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Summary
Summary
INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER
"Wise and addictive... The Gifted School is the juiciest novel I've read in ages... a suspenseful, laugh-out-loud page-turner and an incisive inspection of privilege, race and class." - J. Courtney Sullivan, author of Friends and Strangers , in The New York Times
Smart and juicy, a compulsively readable novel about a previously happy group of friends and parents that is nearly destroyed by their own competitiveness when an exclusive school for gifted children opens in the community
This deliciously sharp novel captures the relentless ambitions and fears that animate parents and their children in modern America, exploring the conflicts between achievement and potential, talent and privilege.
Set in the fictional town of Crystal, Colorado, The Gifted School is a keenly entertaining novel that observes the drama within a community of friends and parents as good intentions and high ambitions collide in a pile-up with long-held secrets and lies. Seen through the lens of four families who've been a part of one another's lives since their kids were born over a decade ago, the story reveals not only the lengths that some adults are willing to go to get ahead, but the effect on the group's children, sibling relationships, marriages, and careers, as simmering resentments come to a boil and long-buried, explosive secrets surface and detonate. It's a humorous, keenly observed, timely take on ambitious parents, willful kids, and the pursuit of prestige, no matter the cost.
Author Notes
Bruce Holsinger teaches at the University of Virginia and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this sharply entertaining novel from Holsinger (The Invention of Fire), Crystal, Colo., is an affluent community where a new gifted magnet school for grades six through 12 will soon open. With limited spaces available, the competition among parents to get their offspring into the school, called the "Stuyvesant of the Rockies," turns ruthless. Dr. Rose Holland, a pediatric neurologist, uses her position to gather inside information that could be vital for her daughter, Emma Q's, admission. Queen bee Samantha Zeller and her moneyman husband, Kevin, are not above lying about the IQ test results of their daughter, Emma Z. Divorced Azra and Beck are forced to deal with the emotional fallout when the admission process causes friction between their twin sons. And single mother Lauren's daughter, Tessa, recently out of rehab, keeps a video blog that sees through all the adult pretensions around her. As the application process spools out, it pits parent against parent, student against student, and spouse against spouse until relationships are frayed to the breaking point and betrayals build to a shattering climax during an open house at the new school. This depiction of the depths to which some parents will stoop to win social advantage for their offspring makes for a smart, piercing novel, and timely given recent headlines. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
The fictional town of Crystal, Colorado, is the setting for Holsinger's (The Invention of Fire, 2015) biting, astute, immediately engaging novel exploring the means some parents use to push their children up the elite educational ladder. Four couples moved to Crystal about the same time, and now, 10 years later, the wives have become closely knit as their youngest offspring approach middle school. When they get wind of the imminent opening of Crystal Academy, a new public magnet school for exceptional learners, the ties binding the four families begin to unravel. There is a rigorous application process for the limited spots in this gifted school, and while each mother seems to root for all their children to make the cut, behind the scenes a different story unfolds as lies are told and old jealousies surface. Holsinger perceptively portrays how each couple copes with the stress each family faces in addition to the usual money problems, sibling rivalries, and marital difficulties they camouflage. Given recent college-admission scandals, Holsinger's tale about money, connections, and education couldn't be more timely.--Deborah Donovan Copyright 2019 Booklist
Kirkus Review
Four close friends, their husbands, their children, their housecleanersand one application-only magnet school that will drive them all over the brink.A Boulder-esque town in the Front Range of the Rockies, Crystal, Colorado, is a progressive paradise where four entwined families are raising their children, though death, divorce, and drugs have taken their toll on the group since the moms met at baby swim class years back. The women give each other mugs with friendship quotes each year on the anniversary of that meeting, and they get together every Friday morning for a 4-mile run, "a ritual carved into the flinty stone of their livesshared since they'd first started trimming up again after the births of their children." Beneath the surface, resentments are already simmeringone family is far wealthier than the others; the widowed mom is a neurotic mess; one of the couples didn't make it through elementary school and he's remarried to "a hot young au pair who was great with the twins [and] a willing partner in mindblowing carnality." Then comes the announcement of a public magnet school for exceptional learners, with a standardized test as the first step in separating the wheat from the chaff. The novel's depiction of the ensuing devolution is grounded in acute social observationclass, race, privilege, woke and libertarian politicsthen hits the mark on the details as well. From the bellowing of the dads on the soccer field to the oversharing in the teenager's vlog, down to the names of the kids themselvestwins Aidan and Charlie Unsworth-Chaudhury; best friends Emma Z and Emma Q; nerdy chessmaster Xander FryeHolsinger's (The Invention of Fire, 2015) pitch is close to perfect.The subject of parents charging past every ethical restraint in pursuit of crme de la crme education could not be more timely, and the Big Little Lies treatment creates a deliciously repulsive and eerily current page-turner. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
The four young couples at the center of this engaging novel about bad parenting appear to have it all: successful careers, fine homes, healthy young children, and a safe and friendly neighborhood in Colorado. They even live in a town renowned for its breathtaking natural beauty. When a new, highly competitive school for "gifted" children is approved and begins accepting applications, however, things go terribly awry. Competitive instincts rise to the surface, causing friendships to fray and marriages to fall apart. Some parents even resort to shockingly inappropriate behavior to improve the chances of their children being accepted. Holsinger (The Invention of Fire) handles this all with great aplomb, bringing each marriage and family skillfully to life and inviting us to think about what good parenting might actually look like and how we might define "success" for our children. The recent college admissions bribery scandal suggests that these are timely issues, indeed. VERDICT A thoughtful, engaging examination of a subject torn from the headlines: how parents succumb to a kind of temporary insanity as they jockey for position, status, and prestige--for their children and for themselves. Recommended for parents and for fans of literary fiction.--Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT
Excerpts
Excerpts
9. Rose The school came up a few minutes after the blessing. Edgar was reaching around to refill wine glasses when he asked, "So, Rose, will y'all be putting in for this academy?" "What's that, Edgar?" "It's the new--Samantha, hon." He raised his voice. "What's that special school you were talking about with my eldest grandson? The gifted school." The word gifted slashed like a guillotine through other topics. Around the table the talk ceased. "It's called Crystal Academy, Dad," Samantha said into the silence. "A private?" Azra asked, apparently as clueless as Rose. "No actually." Lauren leaned in, turtling out her short neck. "It's a public magnet school for the profoundly gifted." "They're hailing it as the Stuyvesant of the Rockies," said Kev grandly. "A high school?" Rose's question. "Grades six through eight in the lower school, and the upper school is nine through twelve." "Oh," said Rose. Profoundly gifted. Words to make the bones sing. This must be the mysterious "other option" Samantha had been hedging about at RockSalt last week. "What, a city school, just for Crystal kids?" "Oh no," said Kev. "It's a joint venture between the City of Crystal and the Four Counties." "All five school districts?" Gareth asked. "But that's a huge pool of eligible students." "No kidding," said Samantha. "Over a hundred thousand kids for just a thousand spots." "The one percent," Blakey observed snidely. Everyone laughed but she was right: one in a hundred. Kev's acerbic sister was enjoying the conversation, Rose could tell, watching the reactions among her sister-in-law's friends as they took in the news about the school. "How does admissions work?" Azra asked. "They're doing it as a test-in." Lauren, happily in the know. "A first round of CogPROs in the districts starting in March, then more individualized assessments in a second round." "CogPROs?" someone asked. "Cognitive Proficiency Test," said Lauren. "It's a standard IQ battery." Over her wine glass Rose looked a question at Gareth and he shrugged it right back. Neither of them had heard a word about this school. "Where are they building it?" Gareth asked. "The upper school will be out in Kendall County," Kev answered. "But the lower school is going in the old Maple Hill site." "Six or seven blocks from here." Samantha nodded vaguely west, in the direction of her back deck. "It's a done deal," said Kev. "The contractor's an old buddy of mine and they finalized the building permits last week. The refurbish kicks off in January. They'll be up and running by July, hiring staff this spring for a fall opening. These guys are moving fast." How do you know all this? The question never reached Rose's lips, because the Zellars always knew, and besides, Kev had been on City Council the last three years. Any big building project in town, let alone one as visible as a new magnet school, would already be on his radar. "So, Rose, will you apply for Emma Q?" said Edgar, still pressing for an answer. "Who knows." Rose was already seeing years of small classes, innovative pedagogy, Barnard admissions staff cooing in approval. "We might check it out." "And what about you, Tessa?" Blakey said. Rose looked up. Blakey was leaning over her plate, looking at Lauren's daughter in a not entirely friendly way. She had a surly mouth and flat affect that made her come off like a disaffected cop. "Think you'll apply?" Tessa, chewing, held up a finger. "I'm not really the gifted type," she mumbled after she swallowed. "Well you're obviously a bright young lady," Edgar said. His gaze wandered down to the top of her dress, a low-cut green velvet or velour, one of her own creations. "And everyone has gifts of some sort or another." Tessa screwed up her face. "I like to draw, I guess." "Do you now," he said. "And what is it you like to draw, sweetie? Landscapes, that kind of thing?" "Mostly fashion. Like clothes, outfits." She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Shoes sometimes," she said. "Tessa has an incredible sense of style," Azra put in from four seats down. "Tessa, tell them what you told me the other day. At BloomAgain." She looked around the table. "Tessa's been working for me at my store, a secondhand consignment place," she explained. "Oh," Tessa said. She looked resistant and uncomfortable. She pushed at her hair some more. The table had remained silent, everyone curious about the exchange. Rose stole a look at Samantha, who had already started in on the rapid sequence of blinks she performed when impatient. (Wouldn't do to have the Zellar Thanksgiving banter hijacked by an outsider, let alone a troubled young woman like Tessa Frye.) "You said you think of dressing as an art form," Azra coaxed. "Like sculpture or painting, right? But instead of stone or canvas you're working with people." Tessa's napkin was pressed to her lips. She removed it and started weaving it through her fingers. "Well," she said, looking at Edgar, "it's kind of hard to explain. Sometimes I can see the shapes of faces and I understand, like, exactly what kind of outfit would work with those cheeks, or that haircut. Or what colors people should be wearing to complement the hue of their irises, or the shade of their skin. I also think about fabrics a lot, like texture and density and the way things hang. Sometimes I think about what a pair of pants would sound like when the legs touch, depending on the fabric. The resonance of that. I remember my dad had this barn coat he always wore when I was little. It was made out of this thick cotton-wool blend that--" "And who's that lucky fellow--your daddy?" Edgar surveyed the crowded table, assuming one of the non-Zellar men there that day was Tessa's father. "He's dead," Tessa said, watching him. "Goodness." Edgar looked stricken. "I'm sorry, dear." "That's okay," Tessa went on, more brightly now, opening up. "Anyway it was a cotton-wool blend that I've never seen in anything else since. When I scratched his pocket with my fingernail it made this beautiful ringing sound, and I keep thinking if I got some of that cloth and made something with it I could hear that same sound again. It's stupid, but." With her eyes still on Kev's father she forked a piece of turkey and chewed it slowly. "Well," said Edgar after a pause. "You do sound like a gifted young lady." He reached across Blakey's plate to pat Tessa's hand. "Quite an imagination." "That's so nice," said Tessa, scooping her head over her food. "I could show you my sketches after we eat, if you want." Then-- "Hey Tessa?" Lauren barked sharply down the table, before Edgar could reply. "Let's just see if we can get you through junior year, okay? We'll consider that a victory." Tessa's eyes flashed then dimmed. She looked down at her plate. The table went still, the only sound in Rose's ears the clink of silver on china. From her angle Lauren's face was obscured but Azra and Gareth were staring across at her, appalled. Samantha was looking off somewhere, lips pale and taut. Even the children had picked up on the sudden hush. Rose looked down into the parlor at the first kids' table and saw Emma Zellar's eyes roving from Tessa to Edgar to Lauren and back, missing nothing; and there was Q beside her, neck bent over her food, gobbling through a gravy-soaked pile of mashed potatoes. "Well Happy Thanksgiving," someone deadpanned into the silence. One of Kev's brothers, Rose thought. Blakey made a low cruel laugh, and immediately Rose could see how this exchange would be parsed up in Steamboat, the big family cackling over that unfiltered friend of Samantha's who'd been such a bitch to her peculiar daughter. Rose got a patch of heat in her throat, feeling for Tessa--but oddly for Lauren, too, the way she had tainted the meal. Only a few at that table knew what their diminished family had endured over the years, the source of these occasional darts. "Hey let's get these cranberries moving around." Samantha lifted a cut glass bowl, passed it down, and the feast resumed. A rough place Zellar-smoothed. Excerpted from The Gifted School: A Novel by Bruce Holsinger All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
