I arrived one spring morning.  In retrospect, it wasn't anything special for a rich suburban school district, but it was unlike any school this girl from a tiny school that looked more like a big box store than a place where children should learn all the important things they would need to lead them to lives of joy and importance had ever seen before.  Nick's car shuddered to a stop in that parking lot and we both sighed in relief, knowing we were lucky the car had not overheated and exploded on the highway on the way down.

Elizabeth wrote about I Now Pronounce You Someone Else and said that the premise was stupid, so of course I immediately went to the library and checked it out.  (Sorry Elizabeth.) And (SPOILER ALERT) the premise was kind of boring and, as Elizabeth said, it would have been better and more interesting if they had gotten married, but honestly, it was like reading about my life 15 years ago, with an engagement broken and talk of small private colleges in Michigan.  And I loved it.

I especially loved the setting. The author grew up in western Michigan and everything she wrote reminded me of what I formerly called home.  My friend Nick from above, his last name was Vandersomethingelse, just like about a quarter of my high school class and many main characters in the book.  Last names of Dykstra and DeVos were common and as I read each name, I would say it underneath my breath and smile.  Referring to Lake Michigan as the lake, lazy summer days spent at the beach, and every character ending their sentences with a preposition made me happy. 

Obviously, I didn't lead the same life that the whiny main character of this book did.  But I want to invite the author over for dinner and talk to her about life on the lake and how much she hates living in Columbus where she currently lives and inevitably has to hear about how great Ohio State, I'm sorry, The Ohio State University is as compared to The University of Michigan when she doesn't really care at all about either school, but suddenly feels an urge to defend her home state as if her life depends on it. 

So I don't think you have to read this book.  Unless you grew up in the Grand Rapids area and still occasionally go The Grand Rapids Press web site just to hear about what the VanAndels are up to these days, then you might want to read this just for the nostalgia factor.