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ederwin 's review for:
House of Stairs
by William Sleator
In a 10th grade class in Louisiana one year, the English teacher gave us this book to read. To read in class. Instead of her actually teaching anything we were to simply read the book during the class period. I don't think we even discussed it afterwards. We were to simply read it. This lasted for at least two weeks, perhaps a month. I finished the book pretty quickly, so was left to do nothing during class.
Sadly, that is not my worst memory of the poor quality of public schools in Louisiana.
That memory colors my feelings about this book too much for me to be fully objective.
I re-read this recently and my opinion of the book remain pretty much the same as it was then. (Which is surprising, because a later, better education taught me to understand literature better.) The central idea of a "house of stairs" remains ridiculously illogical. But the concept of people being conditioned by an oppressive group (scientists in this case, but could be a government) is interesting and always relevant. It was hopeful in a way, in that a few characters were strong enough to resist, though it cost them a lot. Interesting also that this gay author was able to put enough hints of gayness into one of the child characters that it would be clear to some readers, yet pass unnoticed by the censors of a small-town Louisiana high school in 1982.
Sadly, that is not my worst memory of the poor quality of public schools in Louisiana.
That memory colors my feelings about this book too much for me to be fully objective.
I re-read this recently and my opinion of the book remain pretty much the same as it was then. (Which is surprising, because a later, better education taught me to understand literature better.) The central idea of a "house of stairs" remains ridiculously illogical. But the concept of people being conditioned by an oppressive group (scientists in this case, but could be a government) is interesting and always relevant. It was hopeful in a way, in that a few characters were strong enough to resist, though it cost them a lot. Interesting also that this gay author was able to put enough hints of gayness into one of the child characters that it would be clear to some readers, yet pass unnoticed by the censors of a small-town Louisiana high school in 1982.