Amber Dermont

I was attracted to this book by its plot description, but unsure what to expect since it's a debut novel - those don't always live up to the promise of their synopses and hype. I needn't have worried. The Starboard Sea is a beautifully written elegy to the late eighties, to being hyper-rich, to boarding school, to love, loss, and adolescence.

Jason Prosper, our narrator, has been kicked out of his previous boarding school for initally undisclosed reasons and ends up at the boarding school of show more last resort - Bellingham - the place you go when there's nowhere else to go other than prison or drug rehab. Trying to deal with the death of his best friend and sailing partner, Cal, while navigating the rocky shoals of boarding school is a challenge. The Starboard Sea tells the story of his senior year - what happened, what might've happened, the prices that were paid.

Ms. Dermont has written an assured and honest book about how much adolescence sucks - no matter where you are. Anchored in loss, Jason's journey is one the reader wants to follow. The book is brutally honest. Adolescents can be maudlin and Jason is, too. His voice is captured elegantly and neatly integrated into his environment of privilege and bullying and deep friendships plus love. There is a lot of violence running underneath the surface and through it all there is Jason - trying to cope, trying to figure out who he is, trying to get through 'til the end.

Although I did not attend a New England boarding school, I did leave high school a year early. I was miserable and wasting my time. My best friend killed himself in a car accident the summer before junior year and I couldn't take it. I headed for college based on my SAT scores and hung on for dear life - not always making it. Ms. Dermont captures what that all feels like in a way I haven't read before. The voice, the emotions, the confusion, the moments of clarity and all the bitter despair radiate throughout the novel.

One of the best things I've read all year - you must read this book. show less

Several years ago I read Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum. I was impressed by his windswept tale of a trip of more than 46,000 miles over three years at the age of fifty, a solo circumnavigation. I mention this because that book is one of several that plays a supporting role in a first novel by Amber Dermont, a coming of age tale The Starboard Sea. Perhaps the teenager in this story will develop some of the maturity and courage that Joshua Slocum demonstrated. This is only the show more start for him, a jumping-off point for what is yet to be.

The story begins in 1987, when 18-year-old Jason Prosper begins a final year at Bellingham, a third-rate private school for well-off delinquents. Confused about his sexuality, he's alternately self-absorbed and self-aware. He does not seem to fit in with most of his peers during his periods of introspection which are some of the best parts of the novel. The author is successful in slowly developing Jason's background through these moments and the flashbacks to his life at his previous school with his best friend Cal. Dermont is a confident stylist, musical and alliterative. Jason has an older brother, a forerunner for avaricious bankers who discusses "turning their Renoir into an ATM", which is disconcerting because it sounds like something a wealthy philistine might conceivably say. Though Jason is not without faults he appears favorable in comparison. In addition to the coming of age theme there is an overlay of criticism of the privileged life of the boys and girls at the school. because the starboard sea of the title is "the right sea, the true sea … the best path in life". Dermont's strongest writing describes sailing but when Prosper competes in a championship, she sensibly resists a dramatic sporting climax. Instead, the skewed sense of loyalty that his unhappy parents instill in him suggests that, although Prosper is committed to breaking the cycle of inherited misery, he will never entirely escape the small world of the entitled. The economic news of the late eighties is ever present in the background.

Prosper confronts prejudice and corruption, befriending Bellingham's lone black student and investigating the fate of an enigmatic girl, Aidan, who was on the verge of becoming the friend that might replace his best friend Cal from his previous school. There is a certain amount of tragedy in Jason's life that must also be experienced before he can come to terms with his personal destiny. The idea that "sailing is the art of asking questions" reflects the novel's unresolved conundrums: fathers, present and absent, are a source of angst, so are we better off with or without them? And do Dermont's upper-class grotesques live with too little or too much shame? Along with the image of the ocean, the night sky becomes an indicator with stars as symbolic guides for life. The ocean is also the potential source for answers because the starboard sea of the title is "the right sea, the true sea … the best path in life". Dermont's best writing describes sailing but when Prosper competes in a championship, she sensibly resists a dramatic sporting climax. It is this writing that elevates the novel to the class with those like John Knowles' A Separate Peace that capture both the magic and the angst of developing the foundation for a life that is yet to be. show less

I was fortunate enough to receive this novel and three others from Constable and Robinson a few weeks ago. First published in the USA by St. Martin’s press – a new edition is due for publication in January 2013.
In the privileged world of the 1980’s super rich, Bellingham Academy is the last stop for those kids kicked out of other prep schools. On the day of his eighteenth birthday, Jason Prosper leaves his New York home with his father for Bellingham in New England. Jason is still show more nursing a raw grief for his best friend and sailing partner, Cal, who recently killed himself. At Bellingham Jason meets up with the sons and daughters of families he already knows – such is the insular world from which he comes, and he is immediately courted by the sailing coach. However an accident aboard results in Jason taking risks in order to save a fellow student and forces him to re-consider his desire to sail, especially now that he has to do it without Cal. Haunted by the death of his friend and the secrets he carries with him of the time before his friend died, Jason meets Aidan, a girl who he at first mistakes for a cormorant – standing arms outstretched on rocks by the sea. She is unlike anyone he has met before, and a fledgling friendship blossoms between the two. Aidan is a strange and beautiful creature, who owns Fred Astaire’s shoes and is not really a part of the group of friends that Jason has found himself attached to. The tender and emotional relationship that starts between these two ostracised young people is beautifully and deftly handled by the author. Chester, the only black student at Bellingham is also on the outside of those who are accepted, there is a quiet coolness to Chester that Jason notices right away and tries to befriend the young tennis player. However in the aftermath of a terrible storm, events take a tragic turn once again, and Jason numbed and disbelieving comes to re-evaluate the group of classmates he been spending his time with. Bellingham is a world where friendships are really alliances, Jason understands this world, understands what he needs to do to survive, yet at times seems happy to ignore these unspoken rules. Thus we see Jason playing pranks and sneaking out to party with the hedonistic youngsters of Bellingham Academy one minute, yet talking deeply and emotionally with Aidan the next. Prompted by Leo – who is a kind of servant to the rich kids – called “plague” by everyone else, Jason determines to find out what really happened on the night of a hurricane party that he missed.
In The Starboard Sea, Amber Dermont has re-created a world of selfish privilege and boarding school lore. Despite the title - sailing actually only plays a fairly a small part in the novel – but there are some beautiful descriptions of sailing and the sea, and I feel sure the author must have a love of the ocean herself. Dermont has packed a lot of fairly meaty issues into this novel, grief, suicide burgeoning sexualities, racism and class set against the backdrop of a storm lashed New England coast and the Wall Street crash of 1987. This is not entirely a faultless novel, it does take a while to get going, and there are times when Jason sounds rather older than his years, these though are small gripes and do not detract at all from the overall excellence of this beautifully written novel, for me there is far far more to recommend it. The writing is excellent the images created by the author will stay with me for some time. At various times this novel made me think of The Great Gatsby and The Secret History by Donna Tartt, although it’s not really like either of them, I know that’s confusing, but The Starboard Sea has an emotional quality to it that those works had too. This is a quite remarkable debut by a talented writer, who I really look forward to reading more of in the future. show less

This is an interesting juxtaposition to The Secret History, which I finished reading just before I started The Starboard Sea. Both novels are concerned with issues of identity, shame, guilt, and violence both overt and subtle. Both are also examinations of how one devises his/her moral compass -- or sextant, in this case -- but whereas the former is obvious and tense, the latter unfolds so subtly. Dermont's voice, sparsely elegant and lush without being overwrought, suits the subject matter show more and plot perfectly. I enjoyed how moments from scenes that already happened would find their way into later narrative, as opposed to a straight, chronological-only style of storytelling. What a debut! I look forward to future Dermont stories. show less